8:1 VA YE'ASPHU CHOL HA AM KE ISH ECHAD EL HA RECHOV ASHER LIPHNEY SHA'AR HA MAYIM VA YOMRU LE EZRA HA SOPHER LEHAV'I ET SEPHER TORAT MOSHEH ASHER TSIVAH YHVH ET YISRA-EL
וַיֵּאָסְפוּ כָל הָעָם כְּאִישׁ אֶחָד אֶל הָרְחוֹב אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵי שַׁעַר הַמָּיִם וַיֹּאמְרוּ לְעֶזְרָא הַסֹּפֵר לְהָבִיא אֶת סֵפֶר תּוֹרַת מֹשֶׁה אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל
BN: And all the people gathered together as one man in the open plaza opposite the Water Gate. And they called on Ezra the Scribe to bring the Scroll of the Law of Mosheh, which YHVH had instructed Yisra-El.
SHA'ARHA MAYIM: For a map of the city, with its gates, see Nehemiah 1:1.
EZRA HA SOPHER: His first mention in this book. The chronology of events given in their two books have Ezra arriving in Yeru-Shala'im in the seventh year of king Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:8), while Nechem-Yah arrived in Artaxerxes' twentieth year (Nehemiah 2:1–9). If this was Artaxerxes I (465–424 BC), then Ezra arrived in 458 and Nehemiah in 445 BC.
SEPHER: A scroll, please, not a book, as per the illustration at the top of this page. Books don't come into existence until the invention of the Gutenberg Press, about a millennium and a half after this.
Calling for the scroll tells us that it already existed. But: does it exist because it has just been written, and the calling for it the occasion of its unveiling? Or is he bringing such as there is, prior to its final redaction (everything that existed previously, after all, was destroyed, or seized as booty, at the time of the exile, and anyway there was a tradition that it should not be written down, so having a copy of the "original", whatever "original" may have been, is unlikely)? Or does his denotion as "scribe" infer that he, and perhaps others, began writing it from memory in Bavel, or immediately after their return to Yehudah? Or are they literally creating it from nearly-zero now? All of which leads back to my first question. We cannot answer this.
But at least we now have a pretty good idea what Ezra has been doing these past fourteen (was it?) years, other than campaignng to get rid of all non-Yehudit wives, and apparently having no part at all in the rebuilding of the wall. But this Torah was a huge task, arguably just as important as rebuilding the Temple and the wall, because they were the present but this was the future; and no one would have wanted him to give it up for the wall; he, and however many other scribes were under his jurisdiction.
Today, then, he will present the Torah, though still not in the form that we now have it; there will be further redactions in the centuries that follow, and we do not have an "original" to know how similar Ezra's was to the version we use now - the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint are as close as we can get until the archaeologists find something earlier. And as to the rest of the Tanach - is that the next stage of his task, or does that come later?
8:2 VA YAV'I EZRA HA KOHEN ET HA TORAH LIPHNEY HA KAHAL ME ISH VE AD ISHAH VE CHOL MEVIN LISHMO'A BE YOM ECHAD LA CHODESH HA SHEVIY'I
וַיָּבִיא עֶזְרָא הַכֹּהֵן אֶת הַתּוֹרָה לִפְנֵי הַקָּהָל מֵאִישׁ וְעַד אִשָּׁה וְכֹל מֵבִין לִשְׁמֹעַ בְּיוֹם אֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִי
BN: And Ezra the priest brought out the Torah before the assembled populace, both men and women, and all who could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.
EZRA HA SOPHER... EZRA HA KOHEN brings the scroll, but Ezra the Scribe was sent to fetch it. The same man of course, but interesting to see how he is denoted differently for each of his two roles.
HA AM...HA KAHAL: And likewise with the careful wording here; in the previous verse they sent him to fetch it as HA AM = "the people", but now that he has brought it they become HA KAHAL, "the congregation"; albeit that we are in the market-square, not the Temple (and note that it is a KAHAL, not a TSIBUR - for which see my note to verse 4)
ISH...ISHAH: Men and women both present, and no suggestion in the text that they were required to sit or stand separately. The word that yields MECHITSAH - the separation of men and women in orthodox synagogues today - does in fact appear, in the following verse, but as a separator of the morning from the afternoon.
