"It having pleased our God to restore us, His chosen earthly people, the Jews, to our own land, and to our own beautiful Zion," joy of the whole earth, "we make the occasion to be as the beginning of a new era, a new year. And as the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, in Egypt, saying: 'This month shall be the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you,' so we proclaim to our people today, this month shall be the beginning of our New Year, and of a New Dispensation to us."
Dropping his proclamation loudness of voice, he slipped into his synagogue recitative tone, as he went on:
"On the first of the month, shall be a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets and holy convocation. Ye shall offer an offering unto the Lord."
He signed to the Tokeang—the Shophar blower—and instantly the weird, curious, quavering, vibrating sounds broke on the still air.
As the last note of the shophar died away, Cohen cried:
"Let all the house of Israel, sacrifice unto the Lord!"
Lifting his hand as he spoke, a turbaned priest led a lamb to the foot of the altar. A gleaming knife, snatched from his girdle flashed for a moment in the air; there was a swift movement of the sacrificial priest's arm, a gurgle from the silent lamb, and the little fleecy thing sank dying upon the grating before the altar.
Only those immediately near could see all that followed, until the moment when the carcass of the lamb was reared to the grating on the summit of the altar.
A strange stillness rested upon the people gathered, as another turbaned priest brought a torch to fire the wood beneath the altar.
Before he could reach the altar, the voice of Apleon stayed his feet.