In this chapter I would like to highlight the special and significant contribution of the captains of the Return to Zion - Zerubbabel ben Shealtiel and Yehoshua ben Yehozedek (516-538 BC) and especially that of Ezra and Nehemiah (432-458 BC) with regard to Jewish music in the Temple.
It should be noted that during this period a brave bond was created and forged between the public and Jerusalem and between it and the sacred work that was carried out in the Temple, what is known in the Sage literature as "work" obviously, different from the use of the word "craft". In this era, music became an important means, among other means , to forge that affinity, a deep affinity between the public and the temple and the worship in it.
And let it not be easy in our eyes, apparently, as a result of the thousands of Bible/Bible lessons that were taught among us during our basic years of study, it seemed as if from the days of the first temple of David and Solomon the temple was the center of public and personal life among the Jewish public, and it was not. Absolutely not. This affinity was forged from the days of the Second Temple at the initiative of the captains of Zion, when one of the means was the instrumental and vocal music that was performed in the temple, especially on holidays and especially during The pilgrimages.
The statement of the Persian king Cyrus and his successors regarding the establishment of the Second Temple, including assistance for its establishment and activity, strengthened its centrality among the Jewish public. Moreover, the Persian privileges for the temple workers, especially the priests and Levites, while emphasizing the status of the poets, the "Zamaria" in the language of the Book of Ezra.
The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Babylonian/Persian exiles who were cut off from their land in Judea for a long period of time and settled between the Euphrates and the Tigris, were influenced by the musical centrality of the Babylonian/Persian temples, and hence their contribution to the benefit of the Jerusalem temple during the days of Zerubbabel and Joshua ben Yehozedek and onwards.
The concentration of the returned exiles around Jerusalem also made an important contribution to the concentration of the temple and its activities, including the musical ones. The leaders of the Aliyats to Judah assumed, and very rightly, that the musical sounds in the temple would only strengthen the connection between the Jewish public and the temple and its activities.
The mentors of the House of Jehovah, as the foundation of the temple, Zerubbabel ben Shealtiel and Yehoshua ben Yehozedek, made sure to embed the importance of music in the activity of the temple, not only in their concern to bring the poets to Israel in general in the waves of the Aliyah, but And above all, they inaugurated the above-mentioned hall with music. Temple music, obviously. Their successors - Ezra and Nehemiah - encouraged them to do so, when every step they took was involved in the public-temple enterprise.
A peak in temple activity was created in the public signing ceremony of the "treaty", in which the public pledged to take care of all the needs of the temple such as sacrifices, donations, tithes and care for all the holy servants - the priests and the Levites, including the Levites the poets and the priests who pierce.
These, Ezra and Nehemiah, were similarly forced to deal with the explosiveness of the prophets and stage priests in Judah, for whom music was a means of reaching ecstasy, prophetic inspiration and physical exultation, and presented to the public a different, much more institutionalized and organized music.
The term "poet" appears in the Bible 35 times, of which 6 in the book of Ezra, 17 in Nehemiah and a dozen in Chronicles. The above term came to describe a person who is an expert and skilled in music, both instrumental and vocal, and from the time of Shibat Zion it became more and more associated with the Levite family.
These poets who were mentioned in the Ascension of Zerubbabel as being among the "sons of Assaf", are in the third rank after the priests and Levites.
Famous is the testimony of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, who brought as booty to his country the court musicians of King Hezekiah. We are not talking about the musicians of the temple, whose "annals" were there to emphasize this, since in the accepted view of the ancient world it was the victory of the king of Assyria in considering the overthrow of the God of Israel by the gods of Assyria. And could there be a better testimony to this need than the exile of the poets from the temple of Jehovah to the royal temple of Sennacherib. wonder What's more - the existence of court poets, the court of the Jewish kingdom, was well known in the days of the First Temple.
The answer may have to be found elsewhere. It must be assumed that the Jewish immigration was not a matter of so-and-so and was certainly preceded by a comprehensive and serious preparatory action by the two leaders, Zerubbabel and Yeshua in an action that probably lasted a long time. And if we assume that these leaders knew what they were going up to, namely - to build the temple of Jehovah and to renew the ritual work in it, it should not be surprising that they took care to bring with them the holy servants, the priests and the Levites, including the temple poets.
Moreover, one year after the Ascension (537 B.C.) they inaugurated the House of Jehovah in a very impressive ceremony, with the participation of priests-trumpeters and Levites playing the mizitaim. To establish a valuable practice - musical accompaniment in the temple, and perhaps even under the influence of Persian music, since Zerubbabel was close to the Persian royal court and its customs, and for the sake of which it is possible that the two took care to bring Jews from exile with a musical background. And since all their work was surrounded by an atmosphere of messianism and religious elation, it would only be logical to link the poets to the genealogy of ancient and noble families (even Zerubbabel himself was part of the line of the House of King David). And lest even the Levia families.
