The meaning of "a three-days' journey" in 11QT^a: The evidence of biblical and post-biblical sources

11QT^a employs the expression "a three-days' journey" in connection with two ritual laws: immolation of animals outside the temple and sale/redemption of the "second-tithe". Most scholars have understood this expression as defining the "long-distance" dispensation stipulated by Deuteronomy (12:21; 14:24) in connection with these laws. By contrast, A. Shemesh has argued that "a three-days' journey" constitutes a legal idiom signifying (the boundaries of) the Land of Israel, leading him to conclude that 11QT^a permits cultic immolation beyond the boundaries of the Land of Israel while requiring (qualified) observance of the second-tithe law in connection with produce grown in foreign lands. The present essay demonstrates that this idiom in 11QT^a is expressive of the point separating short from long distances.