Cult and Character: Purification Offerings, Day of Atonement, and Theodicy.

• Author: Meshel, Naphtali S.

Cult and Character: Purification Offerings, Day of Atonement, and Theodicy. By ROY GANE. Winona Lake, Indiana: EISENBRAUNS, 2005. Pp. xxi + 394. $39.50.

In this thorough, erudite, and typically coherent monograph, Professor Gane offers a systematic account of the function of the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] ("purification offering") rituals in pentateuchal law. Gane acknowledges his indebtedness to Milgrom's monumental work on the subject, harking back to it in title, tenor, and terminology. Importantly, Gane shares Milgrom's belief that profound theological and ethical principles are expressed in the details of ritual, and that these principles can be illuminated by the use of anthropological and comparative tools. However, contrary to Milgrom, Gane's holistic approach to the text at times compels him to offer insightful solutions to problems which, from a critical point of view, do not arise (e.g., the apparent contradiction between Lev. 5:1, 20-26 and Num. 15:22-31, pp. 212-13).

In the theoretical foundations for this argument, Gane follows Frits Staal in denying that rituals have an inherent meaning, but maintains that ritual is nevertheless meaningful: the activity system, i.e., the hierarchy of physical acts, corresponds to a hierarchy of goals which constitute the meanings assigned to the activity system by the religious authority. Thus, identical physical acts may be invested with diverse meanings, achieving distinct goals within diverse systems. Based on a detailed philological study of the usage of [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in pentateuchal literature, Gane argues that although the blood of purification offerings is consistently applied to the sancta and not to the offerer, the object of purification/purgation may differ. Throughout the year, the (grammatical and logical) object of [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is the offerer, but once a year--on the Day of Atonement (as well as at the initial dedication of the outer alter)--it is the sancta themselves that are purged.

The meaning of this, according to Gane's reconstruction (following Zohar and Rodriguez), is that [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is a two-stage process. Throughout the year, the offerers--inadvertent sinners or severely impure individuals--transfer their culpabilities or impurities via the sacrificial animal's blood (by means of an outer-altar or outer-sanctum [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) to the sancta, where they are borne by YHWH; but once a...