The Priesthood as you did not know it - Chapter XNUMX: The priests in Si-Bmol

An integral part of the worship work in the ancient world, one that was connected to the sacrificial ceremonies, was the use of musical instruments.

In the book in the desert (10:XNUMX onwards), Moses is commanded by God to prepare two silver trumpets, and these will be used as communication tools to transmit information between the moving camps in the desert in Canaan and an important role is assigned to them in war and battle events. In the tenth verse, the musical activity in connection with the worship is embodied as follows: "And on the day of your joy, and on your feasts, and on the first days of your month, and blow the trumpets on your altars, on the sacrifices of your peace, and let them be a memorial to you before your God, I am the Lord your God."

From this text we learn that the pair of silver trumpets were only used as an ornamental accessory in worship, secondary and somewhat negligible. The threshold trumpets were not mentioned in the Bible later in the period, in relation to the royal era, both in oil and in their musical role. These vessels will be incorporated into the ritual activity in the temple only from the beginning of the Second Temple.

The building of the Second Temple, in the days of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Yeshua son of Yehozedek, the high priest, exposes us to an unprecedented innovation, which is the use of musical instruments in a clear connection to the ritual activity, both of the priests and the Levites, as well as in the combination of vocal-vocal music. The Second Temple was inaugurated accompanied by temple music. In this way, the promoters sought to create a new means, among other means, that would strengthen the bond between the people and their temple. It was an important step on the way to finding some practice that would attract the people to the temple and arouse in them the desire to take part in the religious ceremonies. As the audience may be carried away in the ecstasy that arises with the music and then their religious-ritual experience will rise to the heights.

With the dedication of the Temple of the Lord, it is said that the priests were placed "clad in trumpets" and "the Levites, the sons of Asaph, gathered with cymbals to praise the Lord" (Ezra 10:XNUMX). The clothing may have been a ceremonial uniform, or the trumpets were wrapped in fine cloth.

One of the highlight events of the Ezra and Nehemiah enterprises was the dedication ceremony of the walls in Jerusalem, after the Persian privilege was given to Shekman. The ceremony was held, with two processions going around the entire walls of Jerusalem and meeting at the Temple Mount. Among the musical performers in the ceremony we find Zechariah, one of the priests, who was in charge of the priests cheering with trumpets. Also, seven trumpet-playing priests are mentioned later, and among them the same Zechariah is mentioned. The musical combination of the seven trumpeter priests becomes a common musical composition even later in the period.

Zechariah's brothers, who were the Levites from the sons of Assaf, eight in number, played the "instrument of David the man of God" - probably on harps.

As mentioned, the trumpets in the Bible had a function that was mainly organizational and military, and even when the trumpets were used in worship, their function was not musical, but for "remembering" before God, similar to their function during war. This unique case appears in the Book of the Desert, when Moses is commanded by God to prepare "two trumpets of hardened silver" and witness the blowing of them to the priests "sons of Aaron".

Throughout the days of the First Temple, the priests do not blow trumpets, and at the return of Zion, Zerubbabel ben Sheltiel and Yeshua ben Yehozedek (the high priest), one of the leaders of the Aliyah, perform an unprecedented move, when they attest to the blowing of trumpets for priests and the use of music in general in relation to worship. And from then on, throughout the entire Second Temple period, the ones who blow the trumpets are none other than the priests alone. But not only was there a turning point in this matter, but procedures were established according to which the Levites were entrusted with the cymbals and two more musical instruments were added - the harp and the violin performed by the Levites.

It is possible that this can be attributed to the influence of Persian music, or perhaps to a musical, principled understanding 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 more familiar to the ear, ones that would produce and create, in a special combination with the trumpets and cymbals, a more significant musical effect.

The phenomenon in which the "sons of Aaron" (the priests) are the ones who blow the trumpets is prominent even in the author of the Chronicles, and the continuation of the practice is evidenced by Ben Sira (around 200 BCE), for the fact that the sons of Aaron cheer with "meksha trumpets" during the festive occasion of Yom Atonement

In the temple, a number of sacrifices were offered every day, public sacrifices, individual sacrifices and sacrifices for the safety of the Roman emperors and the Roman goddesses. The most important and significant of all were the public sacrifices, of which the Tamid sacrifices were distinguished, which were offered twice a day, at dawn and in the evening.

The day's work began with the call of the man, reading the proclamation: "The priests to work, and the Levites to the pulpit and Israel to the stand."

