WOOD-CARRYING, THE FEAST OF CinnP C"Vii), one of the annual festivals instituted after the Babylonish captivity.
I. Name of the Festival ana' its significance.— The name wyvrt inp or ttyr Inp, which liter ally denotes the wood-offering, „cao0bptci, theria, or its fuller phrase, tr,v3) 5cy mlu nr, the feast of wood-offiring, ree'v EtAa0opicol, Loprij (Joseph. Bell. yid. ii. 17. 6), by which this festival is designated, is derived from Neh. x. 35 ; xiii. 31. It obtained its name from the fact that on the day in which it was celebrated all the people, without any distinction of tribe or grade, brought wood to the temple, being the last day in the year whereon wood could be felled for the burning of the sacrifices and the perpetual fire on the altar. It is also denominated 'TN jC1' i.•,4);1, the time of wood for *the priests (Megillath Taanith, v.), because on this festival the priests too, like the rest of the people, offered wood.
2. The day, anti manner of its celebration.—The day on -which this festival was annually celebrated was the 15th of Ab (1g= August). This is dis tinctly attested by the unanimous voice of the most ancient and most trustworthy records (comp. 111/shna Taanitlz, iv. 8 ; Babylon Gemara, ibid. 3o a ; Baba Batkra, 121 a ; Afegillath Taanith, v.; Alidrash Rabba on Lamentations, cap. lvii.) The remark in Josephus, that this festival v,,as celebrated on the 14.th (rd E',,c2S* W10c5OpifOY EOpTC1S 060-775 —6, 73 71-a011, MOS VX7F Tc3 poimi3 rpocOipEtp, Bell.
ii. 17, 6; and / eEfis, rrEprEKau3EKdrn SL Auiot, mnpas K.T.X., ibid. ii. 17. 7), must there fore be regarded as the error of a copyist (comp. Herzfeld, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, i. 144 ; Graetz, Geschichte der yuden, iii. 478, 2d ed.) The nine days in the year appointed for the delivery of wood by the respective families were as follows :— On the 20th of Ab, when the descendants of Pachat Moab b. Jehudah furnished the wood ; the zoth of Elul, the family of Adecn b. Jehudah • the 1st of Tebet, the family of Parosh ; the 1st of Nisan, the family of Arah b. Jehudah ; the 20th of Tamuz, the family of David b. Jeliudah ; the 5th of Ab, the family of Parosh b. Jehudah ; the 7th of Ab, the family of Jondab b. Rechab ; the loth of Ab, the family of Senaa b. Benjamin ; and on the r5th of Ab, the family of Saltu b. Jehudah, with the priests, Levites, and all those who did not know from what they descended, as well as the families of Gonbei Ali and Kozai Kezioth (1Vishlta Taanith, iv. 3). So general was the delivery of wood on this day (i.e. the r5th of Ab), that even proselytes, slaves, Nethinim, and bastards brought fuel (Ilfegil lath Mania, v.) Hence the remark of Josephus, that on this day all the people brought wood, from which circumstance it derived its name (Bell. 7zul. ii. 17. 6).
On this day, when all the people were thus con gregated together, discarding all distinction of tribe, of rich and poor, of Israelite and proselyte, of mas ter and slave, the maidens of Jerusalem met to gether for singing joyful and religious songs and for dancing. Dressed in white garments, which they borrowed in order not to shame those who had none of their own, these damsels assembled to gether in an open place in the vineyards. They sang strophic songs in the sacred language, and danced in the presence of the congregation. It was on this occasion that the happy choice of partners in life frequently took- place, since it was one of the two annual opportunities afforded to the young people of making their attractions known without violating feminine modesty (Alislina Alec/11a, iv.
S) [MARRIAGE]. Cessation from manual labour on this day was, however, not enjoined ; but fast ing, penitential prayers, and mourning- for the .dead were forbidden (Afecillath ; Mai monides, 7ad Ha-Chezaka Hilchoth E'lci Ha Afikdash, vi.) 3. Origin and date of this Festival.—The origin of this festival is involved in great obscurity, as the ancient Talmudic authorities which describe its celebration differ materially in their opinions about the occasion which gave rise to its institution. From Nell. x. 35 ; xiii. 31, we learn that this states man, in order to s-upply the necessary fuel for the burning of the sacrifices and the keeping up of the • perpetual fire on the altar, ordained that each family in rotation is to furnish wood for the temple at a certain period of the year, and that the order and time of delivery are to be settled by casting lots. The result obtained by the casting of lots is not mentioned in the canonical Scriptures ; but the post canonical documents, which describe the temple service, furnish us with a minute account of both the names of the respective families upon whom it devolved to supply the wood, and the periods of the year in which they delivered it, This account is given in the preceding section of this article. It is, there fore, only natural to conclude that the different families who are thus recorded to have offered the wood at appointed times did so in accordance with the results obtained by the casting of lots. Now, the reason why the r5th of AL was kept as a special festival, and why all the nation at large took part in the offeiing of wood on this day, is, according to some authorities in the Talmud, that on it the people ceased to fell wood for the temple, because, according to R. Eliezer the Great, the heat of the sun begins to diminish on this day, and thc wood which was cut after this date did not beco7ne suffi ciently dry. Hence the 15111 of Ab was designated the day on which the axe is broken.' As it was also believed that the wood cut down after the 15th of Ab is sapless (Rosh Ha-Shana, 2 a, 14 a), Herzfeld (i. 145) ingeniously conjectures that the trees were regarded as dead after this date, and the wood of such trees was considered as unfit for.the altar. The other ancient opinion about the origin of this festival is, that the furnishing of wood for the temple by the pious, which existed from tirne im memorial, and which Nehemiah reinstituted after the return from Babylon, was prohibited by some wicked sovereign, and that this interdict was abo lished on the r5th of Ab. Hence this clay was constituted a festival, and the families who jeo pardised their lives in stealthily supplying wood for the temple during the time of the prohibition are those named above, who as a privilege continued to bring some wood on this festival, whether the fuel was wanted or not. There is, however, a dif ference of opinion as to who this wicked monarch was. The Jerusalem Talmud will have it that it was Jeroboam who placed guards on the roads leading to the temple in order to prevent the people from taking to the sanctuary the first-fruits and the wood, and the families of Gonbei Ali and Kozie Kezioth, mentioned in the .111ishna, were those who encountered the clanger in clandestinely supplying the wood (ruivz ,3"Yip 'zm t•61 vnin rnNtmit iz nvn-o zstnray rn9j6 (7erusalent Thanith, iv.