Am Yisrael sings 5: musical instruments and their superiors

The music in the temple on the days of Shibat Zion went through several incarnations while changing from loud-rhythmic music to mixed and pleasant music

In this article I will try to show how the music in the temple of the days of Shibat Zion also went through several incarnations while changing from loud-rhythmic music to mixed and pleasant music. For a sort of harmonious combination, when these technical transformations are well integrated in the works of Ezra and Nehemiah, in which the mission stands out to organize the music of the temple and its performers, to integrate it and integrate it into the system of sacred worship in the temple and to strengthen the bond between the people and its temple and more.

At the dedication of Jehovah's house by Zerubbabel and Jesus appeared priests blowing trumpets and Levites playing cymbals. The trumpet in the Bible had a role that was mainly organizational and military, and even when trumpets were used in worship, their role was not musical for its own sake but for "remembering" before Jehovah, similar to their role during war. This is about a single, isolated case, in the book of the wilderness, when Moses was commanded by Jehovah to prepare/make "two trumpets of hardened silver" (Bamadbar 10:1-XNUMX) and witness the sounding of them to the priests of the sons of Aaron.

Throughout the days of the First Temple, the priests did not blow the trumpets, except for a memorial in the desert. In exchange for them, the trumpeters of the royal court stand out, but mainly the role of sounding was kept in the hands of the people themselves. Thus, for the sake of a parable, we learn from the ceremony of Jehoash's coronation, in which, by the way, the priests played a dominant role. However, it was not the priests who blew the trumpets but the people who blew, and in a somewhat spontaneous and primitive manner. And it should be noted in general that the use of trumpets in the days of the First Temple was very little.

And here, at the return of Zion, Zerubbabel restores Ataret to its old age, in that he testified to the role of blowing in the hands of the priests, and from then on, throughout the days of the Second Temple, those who blow the trumpets, in the Temple, were none other than the priests, and they alone. Indeed a great deed was performed by Zerubbabel and Jesus. An act that takes on a special dimension in light of the traditional Messianic awakening, and in light of the war for the inheritance of the Shekinah of the Torah among the people of Israel. And unlike the folk music of the First Temple, it became professional, musical, from the beginning of the Second Temple. And she marked the royal splendor.

Even the use of cymbals was a novelty. In the days of the first temple we witnessed the use of the "bells" in the ceremonial-processional music. This was a common phenomenon of the multiple use of percussion instruments during ceremonies. The "cymbals" on the other hand were only a pair of copper plates. This tool, by the way, will later become another "bell", and will be entrusted with a special supervisor.

In other words, this change had a significant meaning. Zerubbabel was careful not to make the sacred music noisy, somewhat "cacophonous", but rather such that it could be well integrated into the singing of the "Praise" and "Mana" hymns of the people. Indeed, percussion instruments stand out in the days of the First Temple, such as "drums, tridents or shakers are not found among the instruments in the Second Temple.

However, in spite of all this, the music, at the dedication ceremony of Jehovah's Temple, still carried a popular-mass character, since except for the priests blowing the trumpets, it is said that the people also "cheered with great joy" (Ezra 11:XNUMX). It should be noted that this popular phenomenon will pass already in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah.

During the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, significant changes took place in the temple orchestra. The priests played the trumpets and the Levites played the cymbals, but two important musical instruments were added to the musical composition - the harp and the violin, which were entrusted to the Levites. And interestingly, this musical structure and its arrangement - the priests with trumpets and the Levites with cymbals, harps and violins would become an accepted and permanent structure in the "orchestra" of the temple during the days of the Second Temple.

It is possible that this can be attributed to the influence of ancient Persian music or perhaps to a musical understanding, in principle, of Ezra and Nehemiah. These probably understood that it was necessary to diversify the musical accompaniment more and to refine its sounds with the addition of musical instruments that are more pleasing to the ear. Those who will produce and create in a special combination with the trumpets and cymbals a musical effect that captivates the heart and the eye.

And the question arises - how do we resolve the contradiction between Ezra and Nehemiah's desire to tie the people to his temple, while increasing their participation in the temple ceremonies on the one hand, and the fact that they put an end to the mass trumpeting of the people, the one that was customary during the dedication ceremony of Jehovah's temple in the days of Zerubbabel, on the other hand?

It seems that the two wanted to establish in this way a certain buffer between the participation of the people, which is immeasurably important, and the noisy and loud performance as far as the music is concerned. The two aspired to make the Temple the central place in the entire system of life in the Land of Judah, and to that end they organized a disorganization of everything related to the Temple, including the entire Levitical apparatus, including the poets, when each group began to specialize in one or another musical instrument, and the choirs and orchestras began to form as separate from each other.

