bushy wood; by which the Jews understand the myrtle. The last is the willow. But when Nehemiah, upon the revival of this feast, directed the people what branches to gather, he called some of them by different names, which we render olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches; Neh. viii. 15. Probably, therefore, the Karraites were right in their opinion, that it was not the intention of the law to oblige them to use certain trees and no other, but only such as were fit for the purpose, and could be most readily procured, in the places where they dwelt. Accordingly Moses named such trees as were most common in his time, and Nehemiah others that were grown more common in his. It appears from the passage in Nehemiah, that the booths were to be made of these branches; but this is not expressly declared of the boughs mentioned in Leviticus. It is only said, "You shall take on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days." These boughs and branches the Sadducees understand to be for making their booths; but the Pharisees, that they were to be carried in their hands;* which is the practice of the modern Jews to this day. They tie together one branch of palm, three branches of myrtle, and one of willow. This they carry in their right hands, and in their left they have a branch of citron, with its fruit, or at least of pomecitron, when they cannot procure such a branch. With these, every day of the feast, that is, for seven days, they make a procession in their synagogues round their reading desks, as their ancestors did round the walls of Jericho, in token of the expected downfal of their enemies.+ Under each of these branches a mystery is comprehended. The palm, inasmuch as it bears an insipid fruit, is an emblem of the hypocrite. The myrtle, as it has a fragrant smell, although it be barren, resembles those who perform good works without the law. The willow is an emblem of the wicked, and the citron of the righteous. They also turn about with these branches to the four cardinal points, * Reland. Antiq. ubi supra; see Joseph. Antiq. lib. iii. cap. x. sect. iv, p. 175, edit. Haverc. + Buxtorf. Synag. Judaic. cap. xxi. p. 460, 461. Buxtorf. Synag. Judaic. cap. xxi. p. 457, 3d edit. and shake or push with them each way, and upwards and downwards, to drive the devil from them.* While they are making this procession, they sing Hosannah; whence this feast is called by the rabbies the Hosannah; and sometimes the branches are called by the same name. On the last day, which they call Hosannah Rabbah, or the great Hosannah, they make the procession seven times together, in memory of the siege of Jericho. The form of the Hosannah in their ritual, which they sing on this occasion, is remarkable: "For thy sake, O our Creator, Hosannah; for thy sake, O our Redeemer, Hosannah; for thy sake, O our Seeker, Hosannah;" as if they beseeched the blessed Trinity, saith Dr Patrick,† to save them, and send them help. This feast is kept with the greatest jollity of any of their festivals, especially on the eighth day; when, according to the law, they were to feast and rejoice upon their having gathered in their corn and their wine. Hence, in the Talmud, it is often called an chag, the feast, κατ' εξοχην : and Philo calls it εορτων μεγιστην, the greatest of the feasts; and hence likewise this Jewish festival came to be more taken notice of by the heathens than any other. It is probable king Cecrops took from it the hint of the law which he ordained at Athens, "that the master of every family should after harvest make a feast for his servants, and eat together with them, who had taken pains with him in tilling his ground."§ And as this Jewish festival was kept at the time of the vintage, or presently after it, when "they had gathered in their corn and their wine," it is not unlikely, that the heathens borrowed their Bacchanalia from it; and this might lead Plutarch into that egregious mistake, that the Jews celebrated this festival to the honour of Bacchus; for he saith in his Symposia,|| "that in the time of the vintage the Jews spread tables, furnished with all manner of fruits, and lived in tabernacles, especially of palm and ivy wreathed together, and they call it the feast of tabernacles;"" and then a few days after," saith he (referring, I suppose, to the last day * Buxtorf. cap. xx. p. 459. + Patrick on Lev. xxiii. 40. ↑ See Wolfii Curæ Philolog. in Joh. vii. 37. § Macrob. Saturnal. lib. i. cap. x. p. 231, edit. Gronov. Lugd. Bat. 1670. Plutarch. Sympos. lib. iv. prob. v. Oper. tom. ii. p. 671, edit. Francof. of the feast)," they kept another festivity, which openly shows it was dedicated to Baechus; for they carried boughs of palms, &c., in their hands, with which they went into the temple, the Levites (who, he fancies, were so called from Evoc, one of the names of Bacchus) going before with instruments of music," &c. Although only the first and last days of this feast were to be kept as sabbaths, there were, nevertheless, peculiar and extraordinary sacrifices appointed for every day of it; Numb xxix. 12, et seq. On the first day, "thirteen young bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year," were sacrificed; whereas on the other festivals two bullocks sufficed; see Numb. xxviii. 11. 19. 27. The next day twelve bullocks were sacrificed, and so on, with the decrease of one bullock a day, till on the seventh day only seven bullocks were offered; which in all made seventy bullocks. The lambs and the rams also were in a double proportion to the number sacrificed at any other festival. The doctors give this reason for the daily diminution of the number of the bullocks; the whole number, say they, being seventy, was according to the languages of the seventy nations of the world; and the diminution of one every day signified, that there should be a gradual diminution of those nations till all things were brought under the government of the Messiah. Others suppose this diminution had a respect to the seventy years of man's age, which is daily decaying.