Joseph Jacobs

“ In later Jewish custom the one-year cycle of reading of sections from the Pentateuch ends on the concluding day of Tabernacles, which is therefore known as the Rejoicing of the Law (Simḥat Torah) . The custom of dwelling, for part of the day at least, in booths, is still kept up by orthodox Jews, who have temporary huts covered with branches erected in their courtyards, and those who are not in possession of a house with a backyard often go to pathetic extremes in order to fulfil the law by making holes in roofs, across which branches are placed. ”

“ It shall be eaten in haste; none of the flesh shall be carried forth, neither shall a bone be broken. If a sojourner should wish to keep the Passover, all his male shall be circumcised and he will be as one born in the land. The Passover was kept in the first month on the 14th day of the month at even in the wilderness of Sinai; but certain men, unclean by touching a dead body, asked what they should do; they were to keep it on the second month on the 14th day, eating it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, leaving none of it until the morning, nor breaking a bone. ”

“ It still remains possible therefore that the seven days' eating of unleavened bread (and bitter herbs) is an historical reminiscence of the incidents of the Exodus, where the normal commissariat did not begin until a week after the first exit. On the other hand, the absence of leaven may recall primitive practice before its introduction as a domestic luxury; sacral rites generally keep alive primitive custom. ”

“ It is reported by Josephus that, when Alexander Jannaeus, in the year 95 B.C., was acting as high-priest in the temple on the Feast of Tabernacles, instead of pouring the water libation on the altar, according to the Pharisaic custom, he poured it at his feet, giving rise to a riot in which 6000 men are said to have lost their lives (Ant. xii., xiii., 5; Talmud, Sukkah, 48 b) .
The festival is certainly an agricultural one, and is so termed in the Pentateuch. ”

“ Much ingenuity has been spent upon the name and origin of the feast. As regards the name, we may dismiss at once the suggestions of J. Fuerst (Kanon des Alten Testaments) that it is derived from the Persian bahar, “spring,” and of Hitzig (Geschichte Israels) , who derives it from the modern Arabic Phur, “the New Year.” These conjectures were made in the pre-scientific era of philology. ”

“ The Syrians celebrated every three years a “Booth Festival.” At the Hindu Festival of Dasara, which lasted nine days from the new moon of October, tents made of canvas or booths made of branches were erected in front of the temples. The Spartans had a nine days’ festival termed Carnea, during which they dwelt in pavilions and tents in memory of their old camp life (Athenaeus, iv. 19) . The Feast of Tabernacles is one of the few Jewish festivals described in classical writers. ”

“ In connexion with Purim many quaint customs were introduced by the Jews of later times. All means are adapted to increase the hilarity of the two days, which are filled with feasting, dancing, singing and making merry generally. In Germany it was even customary for men to dress up as women, and women as men, against the command of Deut. xxii. 5. In Frankfort the women were allowed to open their lattice Windows in the synagogue in honour of the deliverance brought about by Esther. Execration of Haman, as the typical persecutor of the Jews, took various forms. ”

“ This seeming casual connexion, to some extent, confirms the historic connexion suggested by the text, that the Jews at the Exodus had to use bread prepared in haste; but not even Hebrew tradition attempts to explain why the abstention should last for seven days. The attempt of modern critics to account for the period as that in which the barley harvest was gathered in, during which the workers in the field could not prepare leavened bread, is not satisfactory. The first-fruits of the barley harvest are to be gathered on the “morrow of the sabbath” (Lev. xxiii. 11) . ”

“ There was also associated in the Hebrew mind a connexion of impurity and corruption with the notion of leaven which was tabu in all sacrifice (Exod. xxiii. 18; Lev. ii. 11) .
According to Robertson Smith, the development of the various institutions connected with the Passover was as follows. In Egypt the Israelites, as a pastoral people, sacrificed the first lings of their flocks in the spring, and, according to tradition, it was a refusal to permit a general gathering for this purpose that caused the Exodus. ”

“ The existence of this degraded class up to the Exile throws considerable light upon the phraseology of the prophets in referring to idolatry as adultery and the scenes connected with it as prostitution. ”

“ Whether it was derived from the Canaanites, who had similar festivals (Judges xxix. 27) , is uncertain. All nations have similar harvest homes, especially with reference to the vintage feasts; as, for instance, the Athenian Oschophoria. ”

“ To explain this combination of sacred service and exceptional degradation, it has been suggested by Joseph Jacobs that the Nethinim were the descendants of the Kedisholh, i.e. women dedicated to the worship of Astarte and attached to the Temple before the Exile. ”