5. The Chazzaii, or A ttendant on the Synagogue (!".C3,;2il "(TJl^ifTr/ypfr/jc), was the lowest servant, and
was more like the sexton or tlie beadle in our churches, lie had the care of the furniture, to open the doors, to clean the synagogue, to light the lamps, to get the building ready for service, to summon the people to worship, to call out (Tl^3.'^) the names of such persons as were selected b)' the ruler of the synagogue to come up to the platform to read a section from the law and the i)rophcts, to hand the law to ordinary readers, or to the ruler of the synagogue when it had to be given to the high-priest, in which case the a p-^iavv ay (nyyoi; took the law from the chazan, gave it to the chief priest, who handed it to the high-priest (Mishna, Yovia, viii, 1 ; iSoiah, vii, 7); he had to take it back after reading (Luke iv, 17-20), etc. Nothing, therefore, can be more clear than the position which this menial servant occu- pied in the synagogue in the time of Christ and a few- centuries after. The Talmud distinctly declares that the chazan is the beadle or the sexton of the congrega- tion, and not the legate or the angel of the church
(-n3:j n-^ba 131x1 hnpn V:; -ii-^'o xin -(tn; comp.
Tosiphta Yoma, 68 b; and Mishna, Berakoth, yii, l,for the meaning of "O^iT). The notion that his office re- sembled that " of the Christian deacon," as well as the assertion that, "like the legatus and the elders, he was appointed by the imposition of hands," has evidentlj' arisen from a confusion of the chazan in the days of Christ with the chazan five centuries after Christ. Be- sides, not only was this menial servant not appointed by the imposition of hands, but the legatus himself, as we have seen, had no laying-on of hands. It was about A.D. 520, when the knowledge of the Hebrew language disappeared from among the people at large, that alter- ations had to be introduced into the synagogical service which involved a change in the office of the chazan. As the ancient practice of asking any member to step before the ark and conduct the divine service could not be continued, it was determined that the chazan, who was generally also the schoolmaster of the infant school, should be the regular reader of the liturgy, which he had to recite M'ith intonation (Masecheih Sopherim, x, 7; xi, 4; xiv, 9, 14; Gra,iz,Gesch.derJuden,v,2ii).
6. The Ten Batlanin, or Men of Leisure ("pSPZiS)- — No place was denominated a town, and hence no S3'n- agogue could legally be built in it, which had not ten in- dependent men who could be permanently in the syna- gogue to constitute the legal congregation whenever required (Mishna, Megillah, i, 3 ; Maimonides, lad Ha- Chezaka liilchoth Tephila, xi, 1). These men of leisure were either independent of business because they had private means, or were stipendiaries of the congrega- tion, if the place had not ten men who could entirely devote themselves to this purpose (Rashi, On Megillah, 5 a). They had to be men of piety and integrity (Baba Buthra, 28 a ; Jerusalem Megillah, i, 4). By some (Light- foot, Hor. lleb. in Matt, iv, 23, and, in part, Vitringa, p. 532) they have been identified with the above officials, with the addition of the alms-collectors. Khenferd, however (Ugolino, Thesaur. vol. xxi), sees in them sim- ply a body of men, permanently on duty, making up a congregation (ten being the minimum number), so that there might be no delay in beginning the service at the proper hours, and that no single worshipper might go away disappointed. The latter hypothesis is supported by the fact that there was a like bodj' of men, the Sta- tionarii or Viri Stationis of Jewish archjeologists, ap- pointed to act as permanent representatives of the con- gregation in the services of the Temple (Jost. Gesch. des Judenth. i, 168-172). It is of course possible that in many cases the same persons may have united both characters, and been, e. g., at once otiosi and alms-col- lectors. In the Middle Ages these ten Batlanin con- sisted of those who discliarged the public duties of the sj'nagogue, and were identical with the rulers of the synagogue described above. Thus Benjamin of Tudela tells us that the ten presidents of the ten colleges at
SYNAGOGUE
11
SYNAGOGUE
Bagdad were " called the Batlanin, the leisure men, be- cause their occupation consisted in the discharge of l)iil)lic business. During every daj' of the weeic they <lispensed justice to all the Jewish inhabitants of the country, except on IMonday, which was set aside for as- semblies under the presidency of K. Samuel, master of the college denominated ^ Gaon Jacob,'' who on tliat day dispensed justice to every applicant, and who was as- sisted therein by the said ten Batlanin, presidents of the colleges" {Itinerary, i, 101, ed. Ascher, Lond. 1840). This seems to favor the opinion of Herzfeld that the ten Batlanin are the same as the ten judges or rulers of the synagogue mentioned in A both, iii, 10, according to the reading of Bartenora (/lorai/utk, 3 b,-etc. ; comp. Geseft. flfs Volkes Israel, i, 392).