To such a temple the aforementioned duo wanted to draw the people. A large public will come, not only to bring the sacrifices, but also to witness the worship of the temple, which also includes the musical performance. A performance that has a special charm that may attract the masses.

Ezra and Nehemiah could not afford any interference from the crowd to this organized and institutionalized system that could turn the ceremonies into a kind of musical riot and loud enthrallment, devoid of purpose and taste. Instead, they raised the importance of the popular "answer". This "answer" might have been perfectly integrated with the overall music. In this way, I think, the two achieved the goal they set before them - placing the overall music in the hands of the priests and the Levites and alongside it - the vocal music - the singing, which is for the most part the property of the Levites and they left the "answer" to the people. In this way, the affinity and the feeling of participation of the people in the temple ceremonies was preserved.

There is no doubt about it, that for the technical-professional aspects involved in music on the one hand and even the organizational-sequential aspects of music on the other hand, Nehemiah consulted "experts" and contributed to this from his political and social virtues.

Now, on the sidelines, I would like to raise a hypothesis that can be of interest, although it is not free of difficulties. The emphasis, that the use of trumpets is the sole property of the priests, may be clarified and explained against the background of the symbolism in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra was a priest and knowledgeable in the Torah. He asked for a blessing for the people and even saw, to a certain extent, a blessing in his labor (in the "treaty" ceremony) and therefore the return of the crown to its former glory in the form of the revival of the desert ideal, that is, the "trumpets of the makhasha", which were blown by the "sons of Aaron", was extremely significant. Furthermore, the priesthood from the days of Solomon until the Babylonian exile was held by the descendants of Zadok, while from the return of Zion the priests were called "sons of Aaron" (Nehemiah 47:XNUMX).

The phenomenon in which the "sons of Aaron" are the ones who blow the trumpets stood out even in the author of the Chronicles, and the continuation of the practice was testified by Ben Sira in his parables from around 200 BCE, about the fact that the sons of Aaron cheered with "Maksha trumpets" during the festive occasion of Yom Kippur (Proverbs Ben Sira v. 15).

It is appropriate to bring up an idea here that will be highlighted in the next chapter. It seems that Ezra and Nehemiah wanted to give the music in the temple a role of accompaniment, an accompaniment to the sacrificial work and the other works of the temple, and not to the music facing the authority itself. And in this way the two laid the first foundation that would become a linguistic currency in the later days of the Second Temple. We were, if there are no sacrifices there is no music and vice versa. This is a sentence that, in my opinion, was considered a minority holding the majority.

And we will end this section by mentioning another musical instrument that appears in the book of Nehemiah and it is the Shofar. His role was not musical but military-organizational. With his help, Nehemiah helped convey agreed messages to the builders of the wall and its guards, since the distance between those doing the work was relatively large, and it became necessary to achieve maximum control over all those doing the work. As a result, Nehemiah appointed a special officer next to him - "the one who blows the trumpet" (Nehemiah 12:XNUMX), a kind of "close contact with the commander" in the infantry division deployed in the field. And it is assumed that Nehemiah "would give signs in them".

"Ma'aleh Leviim"

In the Second Temple, the Levites-the poets stood on a special elevation/stage called "Danchen", or "Ma'ala", as the scripture says - "the fifteen degrees of the Levites (between the help of Israel and the help of women) and there they sang" (Misnath Midod 5:XNUMX ), when the whole public watched them and listened to their singing).

It seems that the origin of this structure is rooted in the days of Nehemiah, when it was then called "Ma'ale the Levites" (Nehemiah 4:5) in terms of a nickname/term that had no equal in the biblical literature that preceded the exile. When the people gathered on one of the occasions to the temple, after Sukkot, we read in the sources - "And Jesus and the sons of Kadmiel, the sons of Sharbia, the sons of Kenani stood up on top of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to Jehovah their God" (ibid.). In front of us is a choral composition of eight Levites (from the same name that repeats by the way also in the ceremony of the dedication of the walls). And even in the next verse, another group of eight Levites appeared (perhaps part of it was composed of the previous group, or it may simply be other Levites from the same family) - "And the Levites said: Yeshua and Kadmiel, my sons, Hashaniah, Sharbiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, Petahiah: arise bless the Yahweh is your God from the world to the end of the world. May your glory be blessed there and exalted above all blessing and glory" (Is. XNUMX).

The box "Bless the Lord your God from world to world" became a common liturgical coin in the later days of the Second Temple.

