Editing Pharisees (section)

== Practices ==

=== A kingdom of priests ===
Fundamentally, the Pharisees continued a form of Judaism that extended beyond the Temple, applying Jewish law to mundane activities in order to sanctify the everyday world. This was monumental as a practice during this era, as it helped the Jews of the time to truly align themselves with the law, applying even to the mundanities of life. This was a more participatory (or "democratic") form of Judaism, in which rituals were not monopolized by an inherited priesthood, but rather could be performed by all adult Jews individually or collectively, whose leaders were not determined by birth but by scholarly achievement.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

Many, including some scholars, have characterized the Sadducees as a sect that interpreted the Torah literally, and the Pharisees as interpreting the Torah liberally. R' [[Yitzhak Isaac Halevy Rabinowitz|Yitzhak Isaac Halevi]] suggests that this was not, in fact, a matter of religion. He claims that the complete rejection of Judaism would not have been tolerated under the Hasmonean rule, and therefore Hellenists maintained that they were rejecting not Judaism but Rabbinic law. Thus, the Sadducees were in fact a political party, not a religious sect.<ref name="Dorot Ha'Rishonim"/> However, according to Neusner, this view is a distortion. He suggests that two things fundamentally distinguished the Pharisaic from the Sadducean approach to the Torah. First, Pharisees believed in a broad and literal interpretation of Exodus (19:3–6), "you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,"<ref name=inv>Neusner, Jacob ''Invitation to the Talmud: a Teaching Book'' (1998)</ref>{{rp|40}} and the words of [[2 Maccabees]] (2:17): "God gave all the people the heritage, the kingdom, the priesthood, and the holiness."

The Pharisees believed that the idea that all of the children of Israel were to be like priests was expressed elsewhere in the Torah, for example, when the Law was transferred from the sphere of the priesthood to every man in Israel.<ref>{{bibleverse|Exodus|19:29–24}}; {{bibleverse|Deuteronomy|6:7}}, {{bibleverse|Deuteronomy|11:19}}; compare {{bibleverse|Deuteronomy|31:9}}; {{bibleverse|Jeremiah|2:8}}, {{bibleverse|Jeremiah|18:18}}</ref> Moreover, the Torah already provided ways for all Jews to lead a priestly life: the [[Kosher|laws of kosher animals]] were perhaps{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}} intended originally for the priests, but were extended to the whole people;<ref>{{bibleverse|Leviticus|11}}; {{bibleverse|Deuteronomy|14:3–21}}</ref> similarly, the prohibition of cutting the flesh in mourning for the dead.<ref>{{bibleverse|Deuteronomy|14:1–2}}, {{bibleverse|Leviticus|19:28}}; compare {{bibleverse|Leviticus|21:5}}</ref> The Pharisees believed that all Jews in their ordinary life, and not just the Temple priesthood or Jews visiting the Temple, should observe rules and rituals concerning purification.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

=== Oral Torah ===
The standard view is that the Pharisees differed from Sadducees in the sense that they accepted the Oral Torah in addition to the Scripture. [[Theology]] professor Anthony J. Saldarini argued that this assumption has neither implicit nor explicit evidence. A critique of the ancient interpretations of the Bible are distant from what modern scholars consider literal. Saldarini stated that the Oral Torah did not come about until the 3rd century AD, although there was an unstated idea about it in existence. In a way, every Jewish community possessed their own version of the Oral Torah which governed their religious practices. Josephus states that the Sadducees only followed literal interpretations of the Torah. To Saldarini, this only meant that the Sadducees followed their own way of Judaism, and rejected the Pharisaic version of Judaism.<ref name="Saldarini2001">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bre6P-OPfEEC&pg=PA303|title=Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees in Palestinian Society: A Sociological Approach|author=Anthony J. Saldarini|publisher=W.B. Eerdmans|year=2001|isbn=978-0-8028-4358-6|pages=303–}}</ref> To Rosemary Ruether, the Pharisaic proclamation of the Oral Torah was their way of freeing Judaism from the clutches of [[Kohen|Aaronite priesthood]], represented by the Sadducees. The Oral Torah was to remain oral but was later given a written form. It did not refer to the Torah in a status as a commentary, rather had its own separate existence which allowed Pharisaic innovations.<ref name="Ruether1996">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNJJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA53|title=Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism|author=Rosemary Ruether|date= 1996|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|isbn=978-0-9653517-5-1|pages=53–}}</ref>

The sages of the Talmud believed that the Oral law was simultaneously revealed to Moses at [[Mount Sinai (Bible)|Mount Sinai]], and the product of debates among rabbis. Thus, one may conceive of the "Oral Torah" as both based on the fixed text and as an ongoing process of analysis and argument in which God is actively involved; it was this ongoing process that was revealed at Mount Sinai along with the scripture, and by participating in this ongoing process rabbis and their students are actively participating in God's ongoing act of [[revelation]].{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

