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This is the scroll found under the tile floor of Kando's house and confiscated by the Israeli army after they gained control the the West Bank following the Six Day War. Yadin had been negotiating with Kando for this scroll before the war without success. Eventually, the Israeli government paid Kando a total of $105,000 after negotiations lasting almost a year. The highest asking price prior to the war was $750,000.
Additional fragments were stored by Kando in a cigar box. Later it was learned that some additional fragments were stored behind family pictures in Kando's home and that of his brother. All this material, along with one fragment given to Yadin during the earlier negotiations, constitute the Temple Scroll listed under this number and 11Q20 (11QTempleb) 11QTemple Scrollb, 11Q Torah. As far as I can tell none of it was recovered from Cave 11 directly by trained archaeologists.
The scroll contains major portions of the Pentateuch, but it is frequently written in the first person. The same is true of the supplementary laws in the Temple Scroll that are not in the Pentateuch. Most interestingly, this Torah contains detailed plans for the Jerusalem Temple construction which are notably missing from the Pentateuch, though referred to indirectly in I Chronicles 28:11-19. Nearly half of the Temple Scroll is taken up with the plans for the Temple, sacrifices, and laws of the city of the Temple.
Yadin doubts that this is the actual missing scroll. When he named it the Temple Scroll, he was thinking rather that it may reflect knowledge of and an attempt to preserve an earlier tradition known to the author.
Another part of the Temple Scroll contains the so-called Statutes of the King. The original text was traditionally written by Samuel and laid before the King. No record of what Samuel wrote survives in the Torah. But it is referred to in Deuteronomy 17:15-20 and in I Samuel 8:11ff.
For these and other reasons, Yadin concludes that this scroll was, for the Essenes (his term), a holy canonical book on a par with the other holy books of the Bible.
Yadin relates an interesting correspondence between the statues in the Temple Scroll and the known behavior of the Jerusalem Essenes as related by Josephus, who actually lived with a group of wilderness Essenes for a time as a young man. This concerns the laws on defecation. The law requires that the latrines be built 3000 cubits from the camps. Since the Essenes, the Temple Scroll, and the War Scroll considered the entire city of Jerusalem a camp, the toilets were outside the city by nearly a mile. Since 3000 cubits exceeds the distance allowed for walking on the Sabbath, the Essenes were not allowed to relieve themselves on the Sabbath. Josephus reports observing this behavior during his stay with the Essenes. Yadin notes that Josephus also refers to an Essene Gate, mentioned nowhere else, which may have been the one used by the Essenes when they left the city to relieve themselves. The Temple Scroll describes the building of public toilets northwest of the city. This reference provides a good clue to the location of the Essene Gate. Josephus mentions that near the Essene Gate was a place called Betsoe, which Yadin says is obviously Beth-Soah in Hebrew, i.e., a lavatory.
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