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TWO ANCIENT ISRAELITE AGRICULTURAL
FESTIVALS *
By Julian Morgenstern, Hebrew Union College,
Cincinnati.
MlSHNAH Ta'anit IV, 8 records a highly interesting
ceremony. Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel said : ' Israel
had no festivals like the fifteenth of Ab and the Day of
Atonement, for on them the maidens of Jerusalem used
to go out, clad in white garments, that had been borrowed,
in order not to put to shame those who had none (of their
own). All these garments had to be previously dipped
in water. 1 And the maidens of Jerusalem would go out
and dance in the vineyards. And what would they say ?
" Young man, lift thine eyes and see what thou dost choose.
Set not thine eyes upon beauty, but upon family, &c." '
* This paper was written in the winter of 1913 in response to the
invitation of a committee of European Semitic scholars to contribute an
article to & Festschrift, by means of which they intended to commemorate
the sixtieth birthday of Immanuel Low, Rabbi at Szegedin, Hungary, and
famous Semitic scholar. The European war, however, prevented the
publication of the Festschrift. After waiting for over two years, the author
has determined to follow the example of NOldeke, Littmann, and other
scholars, and publish this article independently. He trusts that the scholarly
world, and particularly he whom it was designed to honour, will still accept
it as a small token of appreciation of and reverent tribute to true and
exalted scholarship.
1 According to the traditional interpretation, as recorded by Rashi (/. c),
nTStJ means ritual washing, on the supposition that the owner may have
worn the garments during menstruation. But the statement of R. Eliezer
(Bab. Ta'anit 31 a), that even if the garments had been laid away in a chest
fvDD was still necessary, shows that this was not for ritual purposes.
31
32 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
This custom presents many peculiar and interesting
features, well worthy of investigation ; the dances of the
maidens in the vineyards, the white, borrowed garments,
which had first to be dipped in water, and the words of
the maidens, all give rise to wonder and question. A full
and detailed investigation of the origin and significance of
these strange rites would lead too far afield for the present
study. But the consideration of the two days upon which
these rites were celebrated, and the association of the rites
with these days, may form the natural approach to the
subject proper, and in itself yield valuable results.
Assuming for the present that the statement of the
Mishnah has direct historic value, there cannot be
the slightest doubt that these ceremonies could not have
been performed on the Day of Atonement after its in-
stitution in post-exilic times according to the ritual of
Leviticus. That was altogether a day of fasting, humility,
and repentance, 'a day of self-affliction' (Lev. 16. 29),
while these rites must by their very nature have been
essentially joyful. Nor can we regard as convincing the
reasons for the observance of these ceremonies on the Day
of Atonement, advanced in the Mishnah, viz. that this was
the anniversary of the consecration of Solomon's temple,
and in the Talmud (Bab. Ta'anit 30 b), viz. that this was
the day of divine pardon and forgiveness, as well as the
day upon which the second tablets were given to Moses
(Exod. 34 and Deut. 9. 25 ft, and cp. Rashi to Exod. 34
and Deut. 9. 10 and to Ta'anit 30 b), and consequently,
because it was thus essentially a day of gladness and
festivity, these joyful ceremonies were altogether appro-
priate to its celebration. The nature and peculiar cere-
monies of the Day of Atonement are too firmly established
ANCIENT AGRICULTURAL FESTIVALS — MORGENSTERN 33
by the legislation of the Priestly Code (Lev. 16 ; 23. 26-32 ;
Num. 29. 7-1 1) to either permit or justify festivities such
as these. If, therefore, historical value can be attributed
to this tradition, it must picture the celebration of a festival
on the tenth day of the seventh month at a time previous
to the institution of the Day of Atonement on this day
according to the Priestly legislation, or more correctly, in
view of the actual facts of Jewish history, previous to the
Babylonian exile.
Now we do know that still by Ezekiel the tenth day
of the seventh month was regarded as the New Year's
Day (Ezek. 40. 1 ; cp. Bertholet, 195 ; Kraetzschmar, 263).
This is to be inferred also from the fact that the blowing
of the Jubilee cornet and the proclamation of the Jubilee
year, which must naturally have taken place on the first
day of the year, were fixed for the tenth day of the seventh
month (Lev. 25. 9; cp. Bertholet, 89 f. ; Baentsch, 416).
The celebration of this day must have been primarily of
a joyful nature. In this light the merry dances of the
maidens of Jerusalem in the vineyards would seem an
altogether natural and appropriate way of celebrating the
joyful New Year's Day. And since the celebration of these
dances on the tenth of the seventh month, if at all historical,
must have taken place in pre-exilic times, when this day
was actually regarded as the New Year's Day, it may well
be that there was some intimate relation between the two,
and that we have thus stumbled upon one of the actual
details of the pre-exilic New Year's Day celebration.
But according to the Mishnah these dances were held,
not only on the Day of Atonement, but also on the fifteenth
of Ab. Accounting for the celebration of this day in this
joyful manner the Talmud records a number of interesting
VOL. VIII. D
34 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
and significant traditions (Ta'anit 30 b ; 31a; cp. also Baba
batra 121 a and b and Midrash Lamentations Rabba,
Introduction XXXIII, ed. Buber, 34 ft".). Of these, four
have direct bearing upon our study.
I. According to R. Nahman, the fifteenth of Ab was
the day upon which the Benjamites, after the battle of
Gibeah, captured the maidens of Shiloh, while dancing in
the vineyards, and took them as wives (Jud. 21).
