"I am no longer Head of this School—Yon slave in sackcloth is my master, and I his disciple."
His mind continues in its reveries. He recalls how he had been installed by acclamation as Head of the Jewish community; how he had gained the favor of Chasdai and of the Caliph; how his great school was founded and is flourishing now, and is the most famous in the Jewish literary world.
His face becomes more and more placid. He recognizes the finger of God in his fate. His capture, and that of his three colleagues, he sees now, has been providential. They had been destined to carry the knowledge from the schools of Babylon to Africa and Europe. His colleagues had fared equally as well. Rabbi Sahamaria ben Elchanan had been sold as a slave to Alexandria, where he, too, was ransomed by the Jewish community, and later he also established a flourishing school at "Misr" (Kahira). Rabbi Chuschiel met with the same fate. He was sold to Kairuan, on the coast of Africa, and there he, too, opened a school. Rabbi Nathan ben Isaac Kohen was sold to Narbonne, France, and, as if fate had so ordered it, he too opened a flourishing school at that place. He would have continued his reveries had not the "Sh'liach Hazibur" aroused him, who leaves his side, and mounting the "Almemor," takes his place at his desk. The services are to begin, and so we, too, must cease our observations, and unite with our co-religionists in their joyous and reverential greeting of the weekly Sabbath, the blessed Day of Rest.
CHAPTER VII.
A SABBATH EVE IN CORDOVA
(CONTINUED.)
THE EVENING SERVICE.—A BEAUTIFUL CUSTOM IN ISRAEL.—HONORED WITH AN INVITATION TO CHASDAI'S HOUSE.—ILLUMINATED STREETS.—THE TWO ANGELS.—AN IDEAL SABBATH IN AN IDEAL HOME.—THE PRAISE OF THE VIRTUOUS WOMAN.—A FATHER'S BLESSING.—PRESENTED TO THE LADIES.—THE EVENING MEAL.—THE JEWISH KINGDOM OF THE KHOZARS.
The "Sh'liach Hazibur," (Reader) has taken his position before the lecturn upon the "Bimah." From a voluminous parchment folio he chants the beautiful and joyous Psalms xcv, xcix, cii, in that fascinating musical recitative, peculiar to Hebrew liturgy, so joyous and yet so holy, so gay and yet so reverential, so intensely sacred, so religiously elevating as to lift the worshiper on its mighty pinions, gently, from week-day life into the higher and purer Sabbath realm.
The "Reader" and the congregation sing alternate verses. What a grand chorus of human voices! What majestic strains wing their heaven-ward flight! How sublime a music to hear these hundreds of men entune their sacred anthems to God. Sweet is the sound of the melting harp and of the warbling lute, but sweeter than both is the music that rises from the warm human breast. Touching are the strains of the nightingale and the lark, but sublimest and most touching of all is the sacred music that rises from the innermost depths of the strong and masculine heart. Such