lemnity, in the evening and the morning, and the prayer of thanks (Dony), is inserted in the eighteen benedictions and in the grace after meals.

Family entertainments and other modes of rejoicing, but more particularly distributing of alms and deeds of benevolence, ought to enhance the festivities of this day; as we read:

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To make them days of » לעשות אותם ימי משתה ושמחה ומשלוח מנות איש לרעהו ומתנות לאבינים •

feasting and joy, and to send presents to one another, and to distribute gifts to the needy.” (Esther, 9 ch. 22 v.)

36.

At all our Sabbaths and festivals, as also in every other respect, we reckon the night, as being a part of the following day; and this appears to be the proper mode of calculation from many parts of Scripture; and more especially from the history of the creation; where it says: And it was evening, and it was morning, one day. (Genesis 1 ch.)

37.

Those of the holy days, which are to be kept strictly, (§ 80, called in Scripture, days of holy convocation), differ from the Sabbath only in so far, by its being permitted then, if we xcept the Day of Atonement, to kindle fire and light, cook and bake, and do every thing which is requisite for the immediate preparation of food. As we read in Exo. 12 ch. 16 v.:

No labour shall be » כל מלאכה לא יעשה בהם אך אשר יאכל לכל נפש הוא לבדו יעשה לכם •

done on the same, but whatever serves as food for man, this alone may be done for you."

38.

The following is the reason, why the Israelites residing out of

Palestine always prolong the prescribed duration of the festivals one day: In old times, when the calculation of the year was yet uncertain, and the rules for regulating the calendar were not yet laid down, it was impossible to know, if a month should have 29 or 30 days, until a formal decree of the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem had been issued concerning the same. This decree could not be made, till after the appearance of the new-moon; but immediately thereafter messengers were sent out to the provinces, who travelled with the utmost expedition, to make those at a distance acquainted with the day, on which the festivals ought to commence. Those Israelites, therefore, who lived so far from Jerusalem, that they could not receive the account till after the fourteenth of the month, were compelled, since they were ignorant of the proper period of the commencement of the feast, to observe two days, instead of one, not to miss the proper period of the festival. And this second day of the festival of the distant (captives) habe" was sanctioned by the Talmudists; and it was decreed, that it should be observed by the Israelites out of Palestine, even then, when the calendar had been every where established according to fixed and certain rules.

(רמב"ם פ"ה מהלכות קדוש החדש .Maimonides)

39.

The three festivals, Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, had, besides being originally instituted in commemoration of certain particular national events, also reference to agriculture, which was, as has been shown, §. 170, the chief employment and avocation of the Israelites. This is demonstrated not alone by the sacrifices, which were offered on the same-as the omer of the first cut grain on Passover; the two loaves on Pentecost, and the feast at the conclusion of the harvest;—but also by the names, which are given to these festivals in Scripture. (See Exod. 23 ch. 16 v. and Deuteronomy 16 ch. 9-13 v.)

And (Pentecost) the * וחג הקציר בכורי מעשיך אשר תזרע בשדה וחג

האסף בצאת השנה באספן את מעשין מן

השדה.

harvest-feast of the first ripened of thy

field-labours, namely, of that which thou sowest in thy field. And (Tabernacles) the feast of the gathering of thy fruit, at the end of the year, when thou hast gathered the produce of thy labour from the field."

40.

These three festivals are also commonly called phan who, the three seasons of Pilgrimage; because these were the periods, at which the people used to undertake their pilgrimages to Jerusalem. (See Exodus 23 ch. 14 v. and 34 ch. 23 v. also Deut. 16 ch. 16 v.) By these pilgrimages it was intended to excite in the people a love of virtue and religion; and that they should, by their presence in God's holy sanctuary, be filled with a holy reverence for God, temple, priests, and the teachers of the law.

The festivals also afforded excellent opportunities of allaying family disputes, promoting concord, and creating friendship.

The pilgrimage in the autumn of the seventh (release) year, was particularly remarkable, on account of the public religious instruction. As no field-labour was performed in this year, every man could find time and leisure to attend the great assemblage, in which the king, or other chief of the nation, read, on the second day of the feast of Tabernacles, a great portion of the Pentateuch to the members of both sexes, with the utmost possible solemnity.

...

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At the end of * מקץ שבע שנים במעד שנת השמטה בחג הסכות תקרא את התורה הזאת נגד כל ישראל באזניהם •

seven years,

at the time of

year, on the

pre

למען הקהל את העם האנשים והנשים והטף ישמעו ולמען ילמדו ויראו את ה' אלהיכם ושמרו לעשות

את כל דברי התורה הזאת •

feast of Tabernacles, sence of all Israel.

thou shalt read this law aloud in the

Thou shalt assemble the whole people, the men,

women, and children, . . . that they may hear and learn to fear the

Eternal your God, and observe to do all the words of this law." (Deut. 31 ch. 10-13 v.)

Here we find a positive commandment, that the females also should receive religious instruction; and the will of the law is therefore only then obeyed, when we give all the members of our nation instruction in religious matters, that they may be able to fear the Eternal our God, and to observe all the words of his holy law, which was given "as an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob."

Erratum.

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