B”H

Eternal Life and Resurrection in ‘The Dead Sea Scrolls’

As is well known, t’fillin constructed with four separate compartments and mezuzot, both containing the very same passages that t’fillin and mezuzot that we know today contain only in a different order, were found at Qumran (see RECLAIMING THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS, Lawrence H. Schiffman pp 305-310). T’fillin are held up as the example par excellence of Torah Sh’be’al Peh by the Pharisaic/Rabbinic tradition. How, they correctly ask, can we know who to make t’fillin if there is no Oral tradition of Torah in addition to the Writ? The fact that there were t’fillin and mezuzot at Qumran proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the ‘Dead Sea Sect’ was in possession of the Oral Law and lived according to it. Mikva’ot were also constructed at Qumran. The construction of kosher mikva’ot also requires knowledge of the Oral Tradition. Additionally, the Tzaddokite Fragments, first found in the genizah in Cairo, discusses many matters that are squarely within the framework of Torah Sh’be’al Peh. These finding have proven to us that the Rabbis did not tell us the truth when they told us the “the Tzaddokim” rejected Torah Sh’be’al Peh, chas v’Shalom.

It is also well known that a young Bedouin shepherd found the scrolls at Qumran in the spring of 1947. On November 29, 1947, the very day that the division of Palestine was ratified by the UN thus paving the way for the creation the modern Jewish State, Professor Eleazar L. Sukenik purchased the first two of the Dead Sea Scrolls. That synchronicity is so magnificent as to be called a miracle; but it was not the first time that a discovery of texts that originated with the Dead Sea Sect, or that were in their possession, immediately preceded a momentous even in the creation of the modern State of Israel.

Solomon Schechter discovered the Cairo Geniza in 1896. Among the approximately 100,000 pages found in the genizah was a copy of The Tzaddokite Fragments (also called the Damascus Document because the Dead Sea Sect called the name of their new settlement דמשק, which is an anagram of the word מקדש). The first Zionist Conference was held in Basel in 1897. This, then, was the first incident in which the discovery of documents that were first authored and/or studied by the Dead Sea Sect immediately preceded a tremendous advance in our redemption and return to our Land.

Passages 51: 13-30 of the Book of ben Sira were incorporated into a scroll found at Qumran in Cave 11, which scholars have entitled the “Psalms Scroll”.

There is a passage in the Book of ben Sira, in which wisdom personified speaks, which shows clearly that wisdom is eternal. It is clear from the passage that a person who attains wisdom likewise attains eternal life as such a person becomes wisdom personified:

“Then the Creator of all things gave me a commandment,
and the One Who created me assigned a place for my tent.
And He said, “Make your dwelling in Ya’akov,
and in Yisra’el receive your inheritance.”
From eternity in the beginning He created me,
and for eternity I shall not cease to exist…
So I took root in an honored people,
In the portion of the Lord Who is their inheritance.” (ben Sira 24: 8-12)

We can see from the passage above that it is not only true that one who attains wisdom attains eternity and becomes the embodiment of wisdom, but eternal wisdom finds its completion when it takes root and makes its home in Yisra’el.

There are extant scrolls found at Qumran that speak more directly still about the belief of HaYachad not only in eternal life, but in resurrection of the dead (תחית המתים).
The following passages leave no room for doubt on this point:

“And the visitation of all those who walk in it [in the true way of Torah (my addition to the Text in order to make the context clear)] will be for health and great well-being with long life, and fertility, with all the eternal blessings and eternal joy in eternal life, and a crown of glory with splendid raiment in eternal light.” (Rule of the Community IV: 6-8)

From the passage above we can see that, unequivocally, HaYachad believed in eternal life (the expression used in the original Hebrew is חיי נצח). We also see that they were not celibate, and lauded having many children, considering being fertile a blessing from HaShem for having lived in accordance with Torah.

