To dwell in the house of the Lord, as long as I live,
To behold the glorious worship of the Lord,
And to wait in his temple!—Ps. xxvii. 4.
In the afternoon Iddo conducted him to one of the places of public instruction, called by the Greek name of Synagogue. Such buildings had come into use only since the captivity, but there were already a considerable number of them in Jerusalem. In the days of David and Solomon we find no trace of them. It is true, we find very early mention of the [schools of the prophets], from which they may be considered to have taken their rise. In the days of Elisha it was customary to visit the prophets on the day of the new moon and on the sabbath.[[121]] In the captivity the people must have felt the necessity much more of assembling on solemn days, to obtain consolation and hope from the discourses of some man learned in the scriptures. On the fifth day of the sixth month, it happened, we are told in the book of the Prophet, that Ezekiel “was sitting in his house and the elders of Judah were sitting before him.”[[122]] After the return from the captivity this custom was kept up, from the experience of its utility; and these assemblages were held at first in the porticoes of the temple, afterwards in buildings appropriated to the purpose. Sacrifices could be offered only in one place, the temple, but prayer might be offered, and instruction communicated, any where.
They went into a [synagogue] in the Lower City, where an eloquent expounder of the law was accustomed to teach. The arrangement of the building had a good deal of resemblance to that of the temple. A large quadrangular space was surrounded on all sides with covered walks or porticoes, resting upon a double row of columns. In the middle, a circular roof rested upon four pillars, and beneath it, on a raised place, lay the rolls of the law. The people stood upon the open space, which was covered with an awning, and in rainy weather took shelter in the porticoes, one of which was set apart exclusively for the women. Before the rolls of the law stood the reader and expounder, who was also called the apostle or ambassador of the assembly. He read the law and the letters of other congregations; he delivered the prayer, and thus, as it were, was the messenger of the people to God, and the interpreter of their desires. Besides him there was also a ruler of the synagogue, or superintendent of the school, who maintained order, several elders of the congregation who assisted him in his functions, a gatherer of alms, and a servant. [Any one who chose], not excepting strangers, might stand up and teach.
The synagogue was already full when Helon and his friends entered it, and after the usual salutation, the service began by praising God. The reader then going up to the rolls, which lay under the circular roof, read a passage from the law, which he at the same time interpreted to the people. After a second ascription of praise, he read the following passage from the prophet Jeremiah: “Ah Lord God; behold thou hast made the heavens and the earth, by thy great power and thy stretched-out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: thou showest loving-kindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquities of the fathers into the bosom of the children after them. The great the mighty God, the Lord of Hosts, is thy name: great in counsel and mighty in work art thou, whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give to every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings; who hast shown signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even to this day, and in Israel, and among other men, and hast made thee a name, as it is at this day, and hast brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt, with signs and with wonders, and with a strong hand and with a stretched-out arm, and with great terror; and hast given to them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey.”[[123]] When he had read this passage, and translated it into the common dialect of the country, the celebrated teacher of the law, whom we have mentioned, rose up, and proposed to deliver a discourse.
Myron had objected to his friend Helon, that the people of Israel were destitute of skill in all the fine arts; and in respect to eloquence, resembled their lawgiver, who was “slow of speech and of a slow tongue.”[[124]] To the former part of the imputation Helon had already replied; to the latter he might have answered, that although his nation never possessed an Isocrates or a Demosthenes, no people ever had orators, whose eloquence was more vigorous, animated, or spirit-stirring than the prophets in Israel. What artificial rhetorician, of the schools or the Agora, ever graved his words so deep in the hearts of his hearers as they did? They spoke the word of Jehovah, by the command and inspiration of Jehovah; the Greeks, the words of human wisdom, at the suggestion of vanity, or to promote the purposes of ambition. How different is the effect of a discourse, in which a divine power dwells, from those which have been composed with the strictest adherence to the rules of art!