As Neusner explains, the schools of the Pharisees and rabbis were and are holy:
<blockquote>"...because there men achieve sainthood through study of Torah and imitation of the conduct of the masters. In doing so, they conform to the heavenly paradigm, the Torah believed to have been created by God "in his image," revealed at Sinai, and handed down to their own teachers ... If the masters and disciples obey the divine teaching of Moses, "our rabbi," then their society, the school, replicates on earth the heavenly academy, just as the disciple incarnates the heavenly model of Moses, "our rabbi." The rabbis believe that Moses was (and the Messiah will be) a rabbi, God dons phylacteries, and the heavenly court studies Torah precisely as does the earthly one, even arguing about the same questions. These beliefs today may seem as projections of rabbinical values onto heaven, but the rabbis believe that they themselves are projections of heavenly values onto earth. The rabbis thus conceive that on earth they study Torah just as God, the angels, and Moses, "our rabbi," do in heaven. The heavenly schoolmen are even aware of Babylonian scholastic discussions, so they require a rabbi's information about an aspect of purity taboos.<ref name=inv/>{{rp|8}}</blockquote>

The commitment to relate religion to daily life through the law has led some (notably, Saint Paul and [[Martin Luther]]) to infer that the Pharisees were more legalistic than other sects in the Second Temple Era. The authors of the Gospels present Jesus as speaking harshly against some Pharisees (Josephus does claim that the Pharisees were the "strictest" observers of the law).<ref>{{cite book|last=Josepheus|title=The Antiquities of the Jews|pages=13.5.9}}</ref> Yet, as Neusner has observed, Pharisaism was but one of many "Judaisms" in its day,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Neusner |first1=Jacob |title=Judaic law from Jesus to the Mishnah : a systematic reply to Professor E.P. Sanders |year=1993 |publisher=Scholars Press |isbn=1555408737 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/judaiclawfro_neus_1993_000_3727046/page/n219 206]–207 |url=https://archive.org/details/judaiclawfro_neus_1993_000_3727046 |url-access=limited }}</ref> and its legal interpretation are what set it apart from the other sects of Judaism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Neusner |first1=Jacob |title=From Politics to Piety: the emergence of Pharisaic Judaism |date=1979 |publisher=KTAV |pages=82–90}}</ref>

=== Innovators or preservers ===
The Mishna in the beginning of Avot and (in more detail) [[Maimonides]] in his Introduction to {{transliteration|he|[[Mishneh Torah]]}} records a chain of tradition ({{transliteration|he|mesorah}}) from Moses at Mount Sinai down to R' Ashi, redactor of the Talmud and last of the [[Amoraim]]. This chain of tradition includes the interpretation of unclear statements in the Bible (e.g. that the "fruit of a beautiful tree" refers to a [[citron]] as opposed to any other fruit), the methods of textual [[exegesis]] (the disagreements recorded in the Mishna and Talmud generally focus on methods of exegesis), and Laws with Mosaic authority that cannot be derived from the Biblical text (these include measurements (e.g. what amount of a non-kosher food must one eat to be liable), the amount and order of the scrolls to be placed in the phylacteries, etc.).

The Pharisees were also innovators in that they enacted specific laws as they saw necessary according to the needs of the time. These included prohibitions to prevent an infringement of a biblical prohibition (e.g. one does not take a Lulav on Shabbat "Lest one carry it in the public domain") called {{transliteration|he|gezeirot}}, among others. The commandment to read the {{transliteration|he|Megillah}} ([[Book of Esther]]) on [[Purim]] and to light the [[Menorah (Hanukkah)|Menorah]] on [[Hanukkah]] are Rabbinic innovations. Much of the legal system is based on "what the sages constructed via logical reasoning and from established practice".<ref>See [[Zvi Hirsch Chajes]] ''The Students Guide through the Talmud'' Ch. 15 (English edition by Jacob Schacter</ref> Also, the blessings before meals and the wording of the Amidah. These are known as [[Takanot]]. The Pharisees based their authority to innovate on the verses: "....according to the word they tell you... according to all they instruct you. According to the law they instruct you and according to the judgment they say to you, you shall do; you shall not divert from the word they tell you, either right or left" (Deuteronomy 17:10–11) (see ''Encyclopedia Talmudit'' entry "Divrei Soferim").

In an interesting twist, [[Abraham Geiger]] posits that the Sadducees were the more hidebound adherents to an ancient Halacha whereas the Pharisees were more willing to develop Halacha as the times required. See however, [[Bernard Revel]]'s "Karaite Halacha" which rejects many of Geiger's proofs.

=== Significance of debate and study of the law ===
Just as important as (if not more important than) any particular law was the value the rabbis placed on legal study and debate. The sages of the Talmud believed that when they taught the Oral Torah to their students, they were imitating Moses, who taught the law to the children of Israel. Moreover, the rabbis believed that "the heavenly court studies Torah precisely as does the earthly one, even arguing about the same questions."<ref name=inv/>{{rp|8}} Thus, in debating and disagreeing over the meaning of the Torah or how best to put it into practice, no rabbi felt that he (or his opponent) was rejecting God or threatening Judaism; on the contrary, it was precisely through such arguments that the rabbis imitated and honored God.

One sign of the Pharisaic emphasis on debate and differences of opinion is that the Mishnah and Talmud mark different generations of scholars in terms of different pairs of contending schools. In the first century, for example, the two major Pharisaic schools were those of Hillel and Shammai. After Hillel died in 10&nbsp;AD, Shammai assumed the office of president of the Sanhedrin until he died in 30&nbsp;AD. Followers of these two sages dominated scholarly debate over the following decades. Although the Talmud records the arguments and positions of the school of Shammai, the teachings of the school of Hillel were ultimately taken as authoritative.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}