II. Said R. Johanan, the fifteenth of Ab was the day
upon which the number of those who were doomed to die
in the wilderness was completed. In explanation the
following tradition is related (Jer. Ta'anit IV, 69 c ; Mid-
rash Lam. Rab., I.e.). During the entire forty years that
the Israelites were in the wilderness, on the eve of every
ninth of Ab, Moses would cause a herald to go and call
out, ' Come forth to dig '. Then every man would come
forth and dig a grave for himself and would sleep therein,
that he might not die without his grave being dug. And
on the morrow the herald would go and call out, ' Let the
living separate themselves from the dead '. Then every
one in whom there was life would stand up and come
forth. So they would do every year. And in the fortieth
year they did so, but on the morrow they all stood up.
And when they saw this they were surprised and said,
' Perhaps we have erred in reckoning the new moon (and
consequently this is not the ninth of the month)'. So
they lay down again in their graves during the succeeding
nights, until the night of the fifteenth. And then, when
they saw that the moon was full, and that not a single
one of them had died, and thus knew that they had
reckoned the month correctly, and that the forty years
in which it was decreed that those who had come forth
ANCIENT AGRICULTURAL FESTIVALS — MORGENSTERN 35
from Egypt should perish in the wilderness, were com-
pleted, that generation appointed that day, the fifteenth
of Ab, as a festival. In addition to this the Tosafists
(ad locum) relate that during the forty years in the wilder-
ness deaths occurred only on the ninth of Ab.
III. According to Ulla, quoting R. 'Imri (cp. Midrash
Lam. Rab., /. c), the fifteenth of Ab was observed as
a festival because on that day Hoshea b. Elah abolished
the guards that Jeroboam b. Nebat had set up over the
roads to prevent the people of the northern kingdom from
going to celebrate the three annual pilgrimage festivals
in Jerusalem (cp. 1 Kings 12. 26-33).
IV. R. Mathna said that the occasion of the celebration
of the fifteenth of Ab was that on that day permission was
given to bury those who had fallen at the capture of Bethar
(on the ninth of Ab, A.D. 135, cp. Graetz 4 , IV, 150 f. and
Jer. Ta'anit IV, 69 a).
It is significant that of these traditions two (I and III)
correlate the celebration of these dances of the maidens
of Jerusalem in the vineyards with the observance of an
annual hag, or even with the three annual haggim, Pesah,
Shabuot, and Succot. And not only that, but tradition I,
which states that the dances of the maidens of Shiloh in
their vineyards were also held on the fifteenth of Ab and
were attended by the marriage of the maidens of Shiloh
with the Benjamites, concealed in the vineyards, clearly
identifies these dances with those of the maidens of
Jerusalem in their vineyards, with the young men gathered
about them too and selecting their wives from the dancers.
The inference is justified that dances such as these may
have been a regular, and even integral, part of the folk-
celebration of the annual hag or of the three annual haggim.
T> 2
36 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
This inference is supported by considerable evidence.
Josephus expressly states (Antiquities, V, 2, 12) that the
dances of the maidens of Shiloh were held three times
during each year, when the men of Israel came up to the
sanctuary to celebrate the three annual pilgrimage festivals,
accompanied by their wives and children, precisely in the
manner described in 1 Sam. 4. Furthermore, it is now
generally recognized that the original meaning of hag was
the sacred dance (cp. Gesenius-Buhl u , 191 f.), primarily
around the sacred stone or cult object (cp. Wellhausen,
Reste des altarabischen Heidentums' 1 , no), but which, by
a very natural extension in folk custom, might easily come
to be practised, in part at least, in the form of these dances
by the maidens in the vineyards. And, finally, it is signi-
ficant that every vineyard apparently had to have its mahol,
or dancing-place, as the name must have originally con-
noted. This mahol, surrounding every vineyard, was a
narrow, open space, intended undoubtedly, at least in its
origin, for just these dances. The exact dimensions of the
mahol are prescribed in Mishnah Kil'aim IV, 1-3. 2 All
this evidence makes it certain that these dances were not
mere sporadic celebrations of the maidens of Jerusalem
and Shiloh, but were regularly observed, though not
necessarily in identically the same form, throughout the
country, at least in early times. And it is equally certain
that these dances, clearly of a religious, as well as of
a joyful character, were not celebrated occasionally, but
as all the evidence indicates, at fixed times of the agri-
* Cp. also the Aramaic equivalent of tnafrdl, Ijinga (from Mri), the dancing-
place in the vineyard (Jastrow, 458 a), and also my article, ' The Etymo-
logical History of the Three Hebrew Synonyms for "to Dance",' JAOS.,
XXXVI (1916), 321-33-
ANCIENT AGRICULTURAL FESTIVALS — MORGENSTERN 37
cultural year, and in connexion with the annual hag or
haggim.
On the other hand, two of the traditions (II and IV)
connect the dances of the maidens of Jerusalem in the
vineyards on the fifteenth of Ab with the cessation of
some great national calamity that had happened on the
ninth of Ab, but from the evil effects of which the people
were freed only on the fifteenth. 3 From ancient times the
3 In this connexion it may be noted that Josephus {Wars, II, 1 7, 5-7) relates
that on the fifteenth of Ab an attack was made on the fortress of Anton ia,
which practically began the war with the Romans. On the previous day,
which was also the festival of the Xylophory, or bringing the wood for the
altar, the Sicarii, mingling with the crowds that thronged the temple, had
already begun the attack upon the garrison. It is most natural to connect
this festival of bringing the wood for the altar with the tradition recorded
in the Talmud (Ta'anit 31a; Baba batra iai b ; Midrash Lam. Rab., /. c), also
accounting for the celebration of the fifteenth of Ab by the dances of the
maidens in the vineyards, that according to Rabba and R. Joseph this was
the day upon which they ceased to cut wood for the altar. In support of this
statement, a saying of R. Eliezer the Great, found in a Baraita, is cited, affirm-
ing that from the fifteenth of Ab on the heat of the sun began to diminish,
and so they ceased to cut wood for the altar because it was no longer dry.
Hence that day was called 'the day of breaking the saw '. One cannot but
feel that Josephus has here confused matters somewhat, and that the festival
of bringing the wood for the altar was celebrated, not on the fourteenth of Ab
as he says, but on the fifteenth. In fact, it must be admitted that just here
he has expressed himself rather obscurely as to the exact date in question,
and that most probably he too meant that the fifteenth of Ab was the actual
date of this festival. This is borne out by the fact that Mishnah Ta'anit IV, 5
records nine different annual occasions or festivals upon which wood was
brought to replenish the temple supply. Of these the fifteenth of Ab was
evidently the most important (cp. Bab. Ta'anit 28 a). This is also clearly
stated in Megillat Ta'anit V (ed. Neubauer, p. 9). According to the Mishnah,
the observance of the fifteenth of Ab as the festival of the wood-offering
began in the days of Nehemiah (Neh. 10. 35). That, however, the festival is of
more ancient origin will soon be demonstrated. Josephus further states that
the massacreing had been going on for seven days previous to the fifteenth of
Ab, i. e. from the ninth on. This might, therefore, be cited as another instance
where the fifteenth of Ab, celebrated as a joyful festival, is intimately
38 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
ninth of Ab has been celebrated as a fast day in
Judaism commemorating the destruction of the temple by
Nebuchadrezzar. In fact Zech. 7. 5 ff. and 8.19 would
seem to imply that this fast in the fifth month was in-
stituted immediately after the destruction of the temple,
and had by the time of the prophet been thus observed
for seventy years. The actual question there raised is
whether the completion of the second temple did not
abrogate the celebration of that fast, as well as the fasts
of the fourth, seventh, and tenth months, all of which were
by tradition associated with the destruction of the temple
and the fall of Jerusalem. But it is quite significant that
according to 2 Kings 25. 8, Jerusalem fell on the seventh
of Ab, while according to Jer. 52. 12, this happened on the
tenth of the month. It is impossible to determine which
of these two dates is historically correct. But certainly
if, as the passages from Zechariah actually imply, the
celebration of the anniversary of the destruction of the
temple as a fast day began immediately after the occur-
rence of that event, there would be no reason for holding
this fast on the ninth of Ab, instead of on the seventh
or tenth, as the case might have been. Furthermore, the
very fact, already noted, of the traditional connexion
between the joyful celebration of the dances in the vine-
yards on the fifteenth of Ab and some national calamity
that had occurred on the ninth of the month, and the
other evidence that these dances were merely a feature of
the celebration of an annual hag, the usual duration of
associated with certain events that transpired, or began to transpire, on the
ninth. At the same time, Josephus, being a contemporary, probably has
recorded actual historical events, rather than semi-historical traditions,
and therefore this incident may hardly be applied directly to our present
question.
ANCIENT AGRICULTURAL FESTIVALS — MORGENSTERN 39
which seems to have been seven days, lead us rather to
suppose on the one hand that the fast on the ninth of Ab
was older, probably much older, than the fall of Jerusalem,
probably marked the beginning of the seven-day hag that
concluded with the dances on the fifteenth, and on the
other hand that its association with the fall of Jerusalem
and the destruction of the temple, which had actually
taken place on almost that very day, was the result ot
that process of attaching an historical significance to the
ancient festivals, which probably began with the definite
association of the story of the exodus from Egypt with the
Passover festival, or rather with the combined Passover and
Mazzot-festivals. No certain mention of this association
is found in the oldest legislation (Exod. 23. 15 ; 34. 18), 4
and yet it had become a firmly established tradition by
the time of the composition of the J and E codes.
Similarly the Holiness Code (Lev. 23. 43), undoubtedly
the product of the early exilic period, for the first time
definitely associated the Succot festival with the tradition
that in the wilderness Israel had dwelt in booths. It is
only post-Biblical tradition that associated Shabuot with
the giving of the Decalogue (cp. Jewish Encyclopaedia, IX,
594). It was undoubtedly the same spirit which thus sought
to justify the continued observance of the old agricultural
festivals, most of the details of the celebration of which
were certainly of non-Jahwistic origin, by correlating them
with definite events in the history of Israel, that now
associated the ancient fast on the ninth of Ab with the
destruction of the temple. And, as we have seen, so com-
plete and thoroughgoing was this association that only
* Exod. 23.9bandi5aj3and34.i8bare undoubtedly redactorial insertions
into the original text ; cp. Holzinger 96, 117 and Baentsch 206 f., 233 f.
40 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
seventy years after the destruction of the temple the day
had become to Zechariah and his contemporaries only the
anniversary of that catastrophe, and, it now seemed, need
no longer be celebrated, since the new temple replaced that
for which they mourned and fasted. That this hypothesis
is correct will soon become completely apparent.
We return now to the celebration of the dances on the
tenth day of the seventh month. We have seen that if
the account of these dances be historical, and there seems
no adequate reason to doubt this, they must have" been
celebrated before the exile and in connexion with the
observance of New Year's Day. As we have seen, both
Mishnah and Talmud associate their celebration with
historical events other than those by which they account
for the celebration of the dances on the fifteenth of Ab.
Yet the Mishnah itself seems to imply that the dances
on the two days were of the same nature and purpose.
And the very fact that the attendant ceremonies, the
borrowing of the white garments that had to be dipped
in water, and the words of the maidens, recited or chanted
in chorus during the dances, were the same on both days,
leads to the same conclusion. If, therefore, as we have
inferred, the celebration of the dances on the fifteenth of
Ab represented the concluding rites of a great seven-day
hag, which began on the ninth with fasting and mourning,
we would expect to find this true also of the dances on
the tenth day of the seventh month. That this was actually
the case is easily demonstrated.
According to Exod. 23. 16 and 34. 22, the oldest
Biblical legislation, the hag hdasiph was celebrated at the
end of the year. In itself it was hardly the new year
festival. Rather the language seems to imply that its
ANCIENT AGRICULTURAL FESTIVALS — MORGENSTERN 41
celebration marked the close of the old year, and that the
beginning of the new year came immediately thereafter,
fell probably on the very day after the close of the hag.
Neither of these oldest Biblical references mentions the
actual duration of the festival. But according to all other
pre-exilic and exilic writings it was celebrated for seven
days (Lev. 33. 39 ff.; Deut. 16. 13 ; 1 Kings 8. 65; Ezek.
14. 35). Now, since the New Year's Day was celebrated,
at least in the period immediately preceding the exile, on
the tenth day of the seventh month, and probably followed
immediately upon the seven-day celebration of the ancient
hag ha'asiph, or, as finally called in Deut. (16. 13), hag
kassuccot, it follows that this last must have been celebrated
during this period from the third to the ninth of the seventh
month. 5
In this connexion the tradition recorded in the Mishnah
6 It is true that Deut. 16. 13 dates the celebration of the Succot-festival
only at the time of the gathering in of the produce of the threshing-floor
and wine-press. This must have been the original practice in the days
of the local shrines. Then the varying times of the harvest and threshing
seasons in the different parts of the country must have caused a slight
variation in the dates of celebration of the local festivals (cp. 1 Kings 13. gs f.).
But the practical application of the Deuteronomic principle of the central
sanctuary naturally necessitated the fixing of one definite date for the
celebration- of the festival by the entire nation. And, as the evidence has
now made clear, this must have been from the third to the ninth of the
seventh month, with the tenth celebrated as New Year's Day. This probably
explains the selection of the Succot-festival as the time for reading the law
to the people every seven years (Deut. 31. 10 f.). Not so much because
of the multitude assembled for the celebration of the festival (ver. 11 a; this
is probably secondary, cp. Steuernagel, in) as because of the association
of the Succot-festival with New Year's Day, marking the beginning of the
year of release, was this time selected for this purpose. Similarly, the
opening ceremonies of the Jubilee year took place on this day (cp. above,
p. 33)> and similarly, too, Ezra began to read the law to the people on
the New Year's Day, celebrated, however, in his time on the first of Tishri
(Neh. 9 iff,).
42 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
that the tenth day of the seventh month was the anniversary
of the dedication of Solomon's temple acquires new signifi-
cance. According to i Kings 8. 2, 65 f., the dedication of the
temple was celebrated in connexion with the annual hag
of seven days. On the eighth day the closing ceremonies
of Solomon's dismissal of the people to their homes and
their blessing of him occurred. It is a very plausible
conjecture that the dedication of the temple was made
coincident with the hag, not only because of the large
crowds that would thus be enabled to be present, but also
because so important an event, which, especially in the
king's mind, clearly marked the beginning of a new epoch
in Israel's histoiy, might be fixed most fittingly for the
beginning of a new year. The actual New Year's Day
would in all likelihood be the eighth day of the festival,
the day of the dismissal of the people. It is noteworthy
that just in this connexion the Targum records that the
month of 'Etanim, in which the dedication was celebrated,
was actually the beginning of the year. In all likelihood
the memory of the association of the dedication of the
temple with the ancient New Year's Day prompted this
remark of the Targum. At any rate this tradition of the
Mishnah, which undoubtedly rests upon a firm, historic
foundation, like the other traditions, recorded ab->ve, un-
mistakably associates the tenth day of the seventh month
with the pre-exilic celebration of the annual hag for seven
days, apparently from the third to the ninth of the month,
and implies at the same time that the tenth itself was the
ancient New Year's Day as well as the day of the con-
clusion of the ceremonies of dedication and the dismissal
of the people.
We have seen that the first day of the hag, which, we
ANCIENT AGRICULTURAL FESTIVALS — MORGENSTERN 43
have ventured to assert, was celebrated from the ninth
to the fifteenth of Ab, was observed as a day of fasting
and mourning. We might therefore expect to find the
hag from the third to the ninth of the seventh month
beginning in the same manner. Nor are we disappointed.
The third day of the seventh month has become fixed
in the Jewish calendar as an annual fast day commemorating
the murder of Gedaliah b. Ahikam after the destruction
of Jerusalem (cp. a Kings 25. 25 ; Jer. 41. 1 ff.). In Zech.
7. 5 ff. the fast of the seventh month is correlated with that
of the fifth month, as if to imply that both fasts had
a common origin. This would naturally go hand in hand
with the tradition preserved in our Mishnah that the dances
on the fifteenth of Ab and on the tenth day of the seventh
month likewise had a common origin and manner of
celebration. It has been suggested that the fast of the
seventh month may perhaps refer to that fast described
in Neh. 9. 1 ff. on the twenty-fourth of the month. But
there it is clearly implied that that fast is celebrated as
a special occasion of expiation and purification, and by
no means as an annual occurrence (cp. Siegfried, 104 {.;
Bertholet 72). This is certain from the fact that Neh. 8
states clearly that the system of holy days instituted by
the Priestly Code had been adopted and put into practice.
And in this system no provision is made for a fast on
the twenty-fourth of the seventh month. This could
therefore have been celebrated on only this one occasion.
It follows accordingly that the fast of the seventh month
referred to in Zech. 7. 56". and 8. 19 can mean only this
fast on the third of the month, which tradition has associated
with the murder of Gedaliah. And just as with the fast of
the fifth month, so too it is clearly stated that the fast
44 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
of the seventh month had been instituted already seventy
years before, at the time of the destruction of the temple,
or rather of the murder of Gedaliah. But though there
is every reason to believe that the murder of Gedaliah
actually occurred on the third day of the seventh month,
it is nevertheless difficult to understand why it should have
come to be celebrated immediately by a general fast. The
story in Jer. 41 nowhere implies that the effects of the
murder were far-reaching or partook in any way of the
nature of a great national calamity, similar to the destruc-
tion of the temple, but merely explains why Jeremiah and
his companions sought refuge in Egypt. Nor did the
murder apparently have the slightest effect upon the subse-
quent fortunes of Israel. And since we have had reason
to infer that the fast on the ninth of Ab was of ancient
origin, and only artificially associated with the destruction
of the temple, so too we may be justified in inferring that
the fast on the third day of the seventh month, in Zechariah
directly, and in our Mishnah indirectly, correlated with the
fast on the ninth of Ab, was likewise of ancient origin, and
only in the course of time came to be regarded as com-
memorative of the murder of Gedaliah.
Luckily this hypothesis can be fully corroborated.
Jer. 41 gives a detailed account of the murder of Gedaliah
and the attendant circumstances. Among other things,
the singular detail is chronicled that on the day after the
murder, but before it had yet become known to any one,
eighty men came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, with
beards shaven, garments rent and having made incisions in
their bodies, bringing a minhah and incense to the house
of God. Ishmael b. Nethaniah, the murderer, goes out
to meet them, weeping, and decoys them into Mizpah,
ANCIENT AGRICULTURAL FESTIVALS — MORGENSTERN 45
where he murders them too. All the details of this strange
scene cannot be easily explained, above all why Ishmael
should go out weeping to meet these men, and why he
should decoy them into the city only to murder them.
But this much is certain, that the men are clearly repre-
sented as in deep mourning, as if for some one dead. Yet
it cannot have been Gedaliah, for not only is it expressly
stated that this was known to no one as yet, but also they
are decoyed into the city by the invitation to come to
Gedaliah. That they are bringing up a minhah to the
house of God, i.e. apparently to the ruins of the temple
at Jerusalem (cp. Duhm, 317; Cornill, 416), would point
to the celebration of the hag or Succot-festival and the
bringing of a grain-offering, probably a first-fruit sacrifice,
to the central sanctuary. In fact Cornill says that this
rite would have to be regarded as a part of the Succot
celebration, were it not that the latter fell later in the
month, from the fifteenth to the twenty-second. Appa-
rently he has, along with other commentators, lost sight
of the fact that the Succot-festival was celebrated at this
date only in the post-exilic period, after the adoption of the
Priestly Code, and, as we have already established, before
the exile, i. e. at the time of the murder of Gedaliah, must
have been celebrated from the third to the ninth of the
seventh month. Therefore just the piece of evidence that
Cornill missed leads to the conclusion that we have to
do here with the account of a pre-exilic celebration of the
Succot festival, and that the pilgrimage of the eighty men
to the house of God, bringing their minhah with them,
as well as the accompanying rites of mourning, were all
regular details of the pre-exilic celebration of the festival.
It has been suggested that the mourning of the men, so
46 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
graphically portrayed, was because of the destruction of
the temple, barely two months before (Stade, Geschichte
des Volkes Israel, I, 698). But this hypothesis is altogether
groundless. Certainly the text implies that these rites of
mourning, especially the shaving of the beards and the
incisions in the bodies, had not been performed two months
before, but were still so fresh and recent as to merit remark.
The clear implication is that these incisions had just been
made, presumably the day before, at the moment of starting
out on the pilgrimage to the sanctuary. As Jer. 16. 6
implies, just these were the characteristic rites of mourning
for the dead. And on the other hand both Deut. 16. 1
and Lev. 19. 27 f. and 21. 5 definitely and positively
prohibit just these rites of mourning as abominations,
presumably because they partook of the nature of heathen
rites, which both the Deuteronomic and Holiness codes
sought to abrogate. It is certain, therefore, that these
were no rites of mourning for the destruction of the temple,
almost two months before, but that they were regular rites
of mourning with which the celebration of the Succot-
festival in this early period must have always begun. And
as rites of mourning necessarily and invariably imply
fasting, we have here positive confirmation of our hypo-
thesis that the third day of the seventh month was
celebrated from early times as a fast day and day of
mourning, as if for some one dead, marking the beginning
of the seven days of the Succot-festival, which culminated
in the New Year's Day on the tenth of the month, with
the dances of the maidens in the vineyards.
