Attendance at Festivals

Philo

On the Special Laws 1.67–70

First Half of 1st Century

Further, he does not consent to those who wish to perform the rites in their houses, but bids them rise up from the ends of the earth and come to this temple. In this way he also applies the severest test to their dispositions. For one who is not going to sacrifice in a religious spirit would never bring himself to leave his country and friends and…

Please login or register for free access to Posen Library
Register
Already have an account?
Engage with this Source

Ritual sacrifice could normally be conducted only in the Temple and not at home. Philo, writing in Alexandria in the first half of the first century CE (while the Jerusalem Temple still stood), says that Moses established this restriction as a test of faith. It requires adherents to leave home and family, to brave the dangers posed by travel, and to worship in a land far from home. The result is large masses of pilgrims converging on Jerusalem and the Temple, where they find spiritual uplift as well as a convivial community.

Read more
Restricted
Some content is unavailable to non-members, please log in or sign up for free for full access.

Related Guide

Pilgrimage and Festival Observance in Early Judaism

2nd Century BCE–3rd Century CE
Restricted
Some content is unavailable to non-members, please log in or sign up for free for full access.

Related Guide

Ancient Jewish Festivals

4th Century BCE–6th Century CE

The Israelite annual festivals originated as agricultural celebrations marking seasonal cycles. Over time, these observances were mythologized into a nation-forming narrative centered on the Exodus from Egypt and the revelation of the Torah at Mount Sinai.

Restricted
Some content is unavailable to non-members, please log in or sign up for free for full access.

Related Guide

Jewish Daily Life in Roman-Era Palestine

1st Century BCE–6th Century CE

You may also like

Three Annual Pilgrimages

Jewish Antiquities 4.203

Let those from the far ends of the land that the Hebrews will come to possess assemble together three times each year in the city where the Temple will be, to give thanks to God for His bounty and…
View Source

Physical Requirements of Pilgrimage

m. Ḥagigah 1:1

All are obligated to appear [at the Temple] except a deaf person, an imbecile, a minor, a person of unknown sex, a hermaphrodite, women, unfreed slaves, a lame person, a blind person, a sick person…
View Source

Passover Pilgrims

Jewish Antiquities 11.109–110

As the Festival of Unleavened Bread was at hand in the first month, which the Macedonians call Xanthicus and we call Nisan, all the people flowed together out of the villages to the city and…
View Source

Passover Observance

Jewish Antiquities 17.213
Now, the appointed time had drawn near for the festival during which the Jews have as their ancestral law to serve unleavened bread, whose feast is called Passover and is a memorial of their…
View Source