BABYLON TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE. —In the account of the first celebration of this festival after the return of the Jews from the lonish captivity,,the concise Pentateuchal injunction is expanded. Not only are the localities specified in which these booths are to be erected, but ditional plants are mentioned, and the use to be made of these plants is stated. The Jews, cording to the command of Ezra, made themselves booths upon the roofs of houses, in the courts of their dwellings, in the courts of the sanctuary, in the street of the water-gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim, from the olive-branches, the pine-branches, the myrtle-branches, the branches, and the branches of the thick trees, which they were told to gather, and dwelt in these booths seven days (Neh. viii. 15-18). The Sadducees of old, who are folloWed by the ites, took these boughs and the fruits to be identical with those mentioned in Lev. xxiii. 39, 4o, and maintained that these were to be used for the struction and adornment of the booths or nacles. The Pharisees and the orthodox Jewish tradition, however, as we shall see hereafter, preted this precept differently.
When the Feast of Tabernacles, like all other festivals and precepts of tbe Mosaic law, began to be strictly and generally kept after the Babylonish captivity, under the spiritual guidance of the Great Synagogue, the Sanhedrim, and the doctors of the law= scribes, more minute definitions and more ex panded applications of the concise Pentateuchal injunction were imperatively demanded, in order to secure uniformity of practice, as well as to infuse devotion and joy into the celebration thereof, both in the temple and in the booths. Hence it was ordained that the tabernacle or booth nolo = Sacco) must be a detached and temporary habita tion, constructed for the sole purpose of living in it during this festival, and must not be used as a per manent dwelling. The interior of it must neither be higher than twenty cubits, nor lower than ten palms ; it must not have less than three walls ; it must not be completely roofed in, or covered with any solid material, but must be thatched in such a manner as to admit the view of the sky and the stars ; and the part open to the mys of the sun must not exceed in extent the part shaded by the cover. It must not be under a tree ; neither must it be covered with a cloth, nor with anything which.
contracts defilement or does not derive its growth from the ground (Mishna Succa,i. 7). Every Israelite is to constitute the Succa his regular do micile during the whole of the seven days of the festival, whilst his house is only to be his occasional abode, and he is only to quit the booth when it rains very heavily. Even a child, as soon as he ceases to be dependent upon his mother, must dwell in the booth ; and the only persons exempt from this duty are persons deputed on pious missions, in valids, nurses, women, and infants (Mishna, ibid.
S, 9). The orthodox Rabbins in the time of Christ would not eat any food which exceeded in quantity the size of an egg, out of the booth (111zIrlma Slitea, 5).
The four species of vegetable productions to be used during prayer (Lev. xxiii. 39, 40) are the next distinctive feature of this festival to which the ancient doctors of the law before the time of Christ devoted much attention. These are—i. The fruits of the goodly tree' riri r3.7 ,-1z). As the phrase good/y or splendid tree (lin IT) is too indefinite, and the fruit of such a tree may simply denote the fruit of any choice fruit-tree, thus leaving it very vague ; the Hebrew canons, based upon one of the signi fications of lin (to dwell, to rest ; see Rashi on Lev. xxiii. 4o), decreed that it means the fruits which permanently rest upon the tree—i.e. the citron, the paradise-apple 01111N). Hence the rendering of Onkelos, the so-called Jerusalem Targum, and the Syriac version of -1171 by Ethrog- (= xtrptov, Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 13. 5), citron. The ethrog must not be from an uncircumcised tree (Lev. xix. 23), nor from the unclean heave-offerin,g (comp. Num. xviii. t, 12) ; it must not have a stain on the crown, nor be without the crown, peeled of its rind, perforated, or defective, else it is illegal (211isaa Succa, 5, 6). ii. 'Branches of palm trees' (o+inn nnn). According to the Ilebrew canons, it is the shoot of the palm-tree when bud ding, before the leaves are spread abroad, and whilst it is yet like a rod, and this is called Lula (Z91), which is the technical expression given in the Chaldee versions and in tlie Jewish writings for the Biblical phrase in question. The Lula must at least be three hands tall, and must be tied together with its own kind (Alishna Succa, r, 8 ; Mai monides, fad Ha-Chexaka, Hilchoth Lulab, vii. 1).