Page images
PDF
EPUB

the law will take sixty skins; for the middles are taken out in a square piece, and joined to each other, after which they are affixed to two mahogany rollers.

The Pentateuch must be written by a scribe of learning, integrity, and dignity. His charge is, therefore, equal to his station. Various circumstances are also specially determined. The Pentateuch is written in columns about sixteen inches wide; and no word in it must be divided. A small number of lines only must be written in a day, on the first five days of the week. Certain prayers are to be said during the time. Even the ink is made in a peculiar manner, and of ingredients not to be defiled by impure hands.

Those who present one of these rolls to the synagogue consider it much more honourable to have it prepared under their own roofs. On the completion of the Pentateuch, a day is appointed by the Chief Rabbi for the presentation of the gift. The synagogue is generally crowded on the occasion, and the offering is made during the time of service. All the Pentateuchs are taken out of the ark by the different donors, or by their friends, who walk in procession with them round the desk, which is placed in the midst of the synagogue. The procession is headed by the donor of the new gift. A prayer is offered for the benefactor, and a collection made for the poor.

Between the centre of the synagogue and its west end stands the Teveh, or reading-desk. It is a kind of raised seat, of circular form, and boxed all round. On it all the officers of the synagogue take their seats, and in the western part of it the singers. The Chief Rabbi, however, occupies a seat near the ark, as the most honourable part of the synagogue. All sittings increase in price as they are nearer the ark. The

annual charge for sittings varies from two to fifteen guineas a seat. In the western part of the building is a lamp continually burning, to represent the Shechinah, or the Divine Presence, as in the Temple of old.

During the hours of worship, the Jews walk about and talk to each other; and in the intervals of their responses many discuss their business matters. To a Christian this mode of conducting Divine worship is most painful and irreverent. The mere fact of the Jews keeping on their hats during the service, and never kneeling at the prayers, is in itself neither imposing nor agreeable to the spectator. But, alas! Modern Judaism is a cold and lifeless religion. The spirit of it has departed, and only the dead body remains. It has no temple. It has no high priest. It has no sacrifices. All it depends upon is a cold ceremonial law and rigid observance. It is salt that has lost its savour.

"Go sound the trump on Judah's shore,

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

CHAPTER VI.

JEWS IN TIBERIAS AND SAFET-NEW YEAR'S DAY.

[graphic]

T was toward the close of the

[ocr errors]

year that our party, after a three days' journey from Jerusalem, found themselves on the shores of the sacred lake of Tiberias. What solemn associations had the last three days recalled to our minds! We had bivouacked before a watch-fire, lit by our guides, close to the well where Abraham had often watered his flocks; we had lunched by the side of Jacob's Well, where our blessed Lord held His memorable interview with the woman of Samaria; we had traversed the arid valley between Ebal and Gerizim, and our imaginations pictured the echoing chorus of the tribes to the reading of the Levites, making the welkin ring with their earnest responses; we had passed by the plain of Esdraelon, which spread out before us as a gigantic page of the indelible past; and in the distance had seen the heights

LEVITES PROCLAIMING THE NEW YEAR.

of Gilboa, where "the mighty fell, and the weapons of war perished;" and the once terrible Megiddo, with Carmel standing out clearly defined against the amber-coloured horizon. From the mountain's side we had pictured to ourselves Elijah descending, and, with loins girded, running before Ahab's chariot across the plain to Jezreel. We had crossed "that ancient river, the river Kishon," and paid homage with our enthusiastic gaze to Little Hermon, with Endor and Nain on its base, and the anemone-clothed summit of Mount Tabor, which rose up in succession before our view. We had visited Nazareth; and, in company with a multitude of Russian pilgrims, had seen the "house of the Virgin," and "the workshop of Joseph," and other places sacred to the Greeks and Latins; and after a laborious journey over Mount Tabor, where we were shown the ruins of the three tabernacles which Peter wished to erect (!), had arrived in the gloaming of a stormy sunset at the most celebrated sheet of water i the world.

As we descended to Tiberias, and looked for the first time on the wide expanse of the lake that bears its name, then lashed into tempest by the storms of winter, we thought of the time-honoured scenes inseparably connected with the Sea of Galilee. Like Jerusalem, it is enshrined in the heart from childhood. On its shores was Capernaum, the home of our Saviour, and "His own city." It was on its waters that most of the Apostles had pursued their trade as fishermen ; and the waves that played around their boat had been the scene of one of Christ's last earthly interviews with His disciples, on that long night when they had toiled for hours and caught nothing. And upon its circlet of hills and along its pebbly beach how often had the Master taught the multi

tudes that followed Him! Who could look unmoved upon a scene so rich in solemn associations? And there, nestling on its shore, lay the town of Tiberias, sacred not only to Christians but to Jews-for the latter believe that out of the waters of the lake the Messiah will rise, visit this holy city, and establish his throne at Safet.

[graphic][merged small]

Tiberias is but a small town, and its walls and towers bear evidence of the terrible ravages caused by the earthquake of 1837. Not a solitary building remains of the ancient city, nothing in fact but heaps of stones, and some twenty or more granite columns. The present population is about

« PreviousContinue »