^ The Feast of Tabernacles commences five days after the Day of Atonement and lasts seven days. Its observance is com- manded in the Mosaic Law (Lev. 23^*), and its purpose is there explained as to commemorate the way in which the Israelites dwelt in booths {suhkoth) during their journey through the wilderness.
Every Jew who owns a court or garden is required to erect a
i82 THE REDEEMED
booth, or something more or less equivalent, and to dwell in it — or at least have meals in it — while the feast lasts. In order that the character of the original booth may as far as possible be retained, the modern counterpart is very lightly constructed. It "must not be covered with fixed boards and beams or with canvas, but with detached branches of trees, plants, flowers, and leaves, in such a manner that the covering is not quite im- penetrable to wind and rain, or starlight." The booths are adorned with garlands, flowers, and the like.
In the Synagogue the ancient and original character of the celebration as a Harvest Festival — the "Feast of Ingathering," or thanksgiving for the gathered produce of the fields and gardens — is made prominent in various ways. The Synagogue itself is decorated with plants and fruits ; and there are the palm-branch processions. The worshipper takes the palm-branch (lulab) in the right hand, and the ethrog or citron (fixed in a metal re- ceptacle) in the left, reciting as he does so the following blessings :
(1) Blessed art Thou, 0 Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast sanctified us with Thy commandments, and commanded us to take up the palm-branch.
(2) Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast preserved us alive, sustained us, and brought us to enjoy this season.
These are lifted up during the recitation of the Hallel (Pss. 113-118) in morning prayer. At the end of the Musaf or " Additional " prayer, a procession is formed, and the worshippers with the citron and palm-branch, make a circuit while certain prayers called " Hosannas " {Hoshaanoth) are recited.
The joyous character of the festival finds its fullest expression on the seventh day, the popular name of which is Hosha'na Raliba (" The great Hosanna "). It is so called because the exclamation "Hosanna," and the " Hosanna-processions " are much more frequent than on the preceding six days. Seven processions take place round the whole Synagogue, a separate "hosanna" hymn being sung each time.
At the completion of the processions, the worshippers being now in their places, the luldb is laid aside and the willow-bunch taken np, and a few more poetical pieces are said. All join in the messianic hymn beginning "A voice brings glad tidings, brings glad tidings, and says." Then with the utterance of a petition for forgiveness of sins each shakes or strikes the willow-bunch on the desk before him till its leaves fall off, and throws it away.^
1 W. 0. E. Oesterley and G. H. Box, The Religion and Worship of the Syna- gogue, 397, 401.
REVELATION vii. 9, 10 183
4. In Occuimtion — " they cry with a great voice, saying, Salva- tion." Their occupation is worship, of course. All their life is worship. St. John cannot conceive any one of the redeemed otherwise occupied than in worshipping, whether he is in the home, or the field, or the market-place. But the special form of the worship that attracts his attention is praise. Their great cry is a song, and there is no discord in it. Every person of every tribe has a voice and sings in harmony with all the rest.
Their cry is the acknowledgment that their salvation — the salvation which they now taste — is due not to themselves, but to their God and to the Lamb. The salvation here must be taken in its most comprehensive sense, including every deliverance — from the curse of law, from the power of sin, and from the perils of life. This is " the voice of rejoicing and salvation which is in the tabernacles of the righteous," when the Lord, who is their strength and song, " has become their salvation."
11 Salvation to our God, our salvation is unto^ is wholly due to, our God. " Salvation belongeth unto the Lord " : it is all His, from first to last ; every step of the way, and its termination. Yes, self-confidence, self-righteousness, self-exaltation, vanity, there, in heaven, in God's presence, will be as impossible as they are natural and common here. . . . The " great multitude which no man could number " of the ransomed and saved, standing in heaven " before the throne " of God, join with one voice in ascribing solely to Him and to the Lamb the praise of their salvation. And the Angels, " in whose presence," while earth lasted, "there was joy over every sinner," one by one, "who repented," may well rejoice, with a joy accumulated and intensi- fied, over the final ingathering of all who have been saved. Most of all, well may they echo the ascription of all glory to God and to the Lamb. Amen, even so ; it is indeed He who hath kept us from our fall ; it is indeed He who hath brought you back from yours ! ^