In the mean time the master of the house called upon his younger guests to assist him in [purifying his house from the leaven]. This was the evening of the fourteenth day of the month Nisan, the preparation day for the Passover. Lest the command of Jehovah, to eat unleavened bread for seven days, and to allow no leaven to be seen any where, should chance to be violated, they performed the ceremony of putting away the leaven on this evening. The master of the family gave each of his guests a torch, and led them in a solemn procession through the house. He had himself a dish and a brush in his hand, and he said “Praised be thou, O Lord our God, king of the world, who hast sanctified us by thy precepts, and hast enjoined upon us to put away the leaven.” All present said Amen. They then proceeded to examine every corner of the house, opening every drawer, chest, and cupboard. Here and there lay a piece of leavened bread, purposely left in the way; the master took it up, laid it in his dish, and carefully swept the place. When the company had gone round the house, to the outer door, he said, “Whatsoever leavened thing there is in my house, which I have not seen nor put away, may it be scattered in pieces and accounted as the dust of the earth.” The search had lasted two hours; the dish was locked up, and the guests retired to sleep.
Unable, however, to obtain sleep, from the crowd of feelings which coursed each other through his mind, when he thought that he was at length in Jerusalem, in the Holy City, Helon was one of the first who arose. He went immediately to the roof of the house—the Alijah was open; he entered it and performed his morning devotions, with a fervour which he had never felt before, put the Tallith on his head, bound the Tephillim on his brow and his hand, and recited the Kri-schma. His whole body was in agitation; now he lifted his hand towards heaven, now threw himself on his face on the ground, now bent his head to the middle of his body. In the earnestness of his prayer he seemed to wrestle with God. Here in the Holy City, how much had he to ask from the God of his fathers!
When his prayer was ended, and he came out upon the roof, he looked down upon Jerusalem, which now lay before him in all the brightness of daylight. As yet all was still; even from the temple, which [rose in elevated majesty] above the towers and palaces of the city, no sound was to be heard. The loud tumult of the strangers on the preceding evening was hushed, and it seemed as if the repose which announced the vicinity of the sanctuary, had diffused itself around and reduced all to silence. All the lofty emotions of his heart returned with equal strength, but not the same impetuosity as on the preceding evening. His inward delight was even greater, but it was calm and holy. He felt that near the presence of Jehovah, in the solemn assembly of his people, on the spot where the noblest and wisest of his countrymen had met together for such high purposes, his joy ought to be tranquil and sober, and the emotion, thus driven back upon the heart, only became the deeper and more vivid.
Helon felt that this was his initiation into a new life. When the day dawns, on which all the visions of childhood and the dreams of youth are about to be fulfilled—to which the man awakes, in the firm belief that it will realize every thing for which his heart has longed, there is a stillness, an earnest expectation, a humble confidence which take possession of such a youthful bosom, from which it is easily anticipated, that a period decisive for the formation of the character has arrived, and that what is now felt and done will have a predominating influence over all the future life.
Sallu came to him, to ask his commands. When he had received them, he remained standing a little while and said, “Master, I am only a servant in Israel, but I too am of the seed of Abraham, and I feel that this is the land of our fathers and of their God. Let us not return into Egypt!”
When Elisama arose, his first occupation was to open the baggage and take out thence the presents destined for his host. It was his rule never to come empty-handed, and on this occasion he had indeed come with his hands full. To the mistress of the house he sent all that remained, and it was no trifling store, of the provisions for the journey, some skins of delicious Chian wine, which he had purchased in the caravan, and a quantity of the finest Egyptian linen. To Iddo he gave a turban curiously wrought, of a costly stuff, and an Alexandrian robe of ceremony, informing him that it had been his brother-in-law's, and that his sister had destined it for him.
To Selumiel he carried a book. It consisted of several pieces of [papyrus], the stalk of which is divided with a needle into thin leaves, which are then laid together and fastened with the water of the Nile. Several of them were then laid upon each other and fitted together, and on these oblong leaves the book was written. It was an Egyptian invention and very highly prized. “I have brought you,” said he to Selumiel, “the Hebrew work of Jesus Sirach, the same which his grandson has translated into Greek. It is highly esteemed in Egypt both by Jews and heathens. I could easily have procured a transcript of the Greek version, from one of our literati in the Bruchion; but that would not have answered my purpose; it was with difficulty that I could obtain this copy of the Hebrew. I give it thee for the sake of the passage on friendship. Read here; ‘A faithful friend is the medicine of life, and they who fear the Lord shall find him. For he who feareth the Lord shall be happy in his friendship, and as he is, such shall his friend be also.’[[106]] And here too, ‘Forsake not an old friend.’” Selumiel smiled, a thing which he rarely did, and said, “I accept the present, on the condition that you come to Jericho with me, in order that I may be able to return it.” “We shall see,” said Elisama, “but in so doing I should be giving little, to receive much in return.” “Friendship,” said Selumiel, “has all things in common.”
As our [travellers came from a heathen land], it was necessary they should be purified before they could go into the temple. This would have prevented Helon from attending at the morning sacrifice, and besides he wished first to discharge a duty of filial piety, and to visit the grave of his father, before he appeared in the presence of Jehovah, whom his father had taught him to honour.
When the ceremonies of bathing, cutting off the hair, and others in which purification consisted, were over, he went forth to the valley of Jehoshaphat, to his father’s tomb. It was by his own dying request that he had been interred there; for Iddo would fain have given him a place in the sepulchre of his own family. From the words of the prophet Joel, “I will gather all nations, and will bring them down to the valley of [Jehoshaphat], and will plead with them there for my people,”[[107]] it had become a prevalent opinion, that this would be the scene of the general resurrection and of the judgment of Jehovah, and therefore many of the Jews wished to be buried there. It took its name from the king Jehoshaphat, who was said to have been interred in that place.
Iddo, Elisama, and Selumiel accompanied Helon. Leaving the city by the Water-gate, they turned to the south-east and kept along the brook Kedron. Willows and tall cedars threw their shadows upon the graves. They wandered silently along the Kedron, till they saw a large stone, such as the Jews are accustomed to place upon every grave, as a warning rather than a monument, to prevent the passers-by from defiling themselves unawares. To-day especially, it was necessary for them to keep at a distance of several paces from it, if they would not render themselves so far unclean, as to incapacitate them for taking any part in the religious rites of the day. Helon felt an irresistible impulse to throw himself upon the grave, but the others forcibly held him back. Tears streamed from his eyes as he incessantly exclaimed, “My father! my father!” With head and breast inclined forward he was supported by his companions, scarcely conscious what he did, to the Horse-gate, where they set him down. They spoke to him of the virtues of his father, of his surviving parent at Alexandria, of the happiness of being buried in the valley of Jehoshaphat. By degrees he became more calm; his tears continued to flow, but they were rather the effusion of tenderness than of sorrow, and he seemed to have found his father, rather than to have lost him. Iddo, whose manner was somewhat abrupt, reminded him of his obligations to them for having prevented him from making himself unclean by throwing himself on the grave, which would have compelled him to keep the feast, with the rest of those who were unclean, in the following month. “Bethink thee, too, that Jehovah himself has commanded that we should be cheerful on this day. Thou shalt rejoice before Jehovah thy God, at the place which the Lord thy God has chosen that his name should dwell there.”[[108]]