The Liturgical Targum to Pesach

Abstract

This paper presents the Targum text to Exod. 13:17–15:26 (the reading for the seventh day of Pesach) in the form that it is preserved in mahzorim (or festival prayerbooks). These liturgical manuscripts are witnesses to a textual tradition, hereafter named the “Liturgical Targum” (LTg), that is genealogically related to the broader Palestinian Targum tradition (PalTg), sharing a common source with other PalTg witnesses such as Targum Neofiti and the Fragment Targums. As reading traditions changed over time, and the role of Targum diminished within the synagogue, the text of LTg evolved: units ranging from individual words to entire verses of PalTg were removed or replaced with units of Targum Onqelos (TgOnq). Other PalTg texts show signs of this process of “Onqelosization,” including the text of Fragment Targum P (FragTg^P), an enigmatic manuscript that contains the festival reading for the seventh day of Pesach (among other things). This paper will argue two main points: 1. the units of Targum that are shared between LTg and other members of the PalTg tradition show influence by TgOnq (i.e., “Onqelosization”); 2. FragTg^P contains part of a text that is directly related to LTg and also contains Onqelosization.