638
SYNAGOGUE
SYNAGOGUE
the necessary copy of the Pentateuch and the Prophets for the synagogue (ib.). — Tlie members of the community belonging to tlie same synagogue are called noi^n -a ('sons of the synagogue'), a designation which has a special signiticance when there are a number of synagogues in the same place. See the use of the expression in Tos. Mcqilla, ii. 223™ ; Bar. Moed katun, 22b, bottom ; lickhoroth, V. 5 ; Zabim, iii. 2. In Tos. McgilJa, iii. ad init. (224'°) the members of the synagogal community are opposed to the rulers of the city (I'l'n 'cjis). — AVith reference to tJie right to alienate a synagogue to another use, the casuistrj' of the Pal. Anioras draws a distinction between private synagogues (Tn> ^!' nDJDn n'3) and public synagogues (^a 'n 'i a'2-\); see Jerus. Megilta, 7.3(/^ and 74a". The corresponding passage of the Bab. Talmud (Meg. 2Qa) distinguislies village from city synagogues (D':i3, c"j:3 Sk' 'n '2). — The possibility of a private liouse being converted into a synagogue is con- sidered in the Tannaite halacha (Nedarim, ix. 2, cf. Jerus. Meg. 73rf'''). As a rule, the synagogues were buildings specially erected for the purpose. In spite of the public character of the synagogal buildings they were subjected to certain ceremonial regulations applicable to dwelling-houses (Tos. Negaiin, vi. 625"', Bar. Yomn, 116). A varying tradition (Yoma, ib.) distinguishes between syna- gogues wliich contain a dwelling for the synagogue attend.ant (nDJ3.n [inS .-n-i) and those that do not. — The Tannaite hfllacha deals with the contingency of a non-Jew supplying the building material for a synagogue (Tos. Meg. iii. 224-°). This recalls the case of the Koman centurion at Capernaum, w ho h.ad built a synagogue for the Jews (Lk 7°). — The consecration attaching to the synagogal building in virtue of its sacred destination does not cease entirely even when the building is no longer used for its original purpose. A synagogue may he sold only on condition that it is not used for dishonourable purposes (Meg. ii. 2). It is even considered a profanation of its sacred character to enter a synagogue for shelter from the burning sun or from frost or rain (Tos. ^Icg. iii. 224^ ; Bab. Meg. 2Sft b). Citing tlie circumstance tliat even the ruined holy places are called sanctuaries (Lv 2G'M, Jehuda b. Ilai (2nd cent.) teaches that even the ruins of synagogues are not to be used for profane purposes [Meg. iii. 3). The Bab. Aniora Chisda (3rd cent.) prohibits the pulling down of a synagogue until another has been built UVeg. 26b, Baba bathra, 36). — In Babylonia there appear to have been two kinds of synagogue — winter and summer synagogues (Baba bathra, 36 ; see L6w, Gesam. Schriften, iv. 97).
iii. Situation of the Building, Style op Apx'HITECTURE, etc. — 1. A Tannaite tradition, appealing to Pr 1-', lays down the rule that the synagogue should be built 'on the height of the city,' i.e. upon a commanding point (Tos. Meg. iii. 227'°). With reference to this, a later Midrash (Tanchuma, 'nipn3 4, ed. Buber, iii. 10) declares: ' In early times the synagogue was built on the height of the city.' So also Rab in Babylon (3rd cent. ) taught : ' A city whose roofs overtop the synagogue is given over to destruction ' (Shabb. 11a). Of co\irse these words can apply only to synagogues built within the city, and there can be no doubt that this was the case with the syna- gogues in Palestine. On the other hand, there is evidence that in Babylonia the synagogues were frequently outside the city. The Bab. Talmud speaks of sj'nagogues which are ' in the neighbour- hood of the city,' and presupposes others which are at a greater distance from it (Kiddicsh. "JSh, cf. Shabb. 246, and also the Coram, of Rashi, s. n]3D).
Allusion is made to Buch extra-mum) Bynogoguea in a Midraah OD £c 12^, where the old mao, to whom the walk to the tiyaa-
go^ie is a hard task, la addressed In the words n*D Vk Kyjl ina n03D."l (' come let ua go to the synago^e,* Tarujhuma, ed. Euber, mff »*n, 7). On the other hand, we are not to follow L. Low (Gesam. Scliriften, iv. 15) in seeing in the interpretation of the ' well in the field * (Gn 29'-) as an allegory of the synagogue (OVii. rabba. ch. 70) an oJlusion to the situation of 8\iiagojrue« outside the city ; for the ex^iression * in the field ' is as indifferent for the purjJose of the allegory as it is in the immediately pre- ceding mterpretation of the well as an allegory of the Sanhedrin, Nor does the passage Petfikta, 15Sa (ed. Buher), refer to syna- grogues in the country (Low, t6. note 2), but the contrast there is between prayer in the open countrj' and prayer in the syna- gogue inside the city (cf. Midrash Tehillim on Ps 3, ed. Buber, p. 40).
The fact that the synagogues in Babjionia were — partly at least — outside the cities was perhaps connected with the circumstance that at the beginning of the Sassanide rule the synagogues were destroyed by the Persians ( Yoina, 10a), and the rebuilding of them within the cities was not allowed.
To another category belong the statements from which it has been inferred that it was customary to build the synagogues by a running stream or by the sea. None of these statements, moreover, refer to either Palestine or Babylonia. During St. Paul's stay at Philippi it is said (Ac 16") : ' And on the sabbath day we went forth without tlie gate, by a river side, where we supposed there was a place of prayer.' The synagogue of Philippi was thus situated by a river outside the city. The assumption that it would be found there shows that this must have been the case elsewhere also. The municipality of Halicamassus expressly granted permission to the Jews to perform their devotions, according to their ancestral habit, by the seashore (Jos. Ant. xiv. x. 23). But here there is no mention of a synagogue, but siiuply of prayer in the open air. We may recall in this connexion the religious fasts that were held in Palestine in the open market-place of the town (Taanilh, ii. 1). It is the same allusion to the fasts of the Jews that underlies the similar state- ments of Tertullian (de Jejunio, 16 ; ad Nationes, i. 13; see Schiirer', ii. 447). In like manner the Jews of Alexandria betook themselves, in their time of straits, to the seashore, to praj' there ' in the purest place ' (^i* KaSapuiTdru ; Pliilo, in Flaecum, § 14). This remark of Philo throws light upou the custom of the Jews living among the heatlien of praying by the seashore, and perhaps also upon the building of the .synagogue by a river, which is witnessed for Philippi. The motive would be to avoid the interior of the city polluted by idolatry, and to seek the ' purest ' places for prayer, namely, the banks of rivers and the seashore. The same notion linds expression also in the ancient Midra.sh on Ex 12' (Mcchilta, ad init.) -. Moses prays out- side the city (Ex 9^), because it was full of abomi- nations and idolatry (see Kohler, Monntsschrift, xxxvii. 442 ; Blau, Magyar-Zsido Szemlc, x. 494). Once more, it may be noted that at Corinth the synagogue was inside the city ; for the house of Titius Justus, where St. Paul lived, 'joined hard to the synagogue' (Ac 18').