From the Sunday Note:
Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly,
which consisted of men, women,
and those children old enough to understand.
Standing at one end of the open place that was before the Water Gate,
he read out of the book from daybreak till midday,
in the presence of the men, the women,
and those children old enough to understand;
and all the people listened attentively to the book of the law.
Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform
that had been made for the occasion.
He opened the scroll
so that all the people might see it
— for he was standing higher up than any of the people —;
and, as he opened it, all the people rose.
Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God,
and all the people, their hands raised high, answered,
“Amen, amen!”
Then they bowed down and prostrated themselves before the LORD,
their faces to the ground.
Ezra read plainly from the book of the law of God,
interpreting it so that all could understand what was read.
Then Nehemiah, that is, His Excellency, and Ezra the priest-scribe
and the Levites who were instructing the people
said to all the people:
“Today is holy to the LORD your God.
Do not be sad, and do not weep”—
for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law.
He said further: “Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks,
and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared;
for today is holy to our LORD.
Do not be saddened this day,
for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!”
First reading for the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time, Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
The problem confronting Ezra and Nehemiah was this. The Israelites’ unfaithfulness to God had resulted in the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the people to Babylon, where many were further corrupted by worshiping “gods” common among other peoples. After conquering Babylon, the Persians let the Israelites return and rebuild the Temple, but the people were completely unfamiliar with the “Instructions” (the Torah) –how they were supposed to live and worship. They needed formation if the Second Temple was not be a mockery and repeat of the First. Our reading gives us a sample of how this was done: calling the people together, then reading and explaining the Torah to them. Given the length of the Torah and the number of difficult topics that had to be covered, these gatherings must have happened many times, not just once, as the Israelites resettled around Judea and Jerusalem over many years.
God, however, was working through these efforts to deal with problems that were not on the minds of Ezra and Nehemiah. First of all, God knew the Second Temple would also be destroyed. Second, most Israelites did not live in or around Jerusalem. The Exile meant that, in addition to those taken north to Babylon, significant numbers fled to Egypt. And there were those previously re-settled even further away by the Assyrians many years before that. Many of these people, generations on, were rooted in various pagan cities and were never going to return Jerusalem. “Providentially,” we might say, what Ezra did in Jerusalem slowly spread and became a model used among groups of Jews everywhere in the Ancient Near East and beyond.
Look closely at what Ezra did. Notice, he is not teaching in the Temple. The Temple area is too small, and women were not permitted inside of it. (Nor could men enter the court only the priests and Levites used.) Instead, Ezra is in a public place, “the Water Gate” where all the “men, women, and children old enough to understand” could gather to be instructed. Adapting for speaking to a crowd, he stands on a raised wooden platform. He holds up the scroll, at which point the people stand. He calls upon God and the people respond. He reads a portion of the holy writings. Then it says the Levites instructed the people in the meaning of the text. Finally, the people are encouraged to rejoice, as with a banquet, over what they have heard.
These elements were adapted in various Jewish communities and became the synagogues, places of assembly for worship, instruction, and other activities. By Jesus’ day, Sabbath gatherings at the synagogues were more and more common wherever Jews lived. By his day, observant Jews were only required to go to the Temple in Jerusalem for three yearly feasts—and even that, of course, was not expected of Jews living in Egypt or other distant places. There was no alternative to the synagogue after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in A.D. 70.
We realize our Lord had at least one more thing in mind, too. The “raised platform,” the standing deacon or priest, the lifting of the book of the Gospels, the response of the “men, women, and children old enough to understand,” the instruction on the reading, and the invitation to share in “rich food” leading to “rejoicing in the Lord”—the Lord was preparing for the Liturgy of the Word in his Church, the teaching that prepares us for the invitation to partake in the sacrificial banquet that follows, our Liturgy of the Eucharist.
For further reflection:
Briefly, then, Ezra’s practical approach to instructing the “uncatechized” Jews returning from exile, provided a model flexible enough to be applied to groups of Jews wherever they were located, and a pattern that helped the growing Church as it burst out of the ancient boundaries of Israel and began to spread in every possible direction. Once the 2nd Temple was destroyed, the synagogue became the religious center of Jewish groups everywhere. The Church used the model, too, for instruction from Scripture, but with a key difference: with the Eucharistic Presence of Jesus, the Holy of Holies was made available around the world for all sorts and conditions of men and women.
Do we understand the privilege we have been given?