† For the eighth day, though it was properly a distinct festival, and was to be kept with extraordinary solemnity, fewer sacrifices were appointed than for any of the foregoing seven. On every one of them two rams were offered and fourteen lambs; on this day there were but half as many; and whereas seven bullocks were the fewest that were offered on any of these days, on this there was only one; Numb. xxix. 36. By which, Dr. Patrick saith, God consulted perhaps the weak ness of mankind, who naturally grow weary both of the charge and labour of such services, when they are long continued; and therefore he made them every day less toilsome and ex R. Solomon in Numb. xxix. cited by Lightfoot in his Temple Service, chap. xvi. sect. i. ↑ Abarbanel in Numb. xxix. cited by Lightfoot, ubi supra. pensive; and put them in mind likewise, that the multitude of sacrifices did not procure their acceptance with God, and that in length of time they would come to nothing, and be utterly abolished, to establish something better in their room.* Before we dismiss the ceremonies of this feast, we must not forget to mention a very extraordinary one, of which the rab bies inform us, though there is not the least hint of it in the law of Moses, notwithstanding he gives a more particular description of this feast than of any other; namely, the drawing water out of the pool of Siloam, and pouring of it, mixed with wine, on the sacrifice as it lay on the altar. This they are said to have done with such expressions of joy, that it became a common proverb, “He that never saw the rejoicing of drawing water, never saw rejoicing in all his life." To this ceremony our Saviour is supposed to refer, when "in the last day, the great day of the feast, he stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink : he that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water," John vii. 37, 38: thereby calling off the people from their carnal mirth, and festive and pompous ceremonies, to seek spiritual refreshment for their souls. The Jews pretend to ground this custom on the following passage of Isaiah, " With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation;" chap. xii. 3. This libation was performed every day of the feast, at the time of the morning sacrifice ;§ but the greater part of their rejoicing on that occasion was adjourned till evening; when a wild and ridiculous scene of mirth was acted in the court of the temple, by those who were esteemed the wise men of Israel,|| namely, by the elders and members of the Sanhedrim, the rulers of the synagogues, and doctors of the schools, and such others as were most honoured for their See Patrick in loc. + See this ceremony described in Maimon. de Sacrificiis Jugibus, cap. x. sect. vii. p. 494, 495; Crenii Fascic. Sexti in Annot. Constant. L'Empereur, ad cod. Middoth, cap. ii. sect. v. p. 67-69, edit. Lugd. Bat. 1730; or in Mishn. Surenhus. tom. v. p. 343, 344. ↑ Mishn. tit. Succah, cap. v. sect. i. tom. ii. p. 277, edit. Surenhus. Maimon. in Lulahb. cap. viii. sect. xii. et seq. See the quotations in Talmudis Babylonici codex Succah, by Dachs, not. i. ii. ad cap. v. sect. iv. p. 451, 452, Traject. ad Rhen. 1726. age and piety. All the temple-music played, and these old men danced, while the women in the balconies round the court, and the men on the ground, were spectators. All the sport was to see these venerable fathers of the nation skip and dance, clap their hands and sing; and they who played the fool most egregiously, acquitted themselves with most honour; for in this they pretend to imitate the example of David, “who danced before the Lord with all his might, and said, I will be yet more vile than this, and be base in my own sight;" 2 Sam. vi. 14. 22. In this manner they spent the greater part of the night, till at length two priests sounded a retreat with trumpets. This mad festivity was repeated every evening, except on the evening before the sabbath which fell in this festival, and on the evening before the last and great day of the feast. It seems, these two evenings were accounted too holy for such ridiculous gambols.* We can be at no loss for a reason, why the feast of ingathering, which was annexed to the feast of tabernacles, was celebrated at this season of the year, when the vintage, as well as the corn harvest, was newly finished; in respect to which the feast is said, in the book of Exodus, to be "in the end of the year," chap. xxiii. 16, though it was not celebrated till three weeks after the new civil year began; and so the next words seem to explain it, "in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered thy labours out of the field:" in which sense it comes nigh our autumn, the latter end of the year. Or, perhaps, the phrase п betseeth hashanah, may admit of a different version, for the verb N jatsa signifies not only exiit, but ortus est, in which sense it is applied to the rising of the sun, Gen. xix. 23; Psalm xix. 6; and to the birth of man; Job i. 21; 1 Kings viii. 19; Isa. xi. 1. Accordingly betseeth hashanah may be as justly rendered in ortu anni, as in exitu anni; in the beginning as in the end of the year, and may as properly be applied to the first month as the last. But it is not so obvious, for what reason the feast of tabernacles was fixed to this season. One might naturally expect, that the annual commemoration of their dwelling in tents in the wilderness should be celebrated at the same time of the See a larger account of this ceremony in Lightfoot's Temple Service, chap. xvi. sect. iv. |