However, the most important point for us is the response of the people to the call of the Levites. A call, which in the course of time will become an accepted linguistic currency in the form of "Blessed be the name of the glory of His Majesty forever and ever." Before us, then, is the creation of a practice of the people's response to the Levitical prayer. What turned a previous passive experience into an active popular answer in terms of active participation of the public in some answer, a kind of "repeating chorus". And so this practice was integrated into the whole new system brought by Ezra and Nehemiah in the sacred service and public ceremonies.

It should be noted that the prayer of the Levites continues until the end of the chapter, and perhaps it was composed by Ezra.

If I was right in my assumption that the "Ma'ale HaLeviim" is a kind of pulpit in the edition of the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, then the prominence of the public torture gave the whole event a special dimension whose importance will be fully revealed to us later in the days of the Second Temple.

the "answer"

As mentioned, the antiphony, the response between the conductor of the choir and the choir and the response between several choirs was an important element in the music that was conducted in the Mesopotamian temples, and it is not so far from assuming that both Zerubbabel and Yeshua, and Ezra and Nehemiah smelled, if only to a certain extent, of each other. However, it seems that they were guided, and especially Ezra and Nehemiah, by the same task that we stood for - to tie the people more and more to his temple and to strengthen that feeling of partnership in the great enterprise of the work there. And this by actually sharing it with the help of the public response.

The "stages" in Israel during the days of the First Temple served as a fertile field for occult and hidden activities and these were managed by priestly families. And there the use of singing and music became known as a means of conveying inspiration and religious ecstasy. On the other hand, the hymns could acquire a leading position and an important place only when the veil of secrecy was removed and the wall of secrecy was breached. That is, when public participation in worship increased.

Since the roots of this process lie in the soil of the return of Zion, it is appropriate that we examine the two prominent types of response - the "Hallel" and the "Thanks".

The "Hellel": The "Hellel" psalms, that is, the psalms XNUMX - XNUMX in the Psalms, became a liturgical-musical currency only later in the days of the Second Temple, from the Hasmonean days onwards, however different hymns were sung from the Psalms, such as were known before the destruction of the First Temple And those that were written and formulated at the time of Zion's return, were used in the temple as a useful means to increase the enthusiasm, to lift the spirits of the masses of the people and to purify their thoughts, and this by the participation of the people in a stereotypical torture, which was combined with temple singing and music into a structured system of great charm.

The "Hillel" appeared at the time of the dedication of the Temple of Jehovah by Zerubbabel and Jesus and in the list of appointees on behalf of Nehemiah we find conductors entrusted with the "Hillel".

Psalm XNUMX in the Psalms is attributed to the period of the Babylonian exile. His nine verses are divided into three equal stanzas. The first stanza is a form of antiphonal singing, when a single poet sings: "Hail, Jehovah's servants! Hallelujah the name of Jehovah!" And the choir answers in return: "May the name of Jehovah be blessed from now on and forever!" The psalm ends with the phrase "Hallelujah", which is the response of all the people who gathered in the temple courtyard. It should be noted that no Ketu psalm ends with this box.

It is even possible that the Kich psalm was sung during the dedication ceremony of the walls in the days of Nehemiah. In any case, the Book of Maccabees 30, which tells about the house dedication ceremony, emphasizes several times that the holiday is celebrated "as in the days of Nehemiah" (XNUMX:XNUMX) and even the singing of the "Hallel" psalms, was it also nourished by the public ceremonies in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah?

"Thanks" - "Thanks": The "thanks" were already mentioned in the dedication ceremony of the Temple of Jehovah in the days of Zerubbabel and Jesus. This is a stereotypical reply in the vein of "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy is forever" (Ezra 11:58) and according to the external Ezra (XNUMX:XNUMX) we read: "And they answered with praise, blessing the Lord for his mercy and his honor are forever upon all Israel". This coin will be common as a response to temple singing in the days of the Second Temple. This thanksgiving was sung by the Levites playing their musical instruments and the people would respond with the answer of "Because it is good, because His grace is forever".

It is possible that towards the end of the days of the First Temple, attempts were made to adopt this answer, but without much success. If so, in my opinion, the leadership of the "thanks" should be seen as a legacy of the days of Zion's return, and especially by Nehemiah, when this practice was supposed to be well integrated into all his works. Indeed, the "thanks" reach one of the peaks of their development-organization-foundation in the days of Nehemiah, at the time of the dedication ceremony of the walls. And it seems that this is significant, that before the ceremony, among other things, the person in charge of the "acknowledgments", Ben Leloy-the poets, was considered for an academic appointment.

For the purpose of the ceremony, as mentioned, Nehemiah gathers the rest of the Levites-poets who are in the "courts". The priests and Levites purify themselves and then the Israelites, the gates and the wall. Nehemiah placed the princes of Judah on the walls. "And I will stand," Nehemiah stated, "two thanksgivings and processions to the right over the wall to the Gate of the Ashpots" (Nehemiah 31:XNUMX). The two "thanks" are large thanksgiving processions, choirs singing songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.