It should also be noted that alongside those poets who came up with Zerubbabel and Jesus, "poets and poets" are also mentioned (Ezra 65:200) who are listed after the slaves and handmaids - 245 according to the number of the book of Ezra, or XNUMX according to the number of the book of Nehemiah. The reference is not to the sacred poets in the temple, but to the sand poets, who were held as slaves in the courts of wealthy Jews in the diaspora, a common phenomenon in Mesopotamia.
The days of Zerubbabel and Jesus - the affair of the connection between the sacred servants and the music
This bond was cast about a year before the time of the Ascension to Israel (537 BCE). During the numerous preparations for the dedication ceremony of Jehovah's house, Zerubbabel and Jesus determined that the Levites, the holy servants, would take up their duties when they turned 20, and this is different from the desert law that sets the age of entry at 30 The intention was, thus, to prepare and train them for their musical role, and it is likely that the influence of the customs was at work here. The teaching of singing and music in studios that were adjacent to the temples required a long and prolonged period of training. Perhaps this theme will be reflected in the early Christian churches as a continuation of the holy practices in the Jewish temple.
With the dedication of Jehovah's temple, it is said that the priests were "clad with trumpets" and "the Levites, the sons of Asaph, gathered with cymbals to praise Jehovah..." (Ezra 11:57). Later there was a response in the hall with a voice and thanks. In the composition of the Outer Ezra it is written with some change as follows - "...and the priests stood dressed with singing instruments and trumpets" (The Outer Ezra 54:XNUMX). And perhaps the "clothed" refers to a special, ceremonial garment, which the trumpeter priests put on them and is alluded to in the statement of King Dervish (ibid., D. XNUMX) and this is certainly an interesting piece of information that involves the music and the special clothing, it was said "tuxedo" at the time.
Yosef ben Mattiyo was probably disturbed by the fact that here, all of a sudden, a musical ceremony was being held in the wearing of musical instruments in consideration of a phenomenon that had no mention in the days of the First Temple, so ben Mattiyo added another section to the royal order of Darvish, one that does not appear in the Bible - "And he (Darivush) commanded to give instruments of music to the Levites with which they would praise God..." (Kadmoniot Ha'Yudeim 63:XNUMX). It can be assumed that from the mouth of this writer we hear the echoes of his time, i.e. a historical-historiographical projection, i.e. the second half of the first century AD.
This highly impressive ceremony was considered a one-time event since in 515 BC, when Zerubbabel and his friends held the dedication ceremony of the temple, no music was mentioned except for the verse that said that the temple was dedicated "with great joy" (Ezra 16:XNUMX) and this on the assumption that the word "With joy" does not represent a specific or general musical instrument. This is strange, although it can be explained by clarifying the events of the period.
The prophets who opposed the music in the temple
It seems that due to the disastrous influence of the surrounding peoples, the Persian king decreed to stop the further work of building the temple (ibid., 4 ff.). However, with the encouragement of the prophets of the time, Haggai and Zechariah, the Jews violate the royal order and continue building the temple. I believe that these prophets opposed the new phenomenon of music in the temple. Haggai and Zechariah, who describe the events of the time, did not assign any place to music within the temple, and even Malachi, a member of their time who attacked the priests on the one hand and praised the Levites on the other, does not mention, even by implication, anything about any connection between the poets and the Levites in general, and regarding temple music in particular . These prophets, it seems, continued a certain, prophetic-biblical line that does not exclude musical expressions such as ecstatic (ecstatic) music and perhaps vice versa, but which excludes sacred, somewhat institutionalized music and emphasizes its negative influence like Isaiah or Amos for example.
Some kind of contribution to the priesthood and the funeral does appear near the dedication of a house
The temple, and this in the form of a meeting-union of the priests in the companies and the Levites in the wards, when both are dressed in special clothes - clothing that the Levites-poets would wear in the later days of the Second Temple. This organizational activity will have a special meaning for the priests and Levites who will be in charge of the music in the Temple during the days of Nehemiah. We will see about the foundation of the music departments later in the days of the house.
Indeed, we may say that despite the one-time appearance of the music in Jehovah's house, it had an important contribution, one that was not measured at the time of its performance, but later in the period, towards the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Here was the beginning of an important connection between the priesthood and the Levite in their musical function in holiness. And that impressive spectacle in the form of the consecration of the temple accompanied by music and with the participation of the people (the response with praise and thanksgiving which we will deal with later) laid the foundation for that institution that would be restored in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah and strengthened the connection and cooperation between the assembled people and the sacred ceremonies in the Temple. And this when music is used as a very important means, among other means, in the same complex system mentioned above.
