period in Hebrew history contributed its portion to the heritage. of national festivals. From nomadism came the Passover, originally a spring festival when the firstlings of the flock were offered up to Yahweh. From the agricultural stage came Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles. 72 The Jewish year included three hundred and fifty-four days. In the period of later Judaism, more than thirty days in the year, in addition to New Moons and Sabbaths, were devoted to ceremonial observances of some sort. The following table shows" the more important of these feasts, their duration, and time of celebration. 73 TABLE OF MOST IMPORTANT JEWISH FEASTS AND FESTIVALS (Post Maccabaean From the standpoint of education, the significance of the festivals was manifold. Probably no other factor in Jewish life played a more important part in stimulating and developing the racial religious consciousness, national and individual. They formed a cycle of religious and patriotic revivals extending throughout the year. Through them each new generation was taught the story of 72 T. G. Soares, The Social Institutions and Ideals of the Bible, p. 173; Exodus xiii. 12. 73 T. G. Soares, The Social Institutions and Ideals of the Bible, p. 178. 74 Exclusive of New Moons and Sabbath. The data in this table have been compiled from various sources. See especially Elmer E. Harding, "Feasts and Fasts," Hasting's Bible Dictionary, I. 75 One of the three great annual feasts. the great religious and political experiences of the race. Every religious festival was a period of training in connection with worship; in connection with many of them definite provision was made for religious instruction. Parents were directed to instruct their children in advance or during the celebration in the origin of meaning of the festival. This private instruction was frequently supplemented by instruction given in public by priests and scribes. THE TEMPLE. Despite the rise of the teaching order of soferim and the multiplication of synagogues, the Temple at Jerusalem never ceased to be a national center of religious education. Hither the people resorted to celebrate the great national festivals and here they were trained in forms of worship. Here, too, the carefully trained choirs of Levites sang the national songs of praise and in singing them taught them to the people. Indeed it was the Temple, according to Graetz, which furnished the pattern for the service in the thousand synagogues scattered throughout Judea and the diaspora. "The form of prayer used in the Temple became the model of the services in all prayer houses or houses of gathering." "The inhabitants of the country towns introduced in their own congregations an exact copy of the divine service as it was conducted in (the Temple in) Jerusalem." More than this it was at the hours of temple worship that the Jews everywhere gathered in their local synagogues, and it was toward the Holy City that every Jew, alone or in the congregation, turned his face when he prayed. The resemblance of the synagogue service to that of the temple will be seen by comparing the outline of service given above on page 239 with the following order of the temple morning song service which followed the dawn sacrifice.78 ORDER OF TEMPLE MORNING PRAYER AND SONG SERVICE. 1. Selected psalms of praise and thanksgiving. 2. Response by the congregation. 3. Prayer and thanksgiving. 4. Reading of selections from the Law. 5. The Ten Commandments. 6. The Shema. In addition to the instruction and training given through the services, public instruction was often given in the temple courts. 76 H. Graetz, History of the Jews, I, 399a. 77 Ibid., 401a. 78 Ibid., 399. This custom, probably antedating the time of Jeremiah, was followed in the days of Jesus and undoubtedly continued till the final destruction of the Temple 70 A. D. The Temple and its public services were national institutions. "The Temple was the approach of the nation to their God..... Its standard rites were performed in the name and for the sake of the whole people. The Tamid or standing sacrifice offered twice a day on the high altar was the offering of the nation. Every Jew contributed to its maintenance..... Each of its celebrations.was attended by a formal committee of the nation. ...' It is not within the purpose of the present account to enter upon a history of the Temple and its varying fortunes nor to describe the magnificence of its structure and of its services.81 It arose aloft above the city on its holy hill like the temples of Athens. Here as in Greece, the lofty eminence and conspicuousness of its position. contributed toward keeping it ever before the minds of the inhabitants of the city. Every day was ushered in by a national sacrifice, marked midway by a second one and closed with a national service of prayer. "After midnight the Captain of the Temple together with a number of priests arose from their beds and with torches in their hands went through the Temple.... to see if everything was in a state of preparation for worship at the dawn of day. As soon as the watchers upon the Tempel ramparts could perceive in the morning light the city of Hebron, the signal was given: 'the light shines on Hebron' and the sacrificial victim fell under the hand of the priest." "Immediately after the immolation came a service of prayer with music and song. This was followed by the burning of incense upon the golden altar, at which the priestly blessing was pronounced. The sacrificing priest then performed his functions at the Altar of Burnt-offering, while the Levites sang psalms, accompanied by the sound of trumpets. Two hours and a half from mid-day the evening worship began with the slaughter of the sacrificial lamb. Immediately after sunset the evening service of prayer was closed." 