996 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



Before this ceremony took place the liarvesting of grain was forbidden :' 

 "And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched com, nor fresh ears, until 

 this selfsame day, until ye have brought the oblation of your God." 

 From that day seven weeks, or forty-nine days, were counted,^ to the 

 feast of Pentecost; hence its Hebrew name Hag Im-tihahuoth "feast 

 of weeks," and the usual English name "Pentecost," which is the 

 TTSvrrjKoffr}] pentelwste, meaning the fiftieth day. It is also called 

 "feast of harvest,"^ because the grain harvest then approached its 

 close, and "day of first fruits,"^ because two loaves of bread from the 

 new wheat were offered on that feast. "^ With the destruction of the 

 Temijle the ceremony of waving the sheaf in the Sanctuary necessarily 

 fell away, but the counting is still observed and the prayers contained 

 in the tablet form part of the ritual during the time from Passover to 

 Pentecost. 



LuLAB AND Ethrog. — The Lulab and Ethrog, bound up with myrtle 

 and willow branches, are used by the Jews at the feast of Tabernacles, 

 in pursuance of the command in Leviticus xxiii, 40: "And ye shall 

 take you on the first day, the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm 

 trees, and boughs of thick trees and willows of the brook, and ye shall 

 rejoice before the Lord your God seven days." Each day of the feast 

 a circuit {haqqafah) is made during the service with the Lulab in the 

 right hand and Ethrog in the left, while reciting the prayers; begin- 

 ning and closing with the invocation "Hosanna." On the seventh day 

 seven such processions take place and willow branches are beaten 

 on the benches, and this day is therefore called Hosannah liabbah, the 

 day of the great Hosanna. 



Manuscript copy of the Book of Esther, written on ])archment, 

 with hand-painted views illustrating the events narrated in the book. — 

 The Book of Esther is usually called Megilla (roll), or more fully Megil- 

 lath Esther (roll of Esther). It is read in the Synagogue on the feast 

 of Furim, on the loth of Adar (March-April), established to commem- 

 orate the deliverance of the Jews from the machinations of Haman 

 related in this book. It is one of the "five rolls" {Jiamesh megilloth) 

 which are read on various occasions in the Synagogue, the others being 

 the Songs of Solomou or Canticles, Euth, Ecclesiastes, and Lamenta- 

 tions. 



Lamp used at the Feast of Dedication (HanuMah). (See plate 

 17, fig. 2.) The Feast of Dedication is celebrated in comniemoration 

 of the purging of the temple and restoration of the altar after Judas 

 Maccabneus had driven out the Syrians in 164 B. C. Its institution is 



' Leviticus xxiii, 14. 



2 Leviticus xxiii, 15; Deuteronomy xvi, 9. 



•' Kxodns xxiii, 16. 



' Numbers xxviii, 26; couipare Exodus xxxiv, 22. 



■'^Leviticus xxiii, 17. Since the dispersion Pentecost lias been connected by tradi- 

 tion with tlie day on wliicb the Law Avas given on Mouut Sinai and the festival is 

 called hag maitan torah, the feast of the giving of the law. 