MEVIN LISHMO'A: Two possible meanings of this phrase. Reading all or part of the Torah, as Ezra is about to do, will likely take many, many hours, and then some, and will be an exercise of quite painful boredom for any normal human being, however interested they may be - no one can sit in silence, not eating, not drinking, outdoors in the heat of autumn, and not become restless. So the phrase could mean that they "understood to listen", i.e. they understood that self-discipline was paramount, and disturbance would be unacceptable. Or it could mean, as per the translation above, that only those who were reasonably or fully fluent in Yehudit were participating, because Ezra wasn't doing a rushed-reading to get through a ceremony fast, but rather a slow reading, for the benefit of people who have unquestionably never heard it read, who probably don't know more than a famous fragment here and there, but whose engagement in this task is the momentous opening of a new phase in the history of a people. And the number of people who had that level of fluency was probably very small.
So this becomes a covenant renewal ceremony, and regardless of whether this is a copy of the "original", or a written-down memory of whatever could be remembered, or a first attempt at redacting it into its new version, or the final and completed work, this is now the New Year inaugurated as much more than just the New Year, the first time ever that the Torah has been read, from a written version, in public, as it will now be, on market-days in Yeru-Shala'im, which is to say on Mondays and Thursdays, exactly as it still is in synagogues around the world - and yet that fact is not acknowledged or incorporated in the Rosh ha Shanah liturgy today.
8:3 VA YIKR'A VO LIPHNEY HA RECHOV ASHER LIPHNEY SHA'AR HA MAYIM MIN HA OR AD MACHATSIT HA YOM NEGED HA ANASHIM VE HA NASHIM VE HA MEVIYNIM VE AZNEY CHOL HA AM EL SEPHER HA TORAH
וַיִּקְרָא בוֹ לִפְנֵי הָרְחוֹב אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵי שַׁעַר הַמַּיִם מִן הָאוֹר עַד מַחֲצִית הַיּוֹם נֶגֶד הָאֲנָשִׁים וְהַנָּשִׁים וְהַמְּבִינִים וְאָזְנֵי כָל הָעָם אֶל סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה
BN: And he read from it in the market-square inside the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of both men and the women, and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Scroll of the Law.
The narrative that follows appears to come in two parts, with this verse as a general opening statement, telling us what happened overall that morning, and the paragraphs that follow breaking it down into its detail.
MACHATSIT HA YOM: Another splendid expression that Ben Yehudah missed and modern Ivrit has not picked up. The equivalent of our word "evening", which properly describes that point at which darkness and light become "even"; here the point at which morning and afternoon are separated. TSAHARAYIM is now used.
Based on my many years of leyning in shul on Shobbas, and knowing that, if one leyns a full sedra as one should, there are very few which, even at optimum speed, take less than half an hour, it is simply not possible for Ezra to have read the whole thing from start to finish between the crack of dawn and mid-day; so we can state without fear of correction that, either, a) he rushed through it at unprecedented speed, making a nonsense of the ceremony; or b) he only read as much as he could manage in the allotted time, and probably did not start at Bere'shit (Genesis 1) because the important parts on this occasion would have been passages like the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20); or c), possibly, that the Torah text that he had was a great deal shorter than the one we have - in which case: what would have been missing? The whole of Va Yikra (Leviticus) and Devarim (Deuteronomy) most likely - both are generally held by scholars to reflect Second Temple practice, and therefore haven't been written yet. Parts of the other three books as well.
NEGED: Here translated as "in the presence of", where normally it means "against". I would assume that the reason for choosing this word is that he was stood "facing" them, as would the reader in a Reform synagogue today, where in today's orthodox synagogue the reader's table is in the midst of the congregation.
MEVIYNIM: The repeated use of the term here helps us answer the question over its previous usage; and the answer appears to be "both" - that there are many people in this crowd who are listening to a text in a foreign language, as well as a number who do understand it (see Nechem-Yah's final words in the final chapter); but also the need for discipline.
8:4 VA YA'AMOD EZRA HA SOPHER AL MIGDAL ETS ASHER ASU LA DAVAR VA YA'AMOD ETSLO MATIT-YAH VE SHEM'A VA ANA-YAH VE URI-YAH VE CHILKI-YAH U MA'ASEY-YAH AL YEMIYNO U MISMO'LO PEDA-YAH U MIYSHA-EL U MALKI-YAH VE CHASHUM VE CHASHBADANAH ZECHAR-YAH MESHULAM
וַיַּעֲמֹד עֶזְרָא הַסֹּפֵר עַל מִגְדַּל עֵץ אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ לַדָּבָר וַיַּעֲמֹד אֶצְלוֹ מַתִּתְיָה וְשֶׁמַע וַעֲנָיָה וְאוּרִיָּה וְחִלְקִיָּה וּמַעֲשֵׂיָה עַל יְמִינוֹ וּמִשְּׂמֹאלוֹ פְּדָיָה וּמִישָׁאֵל וּמַלְכִּיָּה וְחָשֻׁם וְחַשְׁבַּדָּנָה זְכַרְיָה מְשֻׁלָּם
BN: And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden pulpit, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Matit-Yah, and Shema, and Ana-Yah, and Uri-Yah, and Chilki-Yah, and Ma'asey-Yah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Peda-Yah, and Misha-El, and Malki-Yah, and Chashum, and Chashbadanah, Zechar-Yah and Meshulam.