The gates would only be opened with the arrival of the person in charge of the atonements (the fates regarding the sacrificial priests). Then the donation of the fertilizer was made and the parts of the slaughtered lamb were prepared to be put on the altar. The priests gathered in the Gazit office and recited together with the people the Ten Commandments, "Hear", "And be if he hears", "And said", and say three blessings. According to the Mishnah, three blasts were to be blown when the relief gates were opened, and it describes the procedures of the ceremony: "They arrived (the two priests, the one who won the incense and the one who won the alms) between the hall and the altar. One of the superiors took the rake (a special musical instrument) and threw it between the hall and the altar. No one hears the voice of his friend in Jerusalem over the sound of the rake, and three things were used: A priest who hears its voice knows that his fellow Levites are entering to speak in song and he runs and comes, and the head of the class would place the impure at the Mizrah Gate (Nicnor Gate)" (Timidim XNUMX:XNUMX).

After that, the incense burning ceremony was held, after which all the priests entered to bow in the temple, and then they came out and stood on the steps of the hall to bless the people with a priestly blessing. After that, the last part of the Tamim work took place - the placing of the members on the altar and the pouring of the wine. These actions were distinguished from the pressing of the wine by the priests blowing the trumpets.

With the giving of the wine to the priest... "The lieutenant (deputy of the priests) stands on the horn and the sodras in his hand, and two priests stand on the table of milk (the marble table on which the sacrificial torches were placed) and two silver trumpets (so in the wording) in their hands. Punch and cheer and punch. They (the two players) came and stood by Ben Arza (the harp player), one on his right and one on his left. The (priest) swam to the prince, and the lieutenant waved the sodrin, and Kish ben Arza played the psaltery and the Levites spoke in song. When they reached the part (the place where the song stopped), the people clapped and bowed. For each stuck episode, and for each stuck experience. This is the regular order for the worship of the house of our God" (Mishna Tamid XNUMX:XNUMX).

Apart from the three blasts for the opening of the relief gates in the morning, there were nine more blasts on the trumpet in the regular dawn ceremony and nine blasts in the evening, and this is according to the Mishna's instruction, that there is no pohtin of twenty-one blasts each day and there is no Musifin on forty-eight. The thirty-six tiquiots included the number of twenty-one each day plus nine tiquiots on days when there is an additional sacrifice, namely on Saturdays and holidays, and six tiquiots on Shabbat. Forty-eight blasts included the Shabbat in the holiday, which is the Sukkot Festival, the most impressive and colorful of all three traditions. The blasts echoed all over Jerusalem and gave the public the feeling of personal participation during the ritual rituals.

The priests blowing the trumpets, an ancient tradition from the days of the Second Temple, has a deeply meaningful symbolism to the divine command to Moses in the desert. The biblical teaching commanding to cast the trumpets out of silver was highlighted in Sage sources and discussed in the various midrashim. Their work is "the work of a craftsman and the work of a cornus" (Midrash Seferi Bamdbar, Baha'altach, EB) and even their number and measure are equal in size. It should also be noted that those who blow the trumpets, in addition to being priests, were obliged to be innocent, without blemish, for let's not forget that the public status required their impressive and respectable appearance.

It is worth remembering that in the Titus Gate, one that sought to commemorate the victory of the Romans over the rebellious Jews, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, three important temple items are engraved-engraved: the seven-reeded lamp, the censer and the pair of trumpets, considering the central tools in the Jewish temple worship.

An interesting episode, from the time of Agrippa II (half of the first century AD), enriches us with an important detail: there were people in Jerusalem who were in charge of renting the trumpets to the priests, when the rental cost reached one gold dinar for the rental of a trumpet, that is, an extremely high cost. This issue is obviously not about renting tools for use in the temple, but, it seems, for training purposes.

Another instrument, from the family of wind instruments, which was in the custody of the priests was the shofar, and beyond its use in Rosh Hashanah ceremonies and Lent, its place was usually absent from the other ceremonies. It should be emphasized that after the destruction the shofar occupies a dominant place in the worship ceremonies, and this is because the destruction of the temple completely froze the use of trumpets. Philo the Alexandrian declares that on Rosh Hashanah they would blow the trumpet, and that is why this holiday is called the "Feast of the Trumpet".

