overtaken, as it were, at prayer time in the most conspicuous places of the town (Matt 6. 5). Sirach had already found it necessary to warn against the use of many words and much babbling in prayer (7. 14). Jesus's teaching on prayer was for the most part a serious protest against the forms which it had assumed. $4. FASTING Fasting is practiced among many peoples as a religious exercise. The involuntary fasts to which scarcity of food often subjected primitive man gave rise to certain strange psychic experiences which he regarded as preternatural. He therefore repeated the fast voluntarily when he desired to secure a repetition of the experience. Thus fasting was often prescribed as the precursor of significant events in the life of the individual. Fasting often preceded the sacrificial meal with the desire that there might be no mingling of the common and the sacred food within the body. Whether either of these purposes played any part in determining the practice of fasting among the Hebrews is not clear. As with many peoples, fasting was a sign of mourning in Israel (1 Sam 31. 13), perhaps arising from the perfectly natural feeling that in grief one does not care to enjoy food. So in the sorrow occasioned by the sense of alienation from the Deity fasting came to be practiced as a sign of humiliation and contrition. The people fasted and confessed their sins when Samuel prayed for them (1 Sam 7. 6). David fasted when his child was stricken (2 Sam 12. 16, 21-23), and Ahab when he was informed of Jehovah's sentence upon his crime (1 Kings 21. 27). Jehoiakim proclaimed a fast in time of national calamity (Jer 36. 9). The exile caused a great development in this custom. Four annual fastdays were observed in sad memorial of different calamities that so tragically closed the history of the southern kingdom. The prophet Zechariah declared that in the brighter days impending these should be turned into feasts (8. 19). Ezra proclaimed a fast "that we might humble ourselves before our God" (8. 21). In connection with the acceptance of the book of the law the people fasted and wore sackcloth and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers (Neh 9. 1f.). The penitent prayers of Nehemiah (1. 4), and of Daniel (9. 3), were accompanied by fasting. When the heroic Judas gathered his little host for battle he sought to prepare them by confession and prayer, and this was accompanied by fasting (1 Macc 3. 47). The Priest Code inaugurated one great annual national fastday that was to be of peculiar solemnity-the Day of Atonement (Lev 23. 26-32). It was to last twenty-four hours-"from even unto even"-and was to be a Sabbath of solemn rest. This was no sham fast of eating fish or eggs, but an actual abstinence from food for the entire day. It was intended to stir in every Israelite the feeling of penitence for all the sins of the year. The danger that fasting would become a mere form, or, worse, that it would be regarded as a virtuous act, putting Jehovah under obligation, was recognized by the postexilic prophet (Isa 58. 3-9). With the social passion that breaks through all hollow ritualism he denounces those that fast and oppress their neighbors (v. 3, marg.). With ringing demand he asks: Is it to bow his head as a rush, And to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? And an acceptable day to Jehovah? Is not this the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To let the oppressed go free? The whole history of later Judaism was the enlargement of the significance of ritual. Ritual may always either inspire faith and righteousness or else become a substitute for them. With the one result or the other, fasting in the later times held a very prominent place. It was practiced as an aid to piety and as an expression of concern for national sin. It was sometimes undertaken individually (Luke 2. 37), sometimes under the direction of religious leaders (5. 33). Public fasts were sometimes proclaimed, the days selected for these being the first and fifth days of the week. The Pharisees, punctilious and ostentatious in this as in all religious practice, were in the habit of fasting regularly on the two fast days of the week (Luke 18. 12). And, inasmuch as the more rigorous fasts included abstinence from washing and anointing, they were conspicuous for their conventional sadness upon every Monday and Thursday, to the great admiration of the populace, who wondered at such religious devotion (Matt 6. 16). It is an interesting indication of the intimate connection between prayer and fasting that continued in the church that in the great saying of Jesus about the necessity of prayer (Mark 9. 29) there should have been added by some copyist the words "and fasting." I. DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY The intercourse of the patriarchs with God as related in the narratives which come from the prophetic period are really expressive of the idea of prayer that was held by the writers. Read Gen 12. 8; 18. 23-33; 32. 9-12; Exod 32. 31-34; Num 14. 13-24; Judg 6. Consider what these imply (a) as to the practice of prayer, (b) as to the social results that prayer was to effect. 2. Analyze the passages just noted with reference to ethical and religious elements in the conversations with God. Note particularly any passages of high spiritual power. ad 1 Kings 8. 22-53. Note the various references to the istory of Israel subsequent to Solomon. Analyze the prayer with reference to (a) its ethical and religious quality, (b) its social character. 4. Read Neh 9. 5-37. Note that this is a liturgical prayer with a historical character, intended to stimulate the feeling of contrition in the people. 5. What is the prayer value of Psa 3 and 4 for morning and evening devotion? What social attitude do they suggest? 6. Read Psa 17, 56, 70, 123. If these lyrics express the feelings of the pious victims of tyranny, what is their social significance? 7. Compare Psa 67 and 103. Note that both are praise psalms, but the one is in the form of prayer, and the other of description. 8. What were the religious and social values in the observance of the Day of Atonement? What has been the effect of days of national fasting and prayer in recent times? 9. Why did Jesus fast? (Matt 4. 2). Note that he was a young man at the outset of his public career. Is it possible that we make our life decisions too lightly? 10. Consider the social significance of Lent as practiced in the Roman Catholic countries, and by certain churches in America. What are the various influences of such a period? Can the emptiness of mere formalism be avoided? Is modern religion in danger of losing the element of solemnity? CHAPTER XVIII THE SYNAGOGUE WHEREVER in all the world there is a group of Hebrews there is a synagogue. It is the place of worship, it is the center of racial interest, it is the school of Judaism, it is the most potent social institution of Hebrew life. It has held this place among the Jews for more than two thousand years. § I. THE ORIGIN OF THE SYNAGOGUE The origin of this institution is not definitely known. There was no special occasion upon which it was ordained that there should be a synagogue. We must go again to the exile, that fertile seed plot of Jewish institutions, to find the development of this congregational body. There had been in the earlier period the council of elders in every city. The functions of a synagogue as a court thus went back very definitely to the previously existing institution. But the exile created a new demand. The loss of the temple and of the sacrificial cultus made the earnest spirits among the Hebrews more solicitous to preserve their religious heritage. They had their sacred writings, they had the Sabbath day, and if they could not offer sacrifices they could pray. All this nat called for a gathering of the people. We may ore, that little assemblies of Hebrews came ortunity offered in Babylonia upon the Sabwhich their fathers had too lightly ets whose keen foresight had pichat had come upon them, and then It was such gatherings the people through a del Be faith |