He is mighty, He will rebuild His house speedily ; Quickly, quickly in our days, speedily God build, God build, 0 build thy house speedily ; etc. etc.
The same service is gone through the following evening, as the Jews have doubled the days of holy convocation, for the reason given in the article FES TIVALS in this Cyclopwdia. In the morning and evening of the festive week the Jews resort to the synagogue and recite the prayers appointed for the feasts. The lessons from the law and prophets read on the days of holy convocations, as well as on the middle days of the festival, are given in the article HAPIITARA. It must be remarked, that in accordance with the injunction in Lev. xxiii. to, r, 15, 16, the Jews to the present day begin to count the forty-nine days until Pentecost at the conclusion of the second evening's service, when they pronounce the following benediction Blessed art thou, 0 Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast sanctified us with thy command ments, and hast enjoined us to count the omer ! This day is the first day of the omer. May it please thee, 0 Lord our God, and the God of our fathers, to rebuild the sanctuary speedily in our days, and give us our portion in thy law !' 4. Origin and Import of the Feast of Passover.— That the feast of Passover was instituted to com memorate the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt will be admitted by all who give credence to the historical veracity of the Pentateuch. Its institution, however, to commemorate this great historical fact by no means precludes the idea that a festival, of somewhat similar rites, was celebrated by the Jews at this season, in common with other nations of antiquity, containing a reference to the annual course of nature. Indeed, when the first appeal was made to Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, it was that they might celebrate an approaching festival (Exod. iii. to ; v. 1). Moreover, it is a well-known fact that all the eastern nations who were dependent upon the course of the sun, cele brated two principal annual festivals referring to the seasons—viz., the spring festival, at the time when the sun passes over (non) into the sign of Aries, and when the corn began to ripen ; and the other, the autumn festival, when the last fruits were gathered in, which is identical with the feast of Tabernacles (=ID). We are told that, since the time of this spring festival was both an occasion of gratitude and anxiety—inasmuch as not only was the barley gathered, but it decided the fertility or the barrenness of the year—the spring festival was celebrated in a double manner :—/. As a token of gratitude, the fresh grains of barley were quickly ground into flour, bread made of the dough at once, before it had time to leaven, and thus offered ; and ii. As an expression of anxiety, and of a desire to conciliate the divine favour, an ex piatory sacrifice was offered for the transgressions of the past year. Indeed Epiphanius declares (Adv. Herr. cap. xix. 3) that the Egyptians on this occasion marked their sheep with red, because of the general conflagration which once raged at the time when the sun passed over into the sign of Aries, thereby to symbolize the fiery death of those animals which were not actually offered up ; whilst Von Bohlen assures us that the ancient Peruvians marked with blood the doors of the temples, royal residences, and private dwellings, to symbolize the triumph of the sun over the winter (Altes i. 140 ; also by the same author, General ihttroduc lion to the Pentateuch, p. 140 ; Kalisch, Commentary
on Exodus, p. 184 ; Ewald, Die Alterthamer, P. 390). Now, it is admitted that two of the three great Jewish festivals—viz., Pentecost and Tabernacles— refer to the annual course of nature [FESTIVALS], and that the festival of New Moon, which existed prior to the Mosaic legislation, was introduced by the inspired legislator into the cycle of Jewish festivals [NEW MOON, FEAST OF THE]. There can there fore be no difficulty in admitting that the third festival was also celebrated in the patriarchal age as a barley harvest festival, which is indicated by the very name, Abib of this month, and that God in his infinite wisdom and goodness chose to redeem Israel at the time of this festival, and thus connected with the celebration of the re generation of nature the celebration of the birth of the nation (Is. xliii. t, 15-17 ; Ezek. xvi. 4; Hos. II. 5), superadding thereunto rites and ceremonies commemorative of the historical event, as well as assigning to some already existing ceremonies 2 spiritual and original significance. This explains the fact why the unleavened bread, which was un doubtedly connected with sacrifices before the in stitution of the Passover, and which was enjoined to be eaten with the paschal sacrifices, without giving to it any significance in the original ordin ance (Exod. xii. 1-20), was afterwards made to symbolise the haste in which the children of Israel had to leave Egypt (Exod. xii. 34; Dent. xvi. 3). That the unleavened bread could not from the first have been the symbol of the fact that there was no time for the dough to leaven (Exod. xii. 33, 34, 39), is evident from Exod. xii. 8, 15, where the Israelites were commanded to eat unleavened bread before their departure, and when there was plenty of time for the dough to leaven. More over, the fact that this primval festival has been divested of many old superstitions, and invested with new ideas of a most exalting tendency, in being made to commemorate the exodus as well as the barley harvest, sets aside the arguments brought against the possibility of its having been celebrated at the exodus, inasmuch as the people were quite prepared for the celebration, as far as arrange ments and cattle were concerned.
5. Literature.—The Mishna, Tractates Pesachim, and Hoed Raton; and the Talmud or Gemara on these Tractates ; Maimonides, lad IIa Chezaka, Hilchoth Chamez CI-Maza ; Hilclzotiz Korban Pesach., and Hilchoth Chagiga ; Lightfoot, The Temple Service, cap. xii.-xiv. pp. 951, 961, vol. i. folio edition ; Meyer, De tempp. sacris Hebra ovum, p. 278, seq. ; Bahr, Synzbolik des Illosaischen Callas, ii. 6'3, ff., 627, ff. ; Saalschiitz, DasMosairche Becht, Berlin 1853, p. 406, ff. ; Ewald, Die Alter thiimer des Volker Israel, Gottingen p. 390, ff. ; Kalisch, Historical and Critical Commentary on Exodus, p. 178, etc. ; Keil, Handbuch der biblischen Archdologie, p. 380, ff. ; Knobel, Die Biicher Exodus and Leviticus, pp. 91, ff., 532, ff. ; The yery is h Ritual, entitled Derech Ha-Chajim, Vienna 1859, p. 233, ff. ; Landshuth, Hagada Vortrag fur die beiden Pessachabende, which con tains a masterly dissertation on the respective ages of the different portions constituting the Passover service, written in Hebrew by the editor, and a valuable treatise on the bibliography of the Passover service, written in German by the erudite Stein schneider.-,--C. D. G.