אילא, אם לא

This research treats the function of the conditional particles אילא and אם לא in the Hebrew legal documents from the Judean desert (and אי לה in the Aramaic ones). Of the two possible functions suggested thus far – 'if [...] not' (long protasis) or 'if not' (short protasis) – the latter is adopted here, based on two factors: 1. Parallels from rabbinic Hebrew and Aramaic, e.g., כרם שהוא נטוע ערבובייה אם יש לכוון שתים כנגד שלוש הרי זה כרם ואם לאו אינו כרם (m. Kil. 5:1); אין אתא טבאות ואין לא אנן מחלטין ניכסייא (y. Ketub. 9:7, 33b). 2. The formal distinction, reflected both in Hebrew and in Aramaic sources, between those two functions, e.g., אין+לא against אילא in the Aramaic of the Palestinian Talmud; (ו)אם+לא against ואם לאו in rabbinic Hebrew. This argument holds for the Hebrew of the legal documents, which is heavily dependent on Aramaic and on old legal traditions. It is less valid for the Hebrew of the letters from the Judean desert, which is more independent and closer to the spoken Hebrew of that time, and which has a different set of conditional particles.