The Mishna instructs that the willows on the Sukkot holiday would be erected on the altar and then the priests would blow the trumpets: blow, cheer and blow. The blowing of the trumpet was very characteristic of the holiday and was heard even during the ceremony of sprinkling the water on the altar in the following order: blowing, cheering and blowing until they reached the water gate. The explosiveness of the implosion also emerges from the testimony of Plutarch, the Roman historian, who chooses to find wonderful parallels between the Sukkot ceremony and the worship of Dionysus. He says that the Jews who enter the temple on the day of yore in Sukkot blow small trumpets in order to wake up the god, as the priests of Dionysus do. Plutarch goes on to say that the procession of the playing Levites is led by the high priest, all dressed in bright clothing, wearing a coat with a coat that reaches to his knees and many bells woven into the hem of the cloak and ringing under it, quite similar to the external author Shimon Ben Sira who lived and wrote in the Hellenistic period.

The peak of the Sukkot holiday was folded at the end, on the day of the joy of Beit HaShuava, and according to the Sages - "Anyone who has not seen the joy of Beit HaShuava, has not seen joy in his days" (Yerushalmi Sukkah XNUMX na XNUMXa), one in which the partaker is expected to be divinely inspired and for a special holy mask.

In spectacular and eye-catching ceremonies, priests and Levites would light the fire in the temple lamps, "and there was not a court in Jerusalem that was not illuminated by the light of the house of worship" (Midrash Shochar Tov, Psalms, Kemet). The Levites stood with their musical instruments - violins, harps, cymbals and trumpets (!!!) - on the 15 steps of the Nicanor Gate Square, from the help of Israel to the help of women, in the presence of the whole crowd that gathered there and filled the temple courtyards.

The priests stood at the Nicanor gate, at the top of the 15-degree structure, above the Levitical orchestra and its choir, "with two trumpets in their hands. cried the man (as dawn broke), they blew and cheered and blew (their trumpets) (and began to descend the stairs) they reached the top of the tenth, blew and cheered and blew. They came to help (to the help of women, while going down the stairs), poked, cheered and poked. They were stuck and walked until they reached the gate going out to the east (with the help of women for the army on the Temple Mount, and from there the priests went/walked and all the people followed them to the kind of shiloh, to draw water for the nisush), they reached the gate going out to the east, bowed down and sang" (Sukkah XNUMX:XNUMX).

Was only one priest given the right to blow, since in the temple, according to the desert commandment, there were only two silver trumpets? of course not. Anyone entitled to stick in this position would stick. The pair of trumpets symbolized the mythological connection to the desert trumpets of Moses. And maybe it's the classical Greek flute at all, the pan flute which consisted of a pair of flutes in the joint closest to the mouthpiece and was wrapped around the neck and nape of the player.

On Rosh Hashanah, another wind instrument was added, alongside the trumpet, which is the shofar, one that is very suitable for the atmosphere of the holiday, and according to the Mishnah - "A shofar for Rosh Hashanah - a top, simple (not bent) and the mouth is coated with gold (at the bell-like end) and two trumpets from the side (and two sticks in the trumpets on both sides of the one blowing the shofar). Shofar lengthens (by its blowing) and trumpets shorten (from me-to teach) that today's mitzvot is with the shofar" (Rosh Hashana XNUMX).

On Yom Kippur, the Trumpet and Shofar were recognized as having an important place in considering the means of dividing the gates of heaven, but when the high priest would mention the explicit name, the priests beside him would sing the name in front of the public with a naima. It is not known whether it is an instrumental or vocal use, and in any case it is musical and its effect was supposed to be tremendous due to the intention to obscure the saying of God's name.

The flowers of the priesthood occupy a particularly prominent place in the issue of Yom Kippur, because in this ceremony the figure of the high priest stands tall, unlike other ceremonies in the temple. The function of the flowers of the priesthood is to make sure that the high priest does not fall asleep on the night of the ceremony and they "prepare before him with a hoarse finger (with the thumb, middle finger) on (the base of) the thumb" and according to the Jerusalem Talmud they make a pleasant sound that is said with a hoarse finger" (Yom Kippur, XNUMX. B). They were forbidden to engage the high priest with the harp or the violin but with the mouth, and they would sing the "song of the virtues" before him.

The series of articles "The Priesthood You Didn't Know" by Dr. Yehiam Sorek

• Part I - the end of the First Temple and the exile in Babylon
• Part II - Return to Zion
• Part III - The Hellenistic period
• Part XNUMX - The priesthood in Marumiya
• Part XNUMX - The priesthood makes muscles
• Part XNUMX - Matthew turns over in his grave
• Part XNUMX - The priesthood begins to lose height
• Part VIII - The reign of Hyrcanus
• Part IX - Herod stirs up the priesthood
• Part XNUMX - The Priesthood and the Christian Jesus
• Part XNUMX - There is life after Herod
• Part XNUMX - The priesthood deals with clothes
• Part XNUMX - Bureau for Exposing Corruption