HA SOPHER: Does his epithet change with every change of role? Here he is about to play Shaliyach Tsibur, which today could be a lay role, or Rabbinic, or a chazan, or indeed a Kohen, who might be any of these.
MATIT-YAH: I have commented on this name before, I believe, but worth repeating. So many of the people have Yah-names at this point of history; but almost every one of them will become a Yahu-name later on, as the cult becomes patriarchalised and YAH the goddess of the full-moon, alongside Asherah as the goddess of fertility and the new moon, and Chavah as the guardian-goddess of Paradise and therefore of old age and death, the waxing moon, become reduced to the idea of Shechinah, a feminine "side" to the the otherwise entirely male and monotheistic deity. So, in the Apocryphal Book of Maccabees, which belongs historically several centuries after Ezra and Nechem-Yah, the founding head of the Hasmonean dynasty will be, not Matit-Yah, as here, but Matit-Yahu.
ZECHAR-YAH: Would that be the Prophet? We know he was there at this time but it could be another with the same name.
6 on his right, 7 on his left, a gabbai presumably to point to the text and make the "Mi She Berach" over the olim (no, I have no idea if these later practices were instituted at the time, but verse 6 definitely infers that it was done in some form at this time), and himself makes - 15, which in Yehudit would have been written (יה) YAH. No coincidence, I am quite certain.
The tedium of adding conjunctions appears to have afflicted the scribe at the end of this verse!
ZECHAR-YAH: Would that be the Prophet? We know he was there at this time but it could be another with the same name.
6 on his right, 7 on his left, a gabbai presumably to point to the text and make the "Mi She Berach" over the olim (no, I have no idea if these later practices were instituted at the time, but verse 6 definitely infers that it was done in some form at this time), and himself makes - 15, which in Yehudit would have been written (יה) YAH. No coincidence, I am quite certain.
The tedium of adding conjunctions appears to have afflicted the scribe at the end of this verse!
Am I wrong to assume that the people honoured with accompanying Ezra on this historic occasion would have been his fellow-scribes, who had worked with him on the creation of the text?
pey break
8:5 VA YIPHTACH EZRA HA SEPHER LE EYNEY CHOL HA AM KI ME AL KOL HA AM HAYAH U CHE PHIT'CHO AMDU CHOL HA AM
וַיִּפְתַּח עֶזְרָא הַסֵּפֶר לְעֵינֵי כָל הָעָם כִּי מֵעַל כָּל הָעָם הָיָה וּכְפִתְחוֹ עָמְדוּ כָל הָעָם
BN: And Ezra opened the scroll in the sight of all the people - for he was above all the people - and when he opened it, all the people stood up.
VA YIPHTACH: A full account of the ceremony of reading the Torah in today's synagogue can be found here. The Torah that Ezra brings to the market-square would today be kept in a cupboard in the centre of the eastern wall in the synagogue, and known as the Aron ha Kodesh, literally "the holy cupboard", though it is usually translated as "holy Ark", it being a miniature model of the desert Mishkan, and the Temple Holy of Holies. Presumably Ezra brought it from an equivalent storage place inside the Temple complex.
AMDU: The people are gathered in the market-square, and generally in market-squares people are standing, unless chairs have been brought out for a special event - though chairs, rather than squatting on your heels, were probably not the custom in the ancient Middle East. Would they perhaps have brought prayer-mats with them, and lain them out on the ground? Especially necessary for prostration.
The way this verse is phrased, I am guessing that yes they had prayer mats, whether of cloth or raffia or wicker, and that they were seated while awaiting Ezra's arrival. What surprises me is that they did not stand up when he arrived with the scroll - in a modern synagogue, as soon as the Ark is opened to bring out the scroll, the congregation stands, as they would if an important dignitary had just entered the room. And the verb is AMDU, not OMDIM, when he opens the scroll; they "stood up" at that moment. But this is the first time in history that a written scroll of Torah has been brought to a congregation, so there is no tradition for them to know.
