In the graduated scale of consecration attaching to the synagogue and its furnishings, the press is holier than the building, the cloths for the Scrip- tures are holier than the press (Meg. iii. 1). In the hftlacha in question there is no mention of the chest (ffriKTi) ; hence it is probable that the ibdh p'n of Sluibb. xvi. I and the Dnion p-n of Tos. Yndayim, ii. 683*, do not refer to the chest in which the synagogue Scriptures were kept.
Amongst the iittings of the synagogue was the tribune ("D'3, i.e. (iiifxa). There was a tribune of wood (i'y ^a no'D, if. yv hiia of Neh 8^; see art. PUH'IT) also in the temple at Jerusalem, upon which king Agrippa I. stood — instead of sitting — and read the Torah at the Feast of Booths [Sola, vii. 7 ; Tos. Sotn, vii. 307-"). There was a similar structure in the centre of the great synagogue of Alexandria, from which the signal to utter the Amen was given to the congregation (Tos. Hukka, iv. 198^). In small synagogues the tribune appears to have been in close proximity to the press ; hence the pronouncement of the Bab. Amora Samuel (3rd cent.), preserved in the Pal. Talmud (Meg. 73rf''^), that the tribune and the tablets (I'nii^i nD'3) possess the degree of sacrcdncss of the building but not of the press. The Bali. Talmud (Meg. 32a) speaks in like manner of the tablets and the tribunes (nic'3m mnOn). In the Midrash (PesilUa, ed. Buber, 84a) there is a story of how some one had ]''?:soi nmo'3 nix'^za ni.ide of a cedar tree (where nmS^a is the same as mmS). But there is nowhere sutlicient evidence what is to be under- stood by these 'tablets' wliich belonged to the furnishings of a synagogue. Tlicy mav have been tablets inscribed with Bible texts (cf. Is 30"), such as were used in connexion with elementary Scrip- ture lessons (see Jelamdenu, cited in Frieumann s introduction to his edition of the Meehilta, p. xxxiv).
The above-mentioned \'haso (i.e. siibscllia), seats for the congregation, are named in Jerus. Meg. 73(/'" as among the furnishings of a S3'na- gogue ; they have the same degree of sacrednesa as the building. Along with the seats are named also .iTD'jp ; but this word should be emended to .nrtjp, which stands for the usual KTi'np (or n-n-np), i.e. cat/iedra (cf. Jerus. ^'/l«66. Ija' KiTrpni SoDOn). Chairs were, no doubt, jiroviilcd for the elders and scribes, who sat in a prominent place (see above, ii. S 5, and cf. the wpuiTOKaOtdpia of Alt '23°, Mk V^, Lk 11*"). So also in the great synagogue of AIax-
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andria there were 71 chairs of gold (nnm D'Jjii? 3rii /C niNinnp) for the members of the f^eat council there (Tos. SuklcfiJ.c). Un the 'chair of Moses,' which the Chinese Jews had in tlieir synago;;ue instead of the bimd (Alniemor), see REJ xxxv. 110, and on the Mujtreajs KaO^dpa spoken of by Jesus in Mt 23- see ib. xxxiv. 300.
At the reading of the Scriptures a reading desk (lED "?» J'jS^s-, or, shortly, yi^ix [arnXoyeiou]) was used (lielim, xvi. 17), which, as a piece of the synagogue furniture, had the same degree of sacredness as the building itself (Jerus. Meg. Tid'^).
We hear also of cnnddabra and lamps ("i:, mi:D) being provided for the synagogue (Tos. Uleq. iii. 2-2ti5). The Pal. Talmud tells of a candelabrum which Antonine, to the great joy of the patriarch Jehuda, presented to a synagogue (Meg. 74a *') ; the Bab. Talmud (Arakhm, 16i) relates how an Arab, named p^l>•, presented a lamp to the syna-
fogue of Jehuda, the head of the school of Pum- editha (3rd cent.). The Mi-shna {Terumuth, xi. 10) speaks of the oil which was burned in the synagogue, and also of the custom of keeping lamps burning in the synagogues on the Day of Atonement (Fesachiin, iv. 4).
iv. .Synagogue Worship, Officials, etc. — For the holding of public worship in the synagogue the presence of at least ten adult male persons is required. These constitute the minimum of a congregation (rTiy = n5J5). (See San/ied. ii. 3, Meg. iv. 3). It once happened that Eliezer b. Hyrcanus (1st cent.), accompanied by his slave, came into the synagogue, and, finding that the requisite ten were not present, he gave the slave his freeilom in order to make up the proper n\in\\>eT (Pesnrh. 476 ; Glltin, 3S6). With this story maj- be compared the testimony of tlie insciiption of Pantikajwum, accordinij to which a manumitted slave was bound to attend the synagogue regularly (Schiirer', iii. 53). That was considered a great city in which there were at least ten synagogue niemliers un- encumbered by business (□•j'723), and who thus made it possible to hold a daily service (Meg. i. 3 ; Baba kamnia, 82a; Sanhed. 176; Jerus. Meg. lOb"^), whereas the great mass of the conoregation could attend only on the Salibath and on tlie festival days. At a later period the 'ten men of leisure ' became a kind of institution in the con- gregation.
Women were not counted as members of the synagogue congregation. Yet even a woman could take part in the reading of the Sabbath lesson as one of tlie seven persons required on such an occasion ; but it was considered objectionable, on grounds of decency (iirs.n ii:3 'isn), for a woman to read in public from the Torah (Tos. Meg. iv. '220' ; Bab. Meg. 23a). Women were zealous attenders of the synagogue. A Tannaite lullficha (Abmla zara, 3Sab) names as tlie two places for which a woman is wont to leave her house, the baths and the synagogue (cf. also Voma, 15b).