The next passage is excerpted from a fragment that Xian pseudo-scholars entitled “Messianic Apocalypse”. The title is a misnomer, as are so many titles that Xian researchers pushing their own agenda gave to the fragments during the decades that Jewish scholars were denied access to the main body of the fragments.

“For the Lord will visit the pious and call the righteous by name,
And over the humble His spirit will hover and He will renew the faithful with His strength.
For He will honor the pious upon the eternal royal throne.
He frees the captives, makes the blind see, and makes the bent over stand straight.
So forever I will cleave to those who hope, and He will repay His pious ones,
And the fruit of a good deed to a person He will not delay.
Glorious deeds such as have never been will the Lord do as He has promised,
For he will heal the sick, revive the dead, and give good news to the humble…” (Messianic Apocalypse 4Q521 Frags. 2 Column II 5 – 12)

Not only the ‘Dead Sea Sect’s love, reverence and utter devotion to HaShem are apparent in this passage, so is the fact that HaYachad believed in HaMashi’ach, in eternal life and in resurrection of the dead. It is noteworthy that they too instruct that resurrection of the dead is carried out by HaShem calling the pious who have departed from the phenomenal world by their names.

The last passage we will present here that expresses the position of HaYachad concerning resurrection of the dead comes from a fragment yclept no more successfully by the Xian researchers who gave it its name than the last. To our chagrin, the fragment has been entitled “Pseudo-Ezekiel”. There is nothing “pseudo” about this fragment. The fragment does paraphrase the Book of Yechezki’el, but not for the sake of coming in its stead, chas v’Shalom, but for the purpose of supporting and elucidating the Book of Yechezki’el. We read:

“And the Lord said to me: I will make the children of Yisra’el see and they will know that I am the Lord. And He said: Son of man, prophesy over the bones and say: May a bone connect with its bone and a joint with its joint. And so it happened. And He said a second time: Prophesy and sinews will grow on them and they will be covered with skin all over. And so it happened.” (4Q385 Pseudo Ezekiel A Fragment 2 3 – 6).”

We see from the passage above that Ha Yachad believed that HaShem, and not a Messianic intermediary, would raise the dead.

To our happiness and satisfaction we have successfully demonstrated HaYachad believed in both eternal life and in תחית המתים (resurrection of the dead). To our sorrow and our chagrin we have also proven that the Pharisaic/Rabbinic tradition has told terrible untruths about the HaYachad. They told us that HaYachad did not accept Tush’ba and did not believe in eternal life not knowing that HaShem kept the scrolls the Sect had labored in love to write and to keep and kept the t’fillin that they wrote and made in store to show us, immediately preceding our returning to Tzi’on that we had been misled throughout the galut and to show us the true way, the way desired by HaShem.

It was a truly ugly thing to do to deprecate HaYachad. Not only were they tzaddikim, they fought and gave their own lives to defend the Prushim, as well as those Tzaddokim who had gone astray, even though both were in a state of spiritual and physical defilement as a result of not serving in the Temple in accordance with Torah.

There are those who would contend that the fact that the Prushim survived the war with the Romans proves that they were the favored group. The fact that the Prushim survived the war with the Romans proves nothing other than the fact that they were the canniest group. There have been many times in our history when the Jews who sold out other Jews to our enemies were the ones who survived, while the meeker, the humbler and the more honest perished. V’dai L’mevin.

Having proved that the redactors of the Talmud, and their students who “archived” the Book of ben Sira (which was forbidden to be read in the post-Bar Kokhvah period) as well as the “Tzaddokite Fragments” in the genizah of Cairo, lied to us and misrepresented HaYachad entirely, we can be sure that they are not the keepers of Torah MiSinai. Surely amidst the baseless claims and distorted teachings in the Talmud there is some truth, but the Talmud can never again be taken to be entirely true as written. With that the era during which the status of the Talmud being thought of as holy, absolutely true, incontestable and of the same level of holiness as Torah Sh’bikhtav, even superceding the authority of Torah Sh’bikhtav, has come to an end.

A most serious and intensive undertaking discovering the true Way must now be carried out.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel