Synagogues and Schools

Synagogues and Schools.

Of the city itself the following data may be mentioned: There were 480 synagogues (Lam. R., Preface, 12) and 80 schools (Num. R. xviii.), among them the bet ha-midrash of Johanan b. Zakkai, all of which were destroyed by Vespasian. Each bet ha-midrash contained an elementary and a high school (Pesik., ed. Buber, p. 121b, and note). Mention is made of a synagogue of the (Naz. 52a), which was sold to Rabbi Eliezer b. Zadok (Meg. 26b). This may refer to a synagogue of the Jews of Tarsus, though Tosef., Meg. iii. 6 reads: "Synagogue of the Alexandrians." In Midr. Tadshe xxii. (Epstein, "Beiträge," p. xliv.) occurs the following: "Jerusalem originally was made up of two cities: the upper one, which fell to Judah's lot; and the second, to that of Benjamin. Upon Joshua's death, the Judahites took their portion, fired the city, and made it waste. The lower city remained until the time of David, who commenced to rebuild the upper one and to surround both with a wall. In the upper one was the threshing-floor of Araunah; in the lower one (Mt. Moriah) the Temple was situated." Ten peculiarities are mentioned in connection with Jerusalem: its houses could not have balconies or extensions; neither ashpits nor potters' ovens were allowed, nor gardens, other than those of roses; chickens were not to be raised; a corpse was not to remain over night; a house might not be irredeemably sold; the ceremony of the "beheaded heifer" was not performed to atone an unknown murder committed in Jerusalem or its neighborhood (Deut. xxi. 1-8); it could not be declared "a city led astray" (Deut. xiii., xiv.); nor could any house in it be made unclean by reason of a plague (see Lev. xiv. 34 et seq.; see also B. k. 82 and parallels). There were twenty-four squares in Jerusalem, each having twenty-four porticoes (Lam. R. 1). The following market-places are mentioned: , for those that fattened animals: explained by some to be either a meat- or poultry-market or the market of the apothecaries (Yer. Sotah viii. 3); it was closed on the Sabbath-day ('Er. x. 9); , that of the wool-dealers (ib. 101a); , where the non-Jewish washers dwelt (Shek. viii. 1); and the (Tosef., 'Eduy. iii. 3), the wood-market, or, perhaps, a chamber in the Temple area where wood for the altar was kept (Zeb. 113a). There was also a large court, Bet Ya'zek, in which the witnesses to the new moon collected (R. H. 23b); a Lishkat Hashsha'im (Shek. v. 6), where the charitable made their contributions in secret and the poor received them also in secret; the Eben ha-to'im (or to'en), where found articles were brought and returned to their owners (B. M. 28b); the Shokat Yehu ("Water-channel of Jehu"), cut in the rocks (Mik. iv. 5; Yeb. 15a); the Kippah shel Heshbonot, a vaulted place immediately outside of the city, in which business accounts were settled; it was placed there so that no one might sorrow in Jerusalem on account of a money loss (Ex. R. lii., end). Courts were built over the rocky ground; in the hollows below were born those children who were to assist the high priest in offering the red heifer (Num. xix. 2; Suk. 21a and parallels). Very peculiarly, Shiloh (Siloam) is said to have been in the middle of the city (Yer. Hag. 76a). The trees of Jerusalem were cinnamon-trees,and gave forth an odor over the whole land (Shab. 63a). All sorts of pictures ("parzupot") except those of human figures were in Jerusalem (Tosef., 'Ab. Zarah, vi.). There were no graves there except those of the house of David and of Huldah the prophetess (Tosef., Neg. vi.).

Jerusalem