3. The observances common to all these Festivals. —All these days of holy convocation, r. Are like the weekly Sabbath declared Sabbaths (nzo, i.e., days on which there must be an entire suspension of all ordinary labour (comp. Lev. xvi. 29 ; xxiii. 7, 87 21, 24, 25, 2S, 357 36)7 2. On all of them special sacrifices were offered in addition to the daily offerings, which, however, varied according to the character of the festival (comp. Num. xxviii., xxix.) 3. On all of them the trumpets were blown whilst the burnt-offerings and the peace offerings were sacrificed (comp. Nnm. x. to) ; and a. They are all holy convocations Nipn), i.e., as is evident from Num. x. 2, days on which the worshippers are to be called together by the sound of trumpets to the sanctuary (comp. Lev. xxiii. ; Num. xxviii.) The three pilgrimage festivals, however, viz., the Feast of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, form a circle within the circle of the annual festivals, and are distinguished by the special appellation ln (from nri to tiante, to be joyful), because of their doubly joyful character ; for, besides being commemorative of national events, they had an agricultuml significance. The Passover is connected with the commencement ot the harvest, and hence the offering was of the firstling sheaf of barlg ; Pentecost with the com pletion of the same, and hence the offering was loaves made from the new wheat ; and whilst these festivals represented the joy of the people after the gathering in of the bread, which is the staff of life, the Feast of Tabernacles, which was connected with the conclusion of the entire agricultural year, when all the fruits, the wine, and the oil were col lected, expressed the gratitude of the people at having safely brought in the wine, which cheereth the heart of man.
4. The changes which these Festzvals have suf fered.—Though all these festivals are most rigidly observed by the Jews to the present day, yet their integrity and beautiful symmetry were destroyed, towards the end of the second Temple as it is supposed. We do not rcfer to the circumstance that in celebrating these festivals in the present day, some of them are necessarily deprived of their agricultural signiticance, as well as of the offerings connected therewith, and are merely made com memorative of national events, but we allude to the fact that the original festival day, or days of holy convocation, were nearly doubled at a very early period, and instead of the collective number being seven, the Jewish calendar has thirteen, as follows—four on Passover, two on Pentecost, two on the Feast of Trumpets, one on the Day of Atonement, and four on Tabernacles and the concluding festival. The origin of these
additions v7,as this. The commencement of the festivals was fixed in Palestine according to the appearance of the nezo moon, which was watched in Jerusalem, and communicated from the metro polis to all the Israelites throughout the country by messengers. As these messengers, however, could not reach the parts most distant from Jeru salem before some days had elapsed, and as the in habitants of these parts could therefore not know at once how the beginning of the new month was fixed, and on what day the festival beg,an, it was determined that they should double the day of the festival, so as to be sure that one day would be right.
B 1. The periodical Festivals.—The periodical festivals are as follows :— i. The weekly Sabbath, which begins the cycle of the festivals. Comp. Num. xxviii. 9, to; Lev. xxiii.
ii. The feast of the New Moon (trnn which is always kept at the beginning of the month when special sacrifices were offered. Comp. Num. x. to; xxviii. 11-15.
iii. The Sabbath rear, or The year of leenzission (r,rinv natv), which was kept every seventh year. Comp. Exod. xxiii. ; Lev. xxv.
1-7; Dent. xv. 1.
iv. The year of yubilee row), which was celebrated at the end cf every seven Sabbath years, beginning on the loth of Tilrhri. Comp. Lev. xxv. S-18.
2. Their connection with the cycle of Festivals.— The organic connection of these periodical festivals with the annual ones, is seen in their gradual rising in the scale, each forming as it were a stepping stone to the other. Beginning with the weekly celebration of the Sabbath, they advance to the monthly, then again to the annual, then to septennial, and then to quinquagintennial festivals. Moreover, the sacred number seven, or the SabbaM, underlies and combines all the festivals.* Thus there are—r. A Sabbath of days; 2. A Sabbath of weeks (the seventh week after the Passover is the Sabbath-week, inasmuch as the first day of it is the festival of weeks) ; 3. A Sabbath of months (Me seventh month has both a festival and a fast, and on its fint day is the festival which begins the year) ; 4. A Sabbath of years (the seventh is the Sabbath-year); and 5. A Sabbath of Sabbath years, i.e., the year of Jubilee.
3. Observance of these Festivals.—Of these four periodical festivals, two only—viz., the weekly Sabbath and the New Moon—are still observed among the Jews, and their practices on these occa sions are noticed under the respective names of these festivals. The Sabbath-year and the year of Jubilee are no longer kept, because of their ex clusively local character, which renders them inap plicable to the present circumstances of the Hebrews away from Palestine.