8:6 VA YEVARECH EZRA ET YHVH HA ELOHIM HA GADOL VA YA'ANU CHOL HA AM AMEN AMEN BE MO'AL YEDEYHEM VA YIKDU VA YISHTACHAVU LA YHVH APAYIM ARTSAH
וַיְבָרֶךְ עֶזְרָא אֶת יְהוָה הָאֱלֹהִים הַגָּדוֹל וַיַּעֲנוּ כָל הָעָם אָמֵן אָמֵן בְּמֹעַל יְדֵיהֶם וַיִּקְּדוּ וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲווּ לַיהוָה אַפַּיִם אָרְצָה
BN: Then Ezra blessed YHVH, the head of the Elohim. And all the people answered: "Amen, Amen", while lifting up their hands; and they bowed their heads, and prostrated themselves before YHVH, their noses to the ground.
VA YEVARECH: Many Jewish prayers are blessings of YHVH; and we can assume they are a carry-over from the First Temple; they are, afer all, part of the ceremony of propitiation, which is the oldest form of worship known in the world. Click here to download the Mi She Berach that is said today.
YHVH HA ELOHIM HA GADOL: Now there's a new version of the Name! Is this the inauguration of the Omnideity?
CHOL HA AM: Not HA KAHAL on this occasion.
AMEN: Why twice? And why without a conjunction, as it is in later liturgy?
MO'AL YEDEYHEM: Not often seen in today's religious ceremonies, but still seen, and for important historical reasons besides this Ezraic one - click here.
VA YISHTACHAVU: yes, prostration. The epoch of standing to reflect with the deity has not yet been inaugurated - or maybe, based on my last paragraph, this is the very moment when it was.
APAYIM: As in "Erech apayim ve rav chesed..."? I ask, because APAYIM doesn't usually means "faces", though thus is it translated here. PANIM or PANAYIM, for faces. Then is this a Masoretic error, and what is written in the Yehudit is really אפים (APHIM) - "noses"? No, because there is also APAYIM (אַפַּיִם) for "nostrils", using the multiple plural. The connection with "anger" - "slow to anger" is the phrase I have quoted at the start of this paragraph, from the Thirteen Attributes that would be recited on Rosh ha Shanah in today's world - comes from the inflating of the nostrils that requires the propitiation of incense, and this we have witnessed (VA YICHAR APO) with the deity throughout the Tanach.
8:7 VA YESHU'A U VANI VE SHEREV-YAH YAMIN AKUV SHABTAI HODI-YAH MA'ASEY-YAH KELIYT'A AZAR-YAH YO-ZAVAD CHANAN PELA-YAH VE HE LEVIYIM MEVIYNIM ET HA AM LA TORAH VE HA AM AL AMDAM
וְיֵשׁוּעַ וּבָנִי וְשֵׁרֵבְיָה יָמִין עַקּוּב שַׁבְּתַי הוֹדִיָּה מַעֲשֵׂיָה קְלִיטָא עֲזַרְיָה יוֹזָבָד חָנָן פְּלָאיָה וְהַלְוִיִּם מְבִינִים אֶת הָעָם לַתּוֹרָה וְהָעָם עַל עָמְדָם
BN: And Yeshu'a, and Bani, and Sherev-Yah, Yamin, Akuv, Shabtai, Hodi-Yah, Ma'asey-Yah, Kelit'a, Azar-Yah, Yo-Zavad, Chanan, Pela-Yah and the Leviyim made the people understand that this was now their Torah; and the people stood in their places.
AMDAM: It seems that the process was a) the people gather and wait for the scroll to be brought, but do so seated on the ground, presumably on prayer-mats; b) Ezra arrives with the scroll, but the people do not yet get up (surprising, but this is how the text presents it); c) Ezra opens and displays the scroll, probably something like the way Hagbah is performed today (though Hagbah is at the end of the reading, not at the beginning), at which the people stand up again; d) MEVIYNIM ET HA AM:
A large, open market-square, in a world before public address systems. The crowds can be gathered in small groups, and each of the "scribes" can go to a group, to explain to them what this scroll is, and why it is about to become the central document of their lives. Then on to the next group, answering any questions along the way. Until they are able to signal to Ezra that the people understand; and only then does he begin reading (and from the next verse we can understand that each of the "scribes" was called in turn to take their pareshah, their share.
8:8 VA YIKRE'U VA SEPHER BE TORAT HA ELOHIM MEPHORASH VE SOM SECHEL VA YAVIYNU BA MIKR'A
וַיִּקְרְאוּ בַסֵּפֶר בְּתוֹרַת הָאֱלֹהִים מְפֹרָשׁ וְשׂוֹם שֶׂכֶל וַיָּבִינוּ בַּמִּקְרָא
The sense again that this is a major historic moment, the culmination of years of work. The Torah has been written, written down indeed, gathering all the legends and histories and folk-tales and deities and aetiologies and hymns and psalms and plays and everything else that Ezra's commission has been able to gather, and then redact, probably only the Torah at this stage, probably only Genesis, Exodus and Numbers at this stage, but the definition of a unified people, with, as of this moment, a common history, a common culture, in a shared land. And a new concept of the deity, which those named in this verse have been trained to explain, and now go down among the crowds to do so. YHVH HA ELOHIM. Not yet YHVH ELOHIM, but no longer YHVH as the head of the ELOHIM. The heralding, if not the crowning, of monotheism; the first step towards the Omnideity of Maccabeean proto-Judaism.
These are the religious leaders of the community, reading selective passages, and explaining them, so the people have heard "distinctly" what the laws are, and regardless of whether they do or do not understand Yehudit, these are now the laws of the land. Halachah, for the first time ever probably, has been established; Temple and state are one.
MEPHORASH: And the choice of this, of all words! Though probably it didn't yet have the significance with which the Tanna'im of the early Christian epoch would imbue it (click here) - the hidden name, the special name, the secret name of the deity.
Having said which, there are two other possible explanations of MEPHORASH.
First, my use of the word pareshah in verse 7 - click here for the schedule by which the Torah is broken down into weekly readings; generally it is then broken down into three sub-sections on Mondays and Thursdays, and a minimum of seven on Shabbat, the maximum dependent on how many bridegrooms, important donors, religious school graduates, Beney Mitzvah and others there may be that week who need to be honoured with an Aliyah. This would allow MEPHORASH to mean "pareshah by pareshah", and would accommodate all 15 of the "scribes".
Second, the Aramaic word PARUSH, which means "to explain", and is sometimes used for "to translate" - and probably, on this occasion, the two definitions were interchangeable. If this is the intention here, we have to imagine the reading being continuously paused, so that an explanation of this word or that, this passage or that, can be given. The final clause, from VE SOM, tells me that this latter is the intention of MEPHORASH.
And that conclusion also tells me that Yehudit must have been a dead language already, and that Nechem-Yah's desperate hope, expressed at the end of chapter 13, that it could be revived as a living language, was already past credibility.
8:9 VA YOMER NECHEM-YAH HU HA TIRSHAT'A VE EZRA HA KOHEN HA SOPHER VE HA LEVIYIM HA MEVIYNIM ET HA AM LE CHOL HA AM HA YOM KADOSH HU LA YHVH ELOHEYCHEM AL TIT'ABLU VE AL TIVKU KI VOCHIM KOL HA AM KE SHAM'AM ET DIVREY HA TORAH
וַיֹּאמֶר נְחֶמְיָה הוּא הַתִּרְשָׁתָא וְעֶזְרָא הַכֹּהֵן הַסֹּפֵר וְהַלְוִיִּם הַמְּבִינִים אֶת הָעָם לְכָל הָעָם הַיּוֹם קָדֹשׁ הוּא לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם אַל תִּתְאַבְּלוּ וְאַל תִּבְכּוּ כִּי בוֹכִים כָּל הָעָם כְּשָׁמְעָם אֶת דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה
BN: And Nechem-Yah, who was the Tirshat'a, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Leviyim who were helping the people unerstand, said to all the people: "This day is holy to YHVH your god; do not mourn, nor weep." For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the Torah.
NECHEM-YAH HU HA TIRSHAT'A: See my notes on the Tirshat'a at Ezra 2:63.
MEVIYNIM here shouldn't really be translated as "teachers", though probably it is accurate; they are "helping them to understand", which is not, in theory, the same thing.
Why did they weep? Why were they acting as though in mourning? Is it just sentimentality? Or amazement that a world they thought they had lost was now in process of reviving? Or perhaps they are weeping for the very opposite, that a religious fanaticism is about to be imposed on them, and all their liberties suppressed. We cannot know. But we have to ask. How did free Persians feel, after they had kicked out the Shah, and found themselves with the Ayatollahs in his place? How did the heirs of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones feel, when Cromwell announced the closure of the theatres? How did free Germans, especially German Jews feel, when they saw the Great Dictator raise his arm above his head, on a pulpit in the market-square in Nuremburg? It is sad, as a Jew, to have to say this, but the dogmatic bigotry described in the Book of Ezra, the cult-fanaticism and the racial purity and the "fundamentalism" of his faith, suggest that the Halachah of Ezra was not all that different from the fundamentalism of ISIS and Boko Haram today.
