[3925] Shemoth R. 30.
[3926] Midr. Shoch. Tobh. ed. Lemb. p. 20 a.
[3927] Yalkut ii. p. 43 a, Section 275, lines 10 &c. from bottom.
[3928] This is mentioned as an answer given in the great Academy of Jerusalem by Elijah the prophet to a question propounded to him by a student.
[3929] Ber. ii. 2.
[3930] Comp. Sketches of Jewish Social Life,' p. 270.
[3931] Sanh. 94 b, middle.
[3932] St. Luke x. 23, 24.
[3933] In a rapt description of the Messianic glory (Pesiqta, ed. Buber. 149 a, end) we read that Israel shall exult in His light, saying: Blessed the hour in which the Messiah has been created; blessed the womb that bare Him; blessed the eye that sees Him; blessed the eye that is deemed worthy to behold Him, for the opening of his lips is blessing and peace, &c.' It is a strange coincidence, to say the least, that this passage occurs in a Lecture' on the portion of the prophets (Is. Lxi. 10), which at present is read in the Synagogues on a Sabbath close to the Feast of Tabernacles.
[3934] The same words were spoken on a previous occasion (St. Matt. xiii. 16), after the Parable of the Sower.
[3935] St. Luke x. 25 &c.
[3936] St. Luke x. 38.
[3937] No one who impartially reads St. John xi. can doubt, that the persons there introduced are the Martha and Mary of this history, nor hence that their home was in Bethany.
[3938] x. 38-42.
[3939] Comp. The Temple and its Services,' p. 237, &c.
[3940] Sukk. ii. 8.
[3941] u.s. 9.
[3942] See Levy, Neuhebr. Wörterb. ad voc.
[3943] Martha occurs, however, also as a male name (in the Aramaic).
[3944] The name Laazar ({hebrew}), or Lazar, occurs frequently in Talmudic writings as an abbreviated form of Elazar or Eleazar ({hebrew}).
[3945] Comp. St. Luke x. 38.
[3946] periespto.
[3947] This, instead of Jesus,' is the reading more generally received as correct.
[3948] Few would be disposed to adopt the proposed alternative reading (R.V., margin): but few things are needful, or one' - meaning, not much preparation, indeed, only one dish is necessary. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER VI. AT THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES - FIRST DISCOURSE IN THE TEMPLE
(St. John vii. 11-36.)
IT was Chol ha Moed - as the non-sacred part of the festive week, the half-holy days were called. [3949] Jerusalem, the City of Solemnities, the City of Palaces, the City of beauty and glory, wore quite another than its usual aspect; other, even, than when its streets were thronged by festive pilgrims during the Passover-week, or at Pentecost. For this was pre-eminently the Feast for foreign pilgrims, coming from the farthest distance, whose Temple-contributions were then received and counted. [3950] Despite the strange costumes of Media, Arabia, Persia, or India, and even further; or the Western speech and bearing of the pilgrims from Italy, Spain, the modern Crimea, and the banks of the Danube, if not from yet more strange and barbarous lands, it would not be difficult to recognise the lineaments of the Jew, nor to perceive that to change one's clime was not to change one's mind. As the Jerusalemite would look with proud self-consciousness, not unmingled with kindly patronage, on the swarthy strangers, yet fellow-countrymen, or the eager-eyed Galilean curiously stare after them, the pilgrims would, in turn, gaze with mingled awe and wonderment on the novel scene. Here was the realisation of their fondest dreams ever since childhood, the home and spring of their holiest thoughts and best hopes - that which gave inward victory to the vanquished, and converted persecution into anticipated triumph.
They could come at this season of the year - not during the winter for the Passover, nor yet quite so readily in summer's heat for Pentecost. But now, in the delicious cool of early autumn, when all harvest-operations, the gathering in of luscious fruit and the vintage were past, and the first streaks of gold were tinting the foliage, strangers from afar off, and countrymen from Judæa, Peræa, and Galilee, would mingle in the streets of Jerusalem, under the ever-present shadow of that glorious Sanctuary of marble, cedarwood, and gold, up there on high Moriah, symbol of the infinitely more glorious overshadowing Presence of Him, Who was the Holy One in the midst of Israel. How all day long, even till the stars lit up the deep blue canopy over head, the smoke of the burning, smouldering sacrifices rose in slowly-widening column, and hung between the Mount of Olives and Zion; how the chant of Levites, and the solemn responses of the Hallel were borne on the breeze, or the clear blast of the Priests silver trumpets seemed to waken the echoes far away! And then, at night, how all these vast Temple-buildings stood out, illuminated by the great Candelabras that burned in the Court of the Women, and by the glare of torches, when strange sound of mystic hymns and dances came floating over the intervening darkness! Truly, well might Israel designate the Feast of Tabernacles as the Feast' (haChag), and the Jewish historian describe it as the holiest and greatest.' [3951] [3952]