If so, half the people led by Ezra surrounded the wall on the right side (east), and half the people led by Nehemiah on the left side (west). The trumpeter priests and the Levites who sing and play cymbals, violins and harps also crossed and divided between the two thanksgiving processions.

The whole ceremony was very impressive and unprecedented in terms of the musical crowd, the public effect and the dimension of the religious experience. And by the way, it is impossible to detach from the feeling that surrounding the city with its walls marked, as was customary in ancient times, a framework of immunity, of divine protection of Jerusalem (like for example the pomerium) and raised it to the high rank of a "capital city" if we use a modern phrase.

It appears, both in light of the text itself, both in light of the musical preparations (the appointments) that preceded the ceremony and in light of a comparison with similar ceremonies later in the days of the Second Temple, that during the ceremony which was conducted lazily, at the same time, outside the walls, the musical accompaniment was planned and probably reached a high level of performance. And by the way, during the walk, there was antiphonal singing in the choir itself, and/or between different choirs, as well as "litanies" - "torments" from the mouths of the celebrating people.

The "thank you" processions were named after the sacrifices of thanks that were offered on the altar and after the name of the thanksgiving - the musical "thanks" that accompanied these ceremonies. Indeed, the two processions met at the entrance to the Temple Mount and entered together into the "House of God" (Nehemiah 40:XNUMX) and it seems that this planned meeting only added to the highly impressive and eye-catching public ritual dimension, and there they offered the sacrifices.

It is possible that Psalm XNUMX in the Psalms, attributed to the days of the Second Temple, belonged to this ceremony. This is a hymn that comes in the form of a procession song of a celebrating crowd, which was probably sung by two choirs - one in the inner courtyard of the temple and the other outside it, which greets the former. Even if we attribute this psalm to after the time of Nehemiah, there is no doubt that the thanksgiving ceremony in Nehemiah's "edition" became a symbol and focal point for later ceremonies, such as those that followed it.

We will also note from the symbolic-meaningful aspect, that the processions left near the steps descending from the City of David and each sailed on its own way.

From biblical testimonies belonging to this period, or to the continuation of the days of the Second Temple, we learn that the basics of the ritual effect became a practice in worship where music continued to occupy a prominent place. And apart from the significant fact embodied in the book of Maccabim XNUMX, it seems that the thanksgiving ceremonies became a basic institution, a formula exam in special clothing in the system of pilgrimage in the days of the Second Temple. Ascensions in which the musical experience gained special dimensions.

And similarly, it is interesting to sign off the discussed section with an allusion to one of the more impressive ceremonies that took place in the days of the Second Temple. These ceremonies, although they are late to the period of our discussion in this chapter, may shed special light on the continuation of Nehemiah's work, considering that its end indicates its beginning. This is about the "Shimchat Beit HaShuava" (or the "Shuava"), which involves bravery during the Sukkot holiday. This ceremony began with a musical liturgical class that took place in the temple with the participation of priests-trumpeters and Levites with cymbals, violins and harps. At the end, all this baggage, accompanied by the celebrating people, went down to the Shiloh pool to draw water. It is interesting that, apart from that musical ensemble, which appeared for the first time in the days of Nehemiah, at the ceremony of the dedication of the walls (the "Procession of Thanks"), the two processions in the days of Nehemiah began the journey around the walls from the "Pool of Shiloh" to the Temple Mount, before reaching the Temple.

The presentation of the two processions that met together was in terms of a deep religious experience, both personal and collective. In this way, Nehemiah sought to bring the public closer to Jerusalem and to foster more and more the sense of participation of the entire congregation in the holy service and its rituals.

Moreover, Nehemiah takes advantage of the religious experience and publishes the list of those in charge of the treasures of the priests and Levites, among them the poets and the porters. In doing so, he revealed that special, practical and halachic combination. In other words, the people witnessed with their own eyes and ears the musical performance of the Leviathan orchestras and their choirs, and then they will be able to understand the importance of Nehemiah regarding the public concern for the economy of those Levite-poets.

The synagogue - the revelations of music, the liturgical singing in the synagogue was the continuation of the days of the Second Temple such as the "Amen". 400 years passed from the days of Ezra to the rise of Christianity. During this long cure, the periodic reading of the Holy Scriptures in public became very institutionalized, with music serving as an important element. It is not known whether the public "answer" in the days of Ezra was part of the musical expression in these gatherings of the people. However, Ezra's contribution lies in the fact that he created the important connection between the people and the temple and strengthened it by gathering to hear the Holy Scriptures and participating in the "answer" of the "Amen".