DIVREY HA TORAH: Again I want to ask, "which words"? Because he cannot have read the entire five books, or even a single book from start to finish. Selected passages then? On the first day of revealing this to the people - what an interesting activity for a study group, to go through the five books and determine which passages each of them would have chosen.
8:10 VA YOMER LAHEM LECHU ICHLU MASHMANIM U SHETU MAMTAKIM VE SHILCHU MANOT LE EYN NACHON LO KI KADOSH HA YOM LA ADNONEYNU VE AL TE'ATSEVU KI CHEDVAT YHVH HI MA'UZCHEM
וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם לְכוּ אִכְלוּ מַשְׁמַנִּים וּשְׁתוּ מַמְתַקִּים וְשִׁלְחוּ מָנוֹת לְאֵין נָכוֹן לוֹ כִּי קָדוֹשׁ הַיּוֹם לַאֲדֹנֵינוּ וְאַל תֵּעָצֵבוּ כִּי חֶדְוַת יְהוָה הִיא מָעֻזְּכֶם
BN: Then he said to them: Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not feel grieved; for the joy of YHVH is your strength.
ICHLU...MAMTAKIM: Is this literal or metaphorical?
ICHLU...MAMTAKIM: Is this literal or metaphorical?
a) Literal - at the end of the reading they have conducted the Minchah sacrifices, barbecuing vast numbers of sheep and goats and distributing them among the assembled crowds as Kiddush; the message is: enjoy the feast, it being Rosh ha Shanah after all, but don't forget the people who are not here: take the left-overs home and share it with them.
b) Metaphorical - the Torah is demanding, with lots of goodies on offer from the deity if you are obedient, but lots of angry rebukes and reproaches if you are not. That is how life is. Take the sweet with the sour and don't complain. And remember, when you get home, to let those who didn't attend today know what is written in the Torah, because it applies to them too. Happy New Year!
I think the answer is probably: both.
Having to say it twice only confirms what must be the huge disappointment of the people. This is like being a Zimbabweyan, after all the years of fighting white supremacy, and accepting terrorism as a route to freedom, only to discover what Robert Mugabe is really like. (And this is probably happening before Ezra starts his campaign to have all foreign wives divorced).
8:11 VE HA LEVIYIM MACHSHIM LE CHOL HA AM LEMOR HASU KI HA YOM KADOSH VE AL TE'ATSEVU
וְהַלְוִיִּם מַחְשִׁים לְכָל הָעָם לֵאמֹר הַסּוּ כִּי הַיּוֹם קָדֹשׁ וְאַל תֵּעָצֵבוּ
BN: So the Leviyim stilled all the people, saying: "Hold your peace, for the day is holy. And do not feel grieved."
This reads like the news headlines on state television! Clearly the people have not liked one bit what has been read to them, may even have booed, or hissed, got up and walked out, staged protests.
And why might they have been so angry, these committed Zionists who chose to return from exile and rebuild their ancestral homeland? I suspect that the answer lies among the work of the Biblical scholars of 19th century Germany, who were the first to point out the significant differences between the Mosaic code as it appears in Exodus and Numbers, and the laws, rites, ceremonies et cetera that appear in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, all of which, based on archaeological evidence, seem to reflect a very different theology in Second Temple times from that which existed in the Solomonic - the patriarchalisation of the cult, the removal of all the goddesses and the rites associated with them, the beginnings of the Omnideity, the insistence on endogamy and racial purity, the narrowing of eligibility for the priesthood...
8:12 VA YELCHU CHOL HA AM LE'ECHOL VE LISHTOT U LESHALACH MANOT VE LA'ASOT SIMCHAH GEDOLAH KI HEVIYNU BA DEVARIM ASHER HODIY'U LAHEM
וַיֵּלְכוּ כָל הָעָם לֶאֱכֹל וְלִשְׁתּוֹת וּלְשַׁלַּח מָנוֹת וְלַעֲשׂוֹת שִׂמְחָה גְדוֹלָה כִּי הֵבִינוּ בַּדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר הוֹדִיעוּ לָהֶם
BN: And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send each other mishloa'ch manot, and to take part in the celebrations, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.