Such might have been Helon’s answer to his friend; for such was his own experience, in listening to the orator in the synagogue. His language was simple and unartificial, but for this very reason the energy of the prophet’s words, which he expounded, was the more strongly felt. First of all he went through the passage which had been read, and explained the contents of the prayer, which, sublime in itself, was still more so from the circumstances in which it was spoken. He painted the forlorn condition of the people when the land fell into the hands of the Chaldeans, and the prophecy which was involved in the purchase of the field of Anathoth. When he came to speak of the signs and wonders which Jehovah had shown in Egypt, and of his having brought out his people with an out-stretched arm, he pointed out to the audience, that this great deliverance was to be regarded as an everlasting pledge of his redeeming mercy. For a thousand years past it had served this purpose, and every Passover revived and strengthened the impression. He painted to them the condition of Israel in Goshen, their inhuman oppressions, the evening of the first Passover, their wanderings in the wilderness, their rebellions against God, and the firmness of their lawgiver. Thence he past rapidly to the glorious days of the first temple, and described the magnificence of Solomon and the prosperity of Israel, while the eyes of all his audience glistened with sympathetic delight. Next he spoke of the captivity in Babylon, of the silent tears of the people as they sat by the streams of the Tigris and Euphrates, and of the evening of the Passover, when the fourteenth day of Nisan came and no paschal lamb could be eaten, but only the unleavened bread. No one drew his breath while he delineated the picture of this misery. “Unhappy, forsaken people!” he exclaimed; “ye had sinned and Jehovah visiteth the iniquities of the fathers upon their children. O thou almighty and jealous God, thine eyes are open on all the ways of the children of men!” He paused for a moment, as if overpowered by the contemplation of the might and justice of Jehovah. Every bosom was agitated. “Woe, woe to me and to my children!” exclaimed at once a woman, so carried away by the words of the speaker, that she forgot herself and the presence of the multitude. “Woe to us all,” resumed he, “if we forsake Jehovah, the living fountain, and hew out to ourselves broken fountains which hold no water.” In conclusion he praised the restoration of the worship of God, and the happy times in which they lived; and earnestly exhorted them to celebrate the feast of unleavened bread and of the appearance before Jehovah, with becoming gratitude, and faithfully to observe the law, in the land flowing with milk and honey into which he had brought them.
When the discourse was ended, praise was again ascribed to God, and the prayer called Kri-schma repeated. This was a feast-day; but independently of this, it was the duty of every adult Jew, on the second and the fifth day of the week, as well as on the sabbath, to pray, with the Tallith on his head, and the Tephillim on his brow and on his hand. The benediction was given, to which the assembly replied Amen! and at the close of all, alms were collected for the poor.
As they left the assembly, Helon remarked to Elisama, how much superior, in regard both to sacrifice and instruction, was the condition of Israel to that of the heathens. They offer sacrifice to their gods—but they are ignorant of the law; they have temples and altars, but no houses of religious instructions; they have priests, but none to explain their duty to them. On the following day, the third after the Passover, the same offerings were made as before; but the evening increased the solemnity, by [the approach of the sabbath]. It was announced as usual by six blasts of the trumpet, blown by a priest out of the chamber which was situated on the southern side of the temple, at the extremity of the court of Israel, and which served at the same time for the watch-room of the priests and Levites. In the country towns the annunciation was made by blasts of the horn. At the ninth hour (three in the afternoon) the first blast was sounded, as a signal for the cessation of all labour in the field. Troops of reapers and other labourers were immediately after seen coming from all the adjacent country into Jerusalem. At the tenth hour, the second blast was sounded, to announce the time of closing the shops and manufactories, completing the domestic preparations for the sabbath, and putting on their best attire. In every house, two loaves were placed upon the table, as a memorial of the double measure of manna, gathered in the wilderness on the day before the sabbath. At the third blast, the mother of the family lighted the two lamps, which were to burn through the whole of the sabbath. Light, being the symbol of joy and of knowledge, was appropriate to such a solemnity; hence the altar blazed, and the household lamp was kindled. The mother, assuming the priestly office, spread out her hands towards the lamp when she had lighted it, and said “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, who hast sanctified us by thy precepts, and commanded us to light the [sabbath-lamp].” The fourth, fifth, and sixth blasts followed each other rapidly, as soon as the sun was set; and the sabbath was now begun.