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cling faithfully and unceasingly to truth and justice. This is
emphasized in the final hymn of the Community Rule.
From the source of His righteousness
is my justification,
and from His marvellous mysteries
is the light in my heart.
My eyes have gazed
on that which is eternal,
on wisdom concealed from men,
on knowledge and wise design
(hidden) from the sons of men ...
God has given them to His chosen ones
as an eternal possession,
and has caused them to inherit
the lot of the Holy Ones.
He has joined their assembly
to the Sons of Heaven
to be a Council of the Community,
a foundation of the Building of Holiness,
an eternal Plantation throughout all ages to come.
(CR XI)
Grace and knowledge were the twin foundations of the sect's
spirituality. Knowledge, it taught, proceeding from the God of
knowledge through the mediation of the spirits of `truth' and
`light', directs a man into the Way he must follow and illuminates
the mysteries of God's purpose for mankind; it penetrates the
secrets of the heavenly world and divines the nature and ministry
of the spirits. Even the abode of the Creator Himself was thought
to have been manifested in Visions such as that of the Divine
Throne-Chariot. By means of knowledge and grace the aim of the
Rule was realized. Its rigorous separation from the world of the
wicked and its call for meticulous personal holiness enabled the
Community to withstand the ravages of the devil and his allies,
and so to be part, even in this life, of the fellowship of the
Sons of Heaven.
Worship
According to the Bible, the first duty of the heavenly beings -
the Seraphim of Isaiah, the Cherubim of Ezekiel, and the angels of
Psalm 148 -is the praise and worship of God; and so it was for the
followers of the Teacher of Righteousness. They were to join their
voices to those of the Angels of the Presence raised in prayer and
blessing in the celestial Temple.
Broadly speaking, the sectaries' whole life was one of
uninterrupted adoration. More precisely, however, their Rule
required them to worship God in the correct manner and at set
times, these set times conforming to the eternal and unchanging
laws affecting the rhythm of time itself (the rhythm of day and
night, the seasons, the years, etc.). The moments fixed for daily
prayer - 'at the beginning of the dominion of light' and 'at the
beginning of the dominion of darkness' (CR X) -coincided with the
daily sacrifice at dusk and dawn of the burnt offerings in the
Temple (Exod. 29:39 Num. 28:4) But the other 'appointed times' are
more complex and affect the whole question of the liturgical
calendar.
In Judaism, the reckoning of months and years was governed by the
moon, but because of the absence of correlation between the lunar
year (354 days) and the solar seasons of solstice and equinox, the
orthodox calendar effected a compromise between the two; after
every three-yearly period of thirty-six lunar months it inserted
one supplementary month.
To the Community this was an abomination of the Gentiles and
directly counter to the `certain law from the mouth of God (H 19).
It had itself inherited, probably from priestly circles a solar
calendar based on `the laws of the Great Light of heaven' (H 19)
in which the year was divided into fifty-two weeks exactly: into,
that is to say, four seasons of thirteen weeks. Each season
consisted of three months thirty days long, and a day was added to
every season as a link between one season and the next. This solar
calendar, which figures also in the Book of Jubilees and in the
First Book of Enoch, recommended itself to the sect because of its
belief in the unchanging order of God in the universe. As a French
scholar, Mlle Annie Jaubert, has pointed out, its strict periodic
regularity ensured that the year always began on a Wednesday, the
fourth day of the Jewish week, and thus remained in perfect
conformity with the work of God who created the sun on the fourth
day. Furthermore, not only did the year begin on a Wednesday, but
so also did every season of thirteen weeks. In fact, any date
during the year fell on exactly the same day of the week in every
other year.
For instance, Passover, the fifteenth day of the first month, (*)
fell always on a Wednesday, and the Day of Atonement, the tenth
day of the seventh month, always on a Friday, etc. Of course, this
method of reckoning presents difficulties also, the astronomical
year consisting of 365 1/4 days not 364: but we are not told how,
if at all, the Community dealt with them.
----
[*} Strictly speaking I am unsure if G. Vermes made a mistake (or
my own studies are in error) since it should fall on the 14th day
and not the 15th if one follows the cycle of the moon, in
particualr the new moon etc.
- Salmun
----
The practical result of the adoption of this calendar was that the
Community feast days were celebrated differently from the rest of
Judaism. It is for this reason that the Damascus Rule (VI), for
example, orders that 'the feast and the Day of Fasting' must be
kept 'according to the finding of the members of the New
Covenant'. It also explains how the Wicked Priest was able to
disturb the celebration by the Teacher of Righteousness and his
disciples of the Day of Atonement (CHab IX); for him it was not a
holy day.
It is not as yet possible to write in any detail about the
peculiarities of the Qumran liturgical calendar because material
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