That these dances of the maidens in the vineyards were
a regular and integral part of the celebration of the hag,
and particularly of the Succot-festival in the pre-exilic
ANCIENT AGRICULTURAL FESTIVALS — MORGENSTERN 47
period, is clear also from the beautiful picture in Jer. 31.
4-6, 1 a, of the maidens of Israel, adorned with timbrels,
going forth to the dances of the merry-makers, apparently
at a time closely related to the sacred pilgrimage to Zion
and the beginning of the planting season. At least this
much is certain, that this picture is based upon the cele-
bration of just such dances as those of the maidens of
Jerusalem and Shiloh in connexion with the celebration
of the annual hag.
We have thus, we believe, established the existence in
pre-exilic Israel of two festivals of ancient origin, and, by
the very nature of their rites, especially the dances in the
vineyards, of agricultural significance. 6 Each festival was
of seven days' duration, beginning with a period of fasting
and mourning, as if for some one dead, continuing then
with the sacred pilgrimage and bringing of first-fruits, in
later times to the central sanctuary at Jerusalem, but in
earlier times certainly to the local shrines, and culminating
on the last day with the actual hag, or sacred dance, of
which the dances of the maidens in the vineyards were
probably a gradual evolution. That in these seven-day
agricultural festivals the sacred dance or hag was celebrated
regularly on the last day, or perhaps in some form or other,
on the last night (cp. Isa. 30. 29), may be safely inferred
from Exod. 1 3. 6, according to which the actual hag of the
8 Certainly Graetz's hypothesis (Geschichte derjuden*, III, 141 f.) that
these dances were instituted by the Pharisees during the happy reign of
Salome Alexandra (79-69 b. c.) in opposition to the Sadducees is altogether
groundless. Ceremonies like these are seldom, if ever, introduced artificially ;
they can be the result only of the evolution of ancient folk beliefs and
practices. Graetz has, moreover, completely ignored the fact that these
dances were held on the tenth day of the seventh month, as well as on
the fifteenth of Ab. Certainly Pharisaic rigorism would not have coun-
tenanced these dances on Yom Kippur.
48 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
Mazzot-festival took place on the seventh day. The one
festival was celebrated from the ninth to the fifteenth of
Ab ; the other, the pre-exilic Succot, from the third to the
ninth of the seventh month, with the additional celebration
of New Year's Day on the following day, the tenth of the
month.
In the ritual legislation of the Priestly Code, which
regulated the religious calendar in the period after Ezra,
the festival in Ab found no place. The fast on the ninth,
however, continued to be celebrated traditionally in com-
memoration of the destruction of the temple, and later in
commemoration of the destruction of the second temple
and the fall of Bethar, while still later Messianic tradition
made it the birthday of the Messiah (Talmud Jer. Berakob
II, 45 a, where the story is told that on the very same day.
that the temple was destroyed the Messiah was born).
And the dances of the maidens of Jerusalem in the vine-
yards survived for a time, probably until within the
recollection of Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel, as a pretty
folk custom. On the other hand the festival of the seventh
month, while retained, was completely recast in the new
ritual. New Year's Day was logically transferred to the
first day of the seventh month. The tenth was made the
day of the celebration of the great penitential and expiatory
ceremonies of Atonement, 7 while the Succot-festival was
7 There cannot be the least doubt that the institution of the Day of
Atonement with its peculiar purpose and ceremonies, particularly that
of the goat of Azazel, upon the pre-exilic New Year's Day was no mere
chance or arbitrary arrangement of the priestly codicists, but was so fixed
for very definite and positive reasons. The ceremony with the goat of
Azazel was unquestionably the survival of some ancient ceremony (perhaps
a local Jerusalem ceremony, since the goat seems to have been cast down
the rocks in historical times at Beth Hadudo not far from Jerusalem
(Mishnah Yoma VI, 8. The place is elsewhere called Beth Hadure and
ANCIENT AGRICULTURAL FESTIVALS— MORGENSTERN 49
transferred from its original date to the fifteenth-twenty-
second of the month, probably to conform to the date
Beth Horon : Jastrow 332 f.). Now the purification of the sins of an
entire people, often by means of scapegoats upon which the sins are
supposed to be laden bodily, and which are then driven away to perish
in some desert place, the abode of evil spirits, is a common practice. It is
usually practised once a year, and generally on New Year's Day (cp. Frazer,
The GMen Bough 3 , vol. VIII ; The Scapegoat, 127-30, 133, 145 50, 155,
165, 197, 202 f., 209). It is a by no means far fetched hypothesis that, in
addition to the other New Year's Day ceremonies, to which reference has
already been made, on this day rites of purification of the entire people,
or at least of the people of Jerusalem, and probably in similar manner
of other local communities, were practised, such as that of the goat of
Azazel, or other related rites similar to those described by Frazer {op. cit.).
