null together in any place to celebrate their social meals on the Sabbath, and carry anything that was wanted for its sacred festival, as they had three common
nieaC on the Sabbath (milSC -"-). On the Fri- day eve the entrance of the Sabbath was greeted with
a cup of wine, or the cup of blessing, over which i very
member recited benedictions (UJVT'p . i ^pressing the
holiness of the day as well as the holiness of Israel, whom Cod sanetilie.l to himself and made a people of priests, a royal nation; and thtit the sacred and social u,i al was eaten. The Bccond meal was eaten on noon ..I the Sabbath, and the third began with the setting sun, and in the middle of it the Sabbath departed
PHARISEE
71
PHARISEE
When lights were kindled a blessing was again pro- nounced over a cup of wine (rbizn), and burning in- cense was offered up to accompany the exit of the holy day, which was regarded as a departing friend. The paschal meal was the model for these social and sacred repasts. But the light in which this very model sacri- fice is to be viewed was a point of dispute between the priestly party or the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Be- cause the paschal lamb formed the social meal of the laity, the priestly party maintained that it is not to be regarded as a sacrifice for the congregation, urging in support of their notion the fact that the lambs were not numerically fixed like the other sacrifices in the Tem- ple, but were regulated according to the number of families, and that they must therefore be viewed simply us family sacrifices, to be eaten by the respective own- ers, and must not set aside the sanctity of the Sabbath, i. e. ought not to be offered on the 14th of Nisan. if the first day of the Passover falls on the Sabbath. Hillel, however, or the Pharisaic party whom he represented, succeeded in carrying their point, and in putting the sacred but private offerings of the Passover on an equal- ity with the Temple sacrifices, and it was ordained, in op- position to the priestly party, that they are to set aside the sanctity of the Sabbath ; thus making the social family meal of the laity, which the Passover constituted, as sacred as the fraternal meal of the priests, consisting of the sacred sacrifices offered in the Temple (Jerusah m Pesachim, cap. vi ; Babylon Pesachim, C>t> a ; Geiger, Jii- discke Zeitschrift [Breslau, 18G3], ii, 42 sq.). Having carried this point, the Pharisees also gave to their meals of the Sabbath and other holy days a sacrificial charac- ter after the model of the Passover.
As a people of priests and kings, the Pharisees con- sidered themselves the guardians of the divine law and the ancestral customs, trusting implicitly that he who selected them to be his peculiar people would protect and shield them and theirs from all outward dangers which threatened the state. They were firmly pene- trated by the conviction that as long as they were faithful to their God no power on earth, however for- midable, would be permitted successfully to ravish his holy heritage. Hence they repudiated the time-serving policy of the aristocratic Sadducees, who maintained that a man's destiny was in his own hands, and that human ingenuity and state-craft ought to be resorted to in political matters.
Practically, Josephus represents the Pharisees as lead- ing a temperate life, renouncing both excessive riches and immoderate pleasure, and striving above all to ac- quire a knowledge of that law and to practice those precepts which would fit them for the life to come (Ant. xviii, 1, 3); the same may be seen from the following declaration of the Talmud: "The more flesh on the body the more worms [when it is dead], the more riches the more cares, the more wives the more witches, the more handmaids the more unchastity, the more man- servants the more robbery; but the more meditation in the divine law the better the life, the more schooling the more knowledge, the more counsel the more intel- ligence, the more benevolence the more satisfaction ; he who acquires a good name acquires it for himself in this world, but he who acquires a knowledge of the di- vine law acquires for himself life in the world to come" (Aboth, ii, 17). In aiding the people to realize their high vocation, and to prepare themselves for the king- dom of heaven by obedience to the divine law, the Pharisees endeavored to facilitate that obedience by putting a mild interpretation upon some of the rigorous Mosaic enactments, and to adapt them to ever-changing circumstances. Thus they explain the expression H^DD, carcass, in Lev. vii, 24, literally, and maintain that the statute in the verse in question only declares the flesh of an animal which was torn and died a natural deatli to be defiling by contact, but not the skin, bones, etc. ; and that, except the human corpse and the dead bodies
of a few reptiles in which the skin and flesh are to a certain extent identical, the skin and bones of all ani- mals, whether clean and legally slaughtered for meat, or unclean and dying accidentally, do not defile, but may be made up into parchment, different utensils, etc. The haughty and aristocratic Sadducees, on the other hand, who stood on their priestly dignity, and cared little for the comforts of the people, took the term !"I332 in the unnatural sense of an animal approaching tin- condition of becoming a carcass, i. e. being so weak that it must soon expire, and maintained that an animal in such a condition may be slaughtered before it breathes its last ; that its flesh must then be considered as a carcass, and is defiling, while the fat, skin, bones, etc., may be used for divers purposes (Jerusalem Megilla, i, 9; Babylon Sab- bath, 108 a). It requires but little reflection to perceive how materially and divergently these different views must have affected the whole state of society, when it is remembered that according to the Sadducees the touching of any book written upon the parchment made from the skin of an unclean animal, or contact with one of the numerous utensils made from the leather, hones, veins, etc., of animals not Levitically clean and not legally slaughtered, imparted defilement. Again, the Pharisees, with a due regard for the interests of the people, and following the requirements of the time, ex- plained //„■ right of retaliation, "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot," etc. (Exod. xxi, 23, etc.), as requiring pecuniary compensation, while the. Sadducees took it literally (Baba Kama. 83 l>: 84 a. b; Megillath Taanith, cap. iv, Tosephta). The same con- sideration for the spiritual and temporal well-being of the people led the Pharisees to enact that in cases of danger, when the prescribed prayers cannot be offered, they are to offer a short prayer as follows: "Do thy will in heaven above, and give peace of mind to those who fear thee on earth, and whatsoever pleaseth thee do. Blessed art thou, 0 Lord, who nearest prayer!" (Beraioth, 29 b). What a striking resemblance be- tween this and some parts of the Lords prayer ! It was this humane and pious care for the interests of the peo- ple that' made the Pharisees so popular and beloved, and accounts for the remark of Josephus that they had such influence with the multitude that if they said anything against a king or a high-priest they were at once be- lieved (Ant. xiii, 10, 5).