At the time of Herod, the relationship between Jews and Gentiles was in a bad state. In this light, several groups of conservatives arose. Most prominent among them were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. This paper addresses the Essenes sect, a sect that isolated itself in the Judean desert. Their various customs, beliefs, and eating habits give us a taste of their influence on contemporary Judaism and Israel. After a thorough survey of this subject, we conclude that the Essenes was one of the most interesting sects to ever exist in the land of Israel.

The descendants of the Hasmoneans ruled over Israel for roughly a hundred years, our land as they then claimed. Until 37 B.C., Herod, a son of a convert family succeeded to capture the throne, of co

The Essenes had special admiration for Moses. He was their second fear after God. They punished people who cursed and blasphemed his name. Sometimes they even killed because of their great fear that Moses would harm them. Their first fear of course was God, whom they believed was the one. They respected God and were afraid to leave him. As a result they believed that he and his commandments must be followed in all aspects and circumstances. They claimed that God gave them special ability as prophets, while the Pharisees claimed that everything is in God’s hands.

Some scholars find their beliefs rooted in Roman or Iranian theology. But these beliefs are also Jewish and similarly found in the Pharisees and Qumran sect. Because of the Essenes great religious zealousness they learned much of the holy books and had knowledge of medicine. Their knowledge of medicine may relate to the medical meaning of Essenes as stated above. Rejection of pleasure prevented them from washing their bodies in oil, a common custom at the time.

This “community of righteous” was connected with Matthew in the rebellion against Antiochus the Greek. The fought as his ally because they hated the Hellenist idea and resisted those who tried to bring Judaism under Greek Hellenist influence. In the days of Judah the Maccabbee there were differences between the Essenes and the Hasmoneans. Judah sought to achieve religious and political freedom together, while the Essenes felt that religion was sufficient. As long as there was danger of Hellenism to Judaism, the Essenes supported the Hasmoneans, but when the great days of Jonathan the son of Matthew arrived and there was no longer danger to Judaism the Essenes viewed the Hasmoneans as a dirty and repulsive kingdom, which started to resemble the Hellinist kingdoms that the Essenes had always avoided. This situation reached its peak when the Essenes decided to separate from the Hasmoneans in two camps: (1) The extremists whose whole target was moving beyond the Pharisees to discover and reveal the meaning, essence and detail of the religious commandments; (2) The moderate Essenes who remained loyal to the Torah in the way of the traditional Pharisees. The major group of the Essenes was the extremist group that tried to reach greater purity and holiness, and this is the group that we refer to as Essenes. Accordingly, the Essenes moved away to the desert, lived a life of holiness and purity, and developed small communities that lived in mystery.

Lack of quiet brought about growth of different religious practices. Two of the most outstanding groups were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Sadducees were led by several Priestly Conservative based aristocrat families. They came out against the idea of resurrecting the dead, and the idea of punishment and reward. They resisted the development of halacha by humans. The Pharisees were men of halacha who tried to develop a system of learning and developing the oral law through a line of several rational rules. The struggle between the two groups brought the society in Judea to power clashes for two hundred years.

For the most part, the Essenes did not marry, although their texts do not say marriage is forbidden. They believed that if they married it would waste their time and disturb their prayers and farming, but still there were those who married because of the emphasis on having children. It could be that some people refrained from getting married because of the laws of purity and impurity, which are very strict for married relationships. In our opinion, there is substantial evidence to say that the Essenes were chauvinist and did not treat women well. Women were not considered or accepted as members of the sect, and they only received food twice a week.

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