The little tufts of red wool, which, as the Mishnah records (Yoma VI, 6, 8),
were affixed to the goat, were merely the physical representation of the
sins of the people laden upon the goat. From Isa. 1. 18, and probably with
it Ps. 51. 9, we may safely infer that sins were commonly represented
as being red in colour, and the corresponding state of purity white. This
too explains the symbolism of the tuft of red wool which, according to
R. Ishmael (Mish. Yoma VI, 8), was affixed to the door of the temple, and
turned white at the very moment when the goat was cast down the cliffs
of Beth Hadudo. (,It would lead too far afield to enter into a detailed
discussion of the symbolism of the red colour that plays so prominent
a rdle in various Biblical purification ceremonies, as, for example, the red
heifer (Num. 19), the cedar wood (probably chosen because of its red colour),
the scarlet thread, and the hyssop [there is no evidence that the hyssop
was red in colour. If its identification with the Origanum Maru, L. (cp.
Immanuel Low, ' Der biblische 'ezob ' {Siteungsber. d. kais. Akad. d. IVissen-
schaften in Wien, CLXI (1909), 3, p. 15 ; also Aramaische Pflanzennamen,
no. 93, pp. 134 ff.) be correct, it would seem to have white flowers. At
the same time, the plant itself, exclusive of the flowers, may have been
of reddish colour, or may have been selected for these purification cere-
monies for some other reason. According to the Zohar (I, 220 a ; II, 41 a,
80 b ; quoting Low, Der biblische 'ezob, 11) it was effective in the expulsion
of evil spirits. Dalman tells us {Zeitschrift des deutschen Paldstinavereins,
1912, 124 f.) that the Samaritans use a bunch of the common za'atar, or
Origanum Maru, in their Passover rites, and hold that it is identical with the
biblical hyssop. They believe that this plant possesses a certain mysterious,
supernatural power, in that a bunch of it placed in blood prevents the latter
from congealing. Not impossibly this traditional association of the hyssop
VOL. VIII. E
50 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
of Passover, six months earlier, from the full moon of the
month on. But whereas in the pre-exilic period Succot
had actually been a festival of only seven days' duration
with the following day, however, the supplementary New
Year's Day, in the post-exilic ritual, while still nominally
a seven-day festival, there was also intimately associated
with it the celebration of the eighth day, Shemini Azeret,
a day of particular sanctity and taboo, the real significance
of which, even in the Bible, seems shrouded in uncertainty.
Yet after our previous exposition there cannot be the
slightest doubt that it is nothing but the outcome of the
realization that there had been eight actual days of cele-
bration in connexion with the pre-exilic Succot, of which
the eighth day was important in itself and bore only a
rather loose connexion with the rest of the festival. Thus
it happens that Shemini Azeret appears in the Priestly
Code as a day, the celebration of which is supplementary to,
yet at the same time somewhat independent of, the actual
celebration of the seven days of the Succot-festival proper.
with blood may account for its use in the various purification ceremonies
in which, as a rule, blood plays the leading r6le], in the ceremonies of the
red heifer, and the purification of a leper (Lev. 14. 6 f., 51 ff.). It may,
however, be noted in passing that in Babylonian purification ceremonies
cedar wood was used extensively (cp. my ' Doctrine of Sin in the Babylonian
Religion ' {MVAG., 1905, 3, 151)), while, at least occasionally, the priest
seems to have worn dark-red garments (ibid. 145). Similarly, too, among
the Beduin to-day a child about to be circumcised, certainly a critical
moment when danger from evil spirits is to be feared, is clad in a red
garment (Musil, Arabia Pttraea, III, 232). Red seems to [have been the
favourite colour of evil plague spirits (cp. Gollancz, The Book of Protection,
XXXIII and LH ; Musil, op. cit., 328 ; v. Duhn, 'Rot und Tot', Archivf.
Religionswiss., IX (1906), 22 f.). In various parts of the world the colour
red plays a prominent part in purification ceremonies (Frazer, op. cit., 146,
190-92, 205, 208, 209, 213). This hypothesis would account completely
for the fixing in the new religious calendar of Yom Kippur upon the
pre exilic New Year's Day.
ANCIENT AGRICULTURAL FESTIVALS — MORGENSTERN 51
The question still remains, in whose honour were these
festivals originally celebrated, and, especially, for whom
were the rites of mourning, that marked their beginning,
performed? It is to-day a generally accepted fact that
the biblical agricultural festivals were of Canaanite origin,
and merely adopted by Israel when they began to follow
an agricultural life in the conquered land. The ancient
agricultural religious practices continued to be observed,
with comparatively slight modification, at least in the folk
religion, down to the exile itself. Against just these rites
and practices the prophets protested and the Deuteronomic
and Holiness codes legislated, but practically in vain. It
needed the complete cutting off of the people from their
ancient land and the gods from of old associated with it,
and the complete recasting of the religion and ritual in
a foreign land, to permit of a fairly, though by no means
absolutely, complete eradication of the old Canaanite
agricultural rites from the religious practice of the people.
Before the exile the old agricultural festivals were celebrated
from year to year in form but slightly modified from that
of the ancient Canaanite days. But since these festivals
must have primarily been celebrated in honour of the old
Canaanite gods, we cannot help seeing in these rites of
fasting and mourning as if for some one dead, that marked
their beginning, 8 survivals of the ancient mourning for
Adonis, the Canaanite god of vegetation, cut off in the
flower of his youth, and thus mourned as dead at the
8 That the Canaanite Mazzot-festival likewise began with fasting is to be
inferred from the present custom of pious Jews that the first-born sons fast
on the fourteenth of Nisan ('Orah Hayyim47o) in preparation for the Passover.