The rise of Ezra the priest, the writer, was, at least partially, marked by music. That is, among the sections of the "Nishtavan", i.e. the official declaration of the Persian king Artaxerxes, we find the following paragraph, the one that is directed to the knowledge of all the "Gazbaria" - the king's financial officials in the language "And you are informed, all the priests and Levites of Zemaria are sufficient, Teriya , subjects and segments of the House of God condemned, taxed and went without a ruler to deceive them" (Ezra 24 22) And from Ezra the Outer - "And you are informed that for all the priests and Levites, the poets and the subjects and the workers of this temple, there will be no taxes and any other burden, and there is no rule for anyone to put over them" (Ezra the Outer XNUMX:XNUMX).
It is possible that this privilege referred to the poets who would ascend with Ezra to Judah. However, it is more likely that it is aimed at poets who were already in Judea, or perhaps even those who would later immigrate to Israel with Ezra, but it is more likely that it is aimed at poets who were already in Israel or perhaps even includes those who would immigrate with Ezra. It also seems that the royal charter was written in light of Ezra's requests and entreaties, or even drafted first by this leader who was coming and going in the Persian royal court.
The news about the difficult situation in the country in all respects and especially from the religious, social and moral point of view, reached Ezra's ears and he asked to come to Israel in order to correct the situation. Also, the fact that the proclamation of Artaxerxes mainly dealt with the temple (contributions of many funds to the temple, satisfying the needs of the sacrifices, etc.) gave the "Zemaria" box, for the poets, a special dimension.
The one-time attempt of Zerubbabel and Jesus did not become a practice, and Ezra saw among his goals and duties to return and put the temple music on a machine. And in this regard, Artaxerxes' declaration made a significant contribution - exempting temple poets from taxes, duties and "any other burden", so that they could devote themselves to work in the temple. And the work didn't just touch the musical performance itself, but mainly and small everyday things, the prolonged and long trainings, the trainings of the players on the instrument and the poets in the mouth.
Such was his goal, among the other important tasks of Ezra before his arrival in Israel, and in this spirit he acted a lot during his stay in Israel.
Moreover, from the Aramaic text of "Pateshgan HaNashtvan", it appears that the poets belonged to the Levite family, and they are probably the same ones who were put in this position by Zerubbabel and Yeshua, while according to Ezra's testimony it is not so clear whether the poets who immigrated to Israel with him belonged to the Levite family . The key to this mystery is probably found in the historical aspect (which we will deal with later) of a gradual and prolonged development, which ended not with the poets but with those who were members of the Heluya family.
to the question of the relationship between the poets and the Levites. This connection was forged in the Babylonian exile at the earliest and at the latest it was in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, that is between the years 458 and 432 B.C., and from then on the poets of the Levite family were listed. And we found some connection between them and the poets.
Before us is a phenomenon that is, in a sense, the fruit of years of development, one that took on a special garment as a result of the actions of Zerubbabel and Yeshua first and Ezra and Nehemiah afterwards. This was the first step in the process of strengthening the status of the Levites in Jerusalem and institutionalizing their function in the Temple. It was an action that is one link out of the entire work of Ezra and Nehemiah to strengthen the status of the temple as a spiritual-ritual-cultural center that has no equal, and to create that special bond between the people and their temple. There was a tireless effort here to renew the work of Zerubbabel and Jesus, to strengthen and solidify it. Moreover, the creation of the relationship between the poets and the Levites was united in a very interesting way to Jerusalem, and was folded around events that took place in Judah. Against this background we can understand why there is no sign of this relationship in the list of immigrants from Babylon to Israel, both in Zerubbabel's exodus and Ezra's exodus. And in contrast, later on, in Jerusalem and the Temple, the above-mentioned affinity stands out in an interesting way. This affinity got stronger and stronger and reached its peak from an organizational-institutional point of view in the first century AD.
It is interesting to examine Ezra's contribution in the perspective of time, when one of the Midrashim paid attention to Ezra's enterprise of binding the Levites with the music inspired by the desert ideal as Ezra's interpretation and considers it a considerable contribution. Although this is a late midrash, from the third century CE, this should not detract from the effect of time. That is, how we examined Ezra's work in a relatively late period.
to the previous chapters
"Am Yisrael Shar" 1: Introduction and prelude - music in the ancient period
Am Yisrael sings 2: vocal and holistic music
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