How far is this an official take, how far an accurate account? Because verses 11 and 12 conflict. The people were furious, or bored, and went off to get drunk, but the Ezra Youth made clear that this was not acceptable behaviour, a few arrests were made by the police, and people quickly became passively complicitous, as people generally do in circumstances such as these - and the official press the next morning shows calm, peace and sobriety restored.
MISHLO'ACH MANOT is something we normally associate with Purim - which of course was the festival that these very people brought back with them from Persia; it too is a New Year festival, but in the month of Adar, in the spring, and not in Tishrey, the seventh month, which is what they are celebrating here. The custom is to send two different types of food to another person; the full "rules", as followed by the orthodox today, can be found by clicking here. Note that there is no reference here to Matanot La'evyonim, the giving of larger gifts to the poor, which is also part of the custom today.
All of which makes me wonder (verse 12 as a response to verse 11 is intended to induce this question) if this business of not grieving isn't about their reception to the law at all, but a matter of "moving on" from the mourning for the lost Temple et cetera... and if this is correct, and if joyful celebration then followed, did it include musical instruments? I ask because orthodox Judaism, since its inception in the wake of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, has not permitted musical instruments in synagogue, precisely because it is in continued mourning for that destruction; Reform Judaism, by contrast, insists that the laws of mourning do not permit "Avelut" beyond twelve months, and have therefore brought back musical instruments into the synagogue, precsiely for the purpose of Simchah - joyful celebration.
SIMCHAH: the word has its own significance, in Yehudit and in Yiddish; any joyful or celebratory event - wedding, Bar Mitzvah, anniversary - that has an accompanying party, is known as a Simchah, which is usually translated as "affair"; whence the classic Yiddish joke, attributed to Jackie Mason who regularly told it, though in fact it dates back to Yiddish theatre many decades, even perhaps centuries earlier, in which Mrs Goldberg tells Mrs Wasserman that Mrs Cohen is having an affair, to which Mrs Wasserman responds, entirely logically, reasonably and seriously, with the only and obvious question, which is: and who's doing the catering?
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8:13 U VA YOM HA SHENI NE'ESPHU RA'SHEY HA AVOT LE CHOL HA AM HA KOHANIM VE HA LEVIYIM EL EZRA HA SOPHER U LEHASKIL EL DIVREY HA TORAH
וּבַיּוֹם הַשֵּׁנִי נֶאֶסְפוּ רָאשֵׁי הָאָבוֹת לְכָל הָעָם הַכֹּהֲנִים וְהַלְוִיִּם אֶל עֶזְרָא הַסֹּפֵר וּלְהַשְׂכִּיל אֶל דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה
BN: And on the second day the chiefs of all the clans of all the people gathered together, the Kohanim, and the Leviyim, with Ezra the scribe, to gain enlightenment about the words of the Torah.
YOM HA SHENI: The second day of the reading of the Torah, not the second day of Rosh ha Shanah, because the keeping of a second day for the festivals belongs exclusively to the Diaspora - click here for more on this.
LE COL HA AM: The phrasing indicates that this gathering was not exclusively the Yehudi clan-chiefs, or exclusively the Yehudim, but brought together all of the non-Yehudi tribes as well. Mosaic law is now the way for all the land, supported by the King in Susa. But this is not a public reading of the Torah; more a private colloquium or study-conference. And clearly, from the response of the people yesterday, they should have had this conference-of-the-elders first, then let the Elders go back and tell their people what the expectations were, and then read them the Law - or perhaps, if they done it that way around, the people would have rebelled against these unacceptable laws by simply not attending the market.
LEHASKIL: the root of the word HASKALAH = "Enlightenment". "Give attention" is barely the start of translating this. The unstated inference is that the clan-chiefs gave the new legal code their support, even before they were properly aware of what was in it; they heard the basics during the presentation yesterday, now they are attending the workshops and seminars and listening to the keynote speaker.
We can also make the logical deduction that, if all this had been in existence previously, if all this had been in place since "YHVH gave the Law to Mosheh on Mount Sinai" a thousand years previously, then a teaching-conference of this sort would have been unnecessary; but it is necessary, because it has only now been created.
8:14 VA YIMTSE'U KATUV BA TORAH ASHER TSIVAH YHVH BE YAD MOSHEH ASHER YESHVU VENEY YISRA-EL BA SUKOT BE CHAG BA CHODESH HA SHEVIY'I
וַיִּמְצְאוּ כָּתוּב בַּתּוֹרָה אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה בְּיַד מֹשֶׁה אֲשֶׁר יֵשְׁבוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בַּסֻּכּוֹת בֶּחָג בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִי
BN: And they found written in the Torah, how YHVH had instructed Mosheh that the Beney Yisra-El should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month...