Furthermore, that the hag, or sacred dance, of the Mazzot-festival was
celebrated on the seventh or last day of the festival is, as said above, to
be inferred from Exod. 13. 6.
E 2
52 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
beginning of all these festivals, and yet believed to rise
again to new life. In accord with this belief the rites of
these festivals rapidly changed from fasting and mourning
to rejoicing and merry-making, often, if not generally,
culminating in scenes of gross licence, of which the dances
of the maidens in the vineyards, while the young men stood
by and selected their wives, were merely a mild survival.
This unquestionably correct explanation of the origin and
significance of the rites, both of the fasting and mourning
that began these festivals, and of the dances that formed
their culmination, rounds out, as it were, and completes our
chain of argument.
Perhaps final proof, if such be needed, may be found in
the fact that the fifteenth of Ab has continued to be cele-
brated in the Greek and Maronite Churches of Syria as the
Festival of the Repose or Assumption of the Virgin.
Referring to this day 'the Syrian text of The Departure
Of My Lady Mary From This World says, " And the
apostles ordered that there should be a commemoration of
the blessed one on the thirteenth of Ab (another manuscript
reads [more correctly] the fifteenth of Ab), on account of
the vines bearing bunches (of grapes), and on account
of the trees bearing fruit, that clouds of hail, bearing stones
of wrath, might not come, and the trees be broken, and
their fruits, and the vines with their clusters ".' ' Simi-
larly in the Arabic text of the apocryphal work On The
Passing Of The Blessed Virgin Mary, which is attributed
to the Apostle John, there occurs the following passage:
" Also a festival in her honour was instituted on the fifteenth
day of the month Ab, which is the day of her passing from
this world, the day on which the miracles were performed,
and the time when the fruits of the trees are ripening.'
ANCIENT AGRICULTURAL FESTIVALS — MORGENSTERN 53
' Further, in the calendar of the Syrian Church the fifteenth
of August (undoubtedly meaning the fifteenth of Ab) is
repeatedly designated as the festival of the Mother of God
" for the vines ".' 9 Bliss likewise informs us that in the
Greek Church the festival is preceded by a fourteen-days'
fast, while the Maronites observe a fast of eight days.
During this fast meat, eggs, cheese, and milk are strictly
forbidden {The Religions of Modern Syria and Palestine,
156 f.). Likewise, he says, 'on this day (the fifteenth of
Ab) huge crowds, bent quite as much on merry-making
as on worship, flock to the convent of the Virgin ' {op. cit.,
169). Frazer has correctly surmised that this festival
represents merely a christianized survival of an ancient
heathen festival. And the evidence here presented shows
that it must have been an agricultural festival, calculated
to promote the fertility of the trees and vines, that it must
have begun with a period of fasting, and presumably of
mourning for the dying deity, and culminated on the
fifteenth of Ab in a period of merry-making and pilgrimage.
This reminds us directly of our pre-exilic festival from the
ninth to the fifteenth of Ab. But its picture of the passing
of the Virgin reminds us equally of the customary Adonis
festivals as described by Lucian {De Dea Syra, 6), and
others, and even more particularly suggests a connexion
with the ancient Babylonian Saccaea-festival, also cele-
brated in honour of Ishtar, the virgin-goddess, in the same
month Ab, presumably at the time when she was thought
to depart into the nether-world, the 'land of no return',
the realm of the dead, in search of her dead lover, Tammuz,
the Babylonian Adonis (cp. Baudissin, Adonis und Esmun,
9 I have quoted directly from Frazer, The Golden Bough 3 , vol. I, The
Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, 14 f., since the works cited were
inaccessible to me.
54 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
97-108 ; Fraser, The Golden Bough 3 , vol. VIII, The Scape-
goat, 354 flf.). Perhaps, too, it would not be at all far-
fetched to find here a striking parallelism with the annual
four-day festival by which the maidens of Israel, or probably
originally, of Gilead, commemorated the passing of the
virgin daughter of Jephtha, undoubtedly with rites similar
to those with which she herself is represented as, in com-
pany with her maidens, bewailing her virginity upon the
mountain tops of Gilead upon which, as the text strangely
enough puts it, she had descended (Judges 11. 36-40).
It requires no great stretch of the imagination to picture
the dances of the maidens of Gilead in connexion with the
annual hag in that part of the country. Whether this was
celebrated in Ab, or in the seventh, or even in the eighth
month, as was at one time actually the case in Israel
(1 Kings 12. 32 f.), and what may have been the real import
of the two months represented as elapsing between the
moment when Jephtha announces his daughter's impending
doom, and the fulfilment of this, cannot be determined.
Into a further discussion of the attendant features of
these festivals, the dances of the maidens in the vineyards,
the presence of the young men seeking wives in the ranks
of the dancers, the white garments, borrowed and dipped
in water, the use of the leaves and branches of the four
trees (Lev. 23. 40; Neh. 8. 15-17), almost the only detail
6f the pre-exilic celebration of the Succot-festival preserved
in biblical legislation, and undoubtedly a survival of the
old Adonis rites, we cannot enter here. As said before,
it would lead into a detailed and lengthy consideration
of some of the fundamental principles and practices of
primitive Semitic religion. We must accordingly reserve
this for treatment elsewhere.