182 79 By a decree of the council issued in the reign of Salome Alexandria, every Israelite, proselytes and freed slaves included, was required to pay at least one-half shekel a year to the support of the Temple. H. Graetz, History of the Jews, II, 52. so G. A. Smith, Jerusalem-to 70 A. D., II, 522d-523b. 81 For Biblical descriptions see 2 Chronicles xxix. 19-36; Ecclesiasticus 1. 1-21; Ezekiel xl-xli. 82 Condensed from M. Seidel, In the Time of Jesus, pp. 119-120. Not only was the Temple service fraught throughout with symbolism but the structure and organization of the Temple made it a monumental object lesson teaching the holiness, majesty and omnipotence of Yahweh. "If Josephus be right, the vast entrance of the porch symbolized heaven; the columns of the first veil, the elements; the seven lamps, the seven planets; the twelve loaves of the Presence, the signs of the zodiac, and the circuit of the year; the Altar of Incense....that God is the possessor of all things.' 9783 The multitude of private sacrifices required of every Jew resulted in making the influence of the Temple individual as well as national. To visit Jerusalem and worship in the Temple became a life desire of every Jew. Thousands of pilgrims journeyed thither each year. The three great annual festivals, the Passover, the Pentecost, the Feast of the Tabernacles brought together Jews from all over the world. Many such returned home inspired and strengthened in their faith, and better instructed in the approved methods of religious observances. Thus through the Temple religion and religious education were unified, standardized and nationalized. The effect of the Temple service in the first century of the Christian era upon a Hebrew child has been beautifully set forth by Edersheim and forms a fitting close to the discussion of the educative influence of the Temple. "No one who had ever worshiped within the courts of Jehovah's house at Jerusalem could ever have forgotten the scenes he had witnessed or the words he had heard. Standing in that gorgeous, glorious building, and looking up its terraced vista, the child would watch with solemn awe, not unmingled with wonderment as the great throng of white-robed priests busily moved about, while the smoke of the sacrifice rose from the altar of burnt-offering. Then, amid the hushed silence of that vast multitude, they had all fallen down to worship at the time of incense. Again, on those steps that led up to the innermost sanctuary the priests had lifted their hands and spoken over the people the words of blessing; and then, while the drink-offering was poured out, the Levites' chant of Psalms had risen and swelled into a mighty volume; the exquisite treble of the Levite children's voices being sustained by the rich round notes of the men, and accompanied by instrumental music. The Jewish child knew many of these words. They had been the earliest songs he had heard almost his first lesson when clinging at a 'taph' to his mother. But now, in those white-marbled, gold-adorned halls, 83 G. A. Smith, Jerusalem-to 70 A. D., II, p. 257. under heaven's blue canopy, and with such surroundings, they would fall upon his ear like sounds from another world, to which the prolonged threefold blasts from the silver trumpets of the priests would seem to waken him. And they were sounds from another world; for, as his father would tell him, all that he saw was after the exact pattern of heavenly things which God had shown to Moses on Mount Sinai; all that he heard was God-uttered, spoken by Jehovah Himself through the mouth of His servant David, and of the other sweet singers of Israel."84 MISCELLANEOUS. A WOMAN FREE. A Woman Free and Other Poems1 is a collection of verses by Ruth Le Prade with an introduction by no less a personage than Edwin Markham, and indeed the verses before us do not lack poetic inspiration and originality. Perhaps it is characteristic for the authoress that she seeks for freedom and does not know what freedom means. She declares her freedom saying: "I am a woman free. Too long I was held captive in the dust. Too long After the crumbling centuries of time. Free to become and live." This is perhaps the historical explanation of the development of woman and she now becomes typical of "the free woman." Further down she joyfully exclaims: "I am the free woman, No longer a slave to man, Or any thing in all the universe- Not even to myself. I am the free woman. I hold and seek that which is mine: Strength is mine and purity; World work and cosmic love; The glory and joy of Motherhood." What is the woman free? Her sympathy is broad. She says: "I have loved winds that wander, tossing the trees, tossing the silver leaves; Touching my body softly or with rude strength; Blowing thru my hair; saluting me and passing on. 84 A. Edersheim, In the Days of Christ, pp. 108-109. 1 A Woman Free and Other Poems. By Ruth. Published by J. F. Rowny Press, 937 South Hill Street, Los Angeles, Cal. |