New Covenant of Judaism

In his contribution to Three Faiths, One God, Jacob Neusner explains that the Mishnah answered the question, With no temple, is Israel still holy? The Mishnah’s answer was Yes, but then it had to explain how it was so:

“Israel indeed is holy, and so far as the media of sanctification persist beyond the destruction of the holy place—and they do endure—the task of holy Israel is to continue to conduct that life of sanctification that had centered upon the Temple. Where now does holiness reside? It is in the life of the people, Israel—there above all. So the Mishnah may speak of the holiness of the Temple, but the premise is that the people—that kingdom of priests and holy people of Leviticus—constitute the center and focus of the sacred. The land retains its holiness too, and in raising the crops, the farmer is expected to adhere to the rules of order and structure laid down in Leviticus, keeping each thing in its proper classification, observing the laws of the sabbatical year, for instance. The priesthood retains its holiness, even without the task of carrying out the sacrificial cult. Therefore priests must continue to observe the caste rules governing marriage, such as are specified in Leviticus” (169).

Family life is also a zone for sanctification, and time is sanctified by the marking of seasons and holidays. The Mishnah covers areas that were no longer relevant once the temple fell, but alongside described “foci of sanctification” with regard to those areas that “flourished even beyond the disaster.” The fundamental question and answer, Neusner says, was: 

“The compelling question: Is Israel yet holy? 

“The self-evident answer: Sanctification inheres in the life of the people” (170).

Though this will no doubt sound like a piece of Christian triumphalism, and perhaps is, Neusner’s description of translation of holiness and purity into a post-temple context sounds a lot like the New Testament, and even more like the Christianity of the fourth or fifth centuries