VA YIMTSE'U: But of course it had been there for the past thousand years, because of course it had been given by YHVH to Mosheh et cetera... and this is provable by the fact that VA YIMTSE'U, "they found it there"...
SUKOT: On the night of the 14th, which is really the eve of the 15th, the full moon, because the Jewish day begins at evening - less than two weeks hence, and Yom Kippur presumably in the meanwhile, though it hasn't been mentioned.
And it is very odd that it hasn't been mentioned, because the Biblical source for Sukot is Leviticus 22:33-44, and the Biblical source for Yom Kippur is... precisely the verses that immediately precede these, 22:26-32, with Rosh ha Shanah, which they celebrated yesterday, in 22:23-25. Yom Kippur is now just eight days away - and either they already know, because it has been an established festival for generations, or it doesn't get mentioned, because it hasn't yet been inaugurated, and won't be, until some later date.
All of which takes us back to the same starting-question: did Ezra and his "archaelogists" find all this, or did Ezra and his "scribes" create all this, with or without oral tradition? Did some sections of an earlier Torah survive the destruction of 586 BCE - perhaps there were copies scereted away in caves and cellars for safe-keeping when the siege started - but if so, why would their rediscovery not have been a central part of both Ezra and Nechem-Yah's accounts? Or were they working from memory, in the tradition of the poetic bards?
8:15 VA ASHER YASHMIY'U VE YA'AVIYRU KOL BE CHOL AREYHEM U VIYRU-SHALA'IM LEMOR TSE'U HA HAR VE HAVIY'U ALEY ZAYIT VA ALEY ETS SHEMEN VA ALEY CHADAS VA ALEY TEMARIM VA ALEY ETS AVOT LA'ASOT SUKOT KA KATUV
וַאֲשֶׁר יַשְׁמִיעוּ וְיַעֲבִירוּ קוֹל בְּכָל עָרֵיהֶם וּבִירוּשָׁלִַם לֵאמֹר צְאוּ הָהָר וְהָבִיאוּ עֲלֵי זַיִת וַעֲלֵי עֵץ שֶׁמֶן וַעֲלֵי הֲדַס וַעֲלֵי תְמָרִים וַעֲלֵי עֵץ עָבֹת לַעֲשֹׂת סֻכֹּת כַּכָּתוּב
BN: And that they should publish and proclaim this in all their cities, and in Yeru-Shala'im, saying: "Go up into the hills, and fetch olive branches, and branches of wild olive, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written."
Translating HAR as "Mount" may be a failure of geography; hills, in Yisra-El, not mountains, save only Mount Chermon (go on, make the case for Carmel!), but this would not have been reachable within the time, even if it were politically accessible at that epoch.
What is odd about this is that Sukot was celebrated at the very beginning of the Book of Ezra, by Zeru-Bavel and the returnees definitely on the "wrong" date, even more definitely in the "wrong" manner. See Ezra 3.
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8:16 VA YETS'U HA AM VA YAVIY'U VA YA'ASU LAHEM SUKOT ISH AL GAGO U VE CHATSROTEYHEM U BE CHATSROT BEIT HA ELOHIM U VI RECHOV SHA'AR HA MAYIM U VI RECHOV SHA'AR EPHRAYIM
וַיֵּצְאוּ הָעָם וַיָּבִיאוּ וַיַּעֲשׂוּ לָהֶם סֻכּוֹת אִישׁ עַל גַּגּוֹ וּבְחַצְרֹתֵיהֶם וּבְחַצְרוֹת בֵּית הָאֱלֹהִים וּבִרְחוֹב שַׁעַר הַמַּיִם וּבִרְחוֹב שַׁעַר אֶפְרָיִם
BN: So the people went out and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one on the roof of his house, and in their courtyards, and in the courtyards of the house of Elohim, and in the open square by the Water Gate, and in the open square by the Gate of Ephrayim.
AL GAGO: This is where ancient text becomes an artefact of physical rather than just cultural archaeology, primary source material to learn how the ancient world worked. The flat rooves of Middle Eastern houses, which functioned the way that patio-decks and extended balconies do in today's apartment and town-house world - see for example David spying Bat Sheva from the roof in 2 Samuel 11, and my description of his childhood in "City of Peace". The courtyards of houses were in the Spanish style, four-sided houses with the courtyard approachable from all four sides, possible a different family in each of the four sides, sharing the common courtyard, where our houses have gardens front and back. The open plaza providing a market inside every city-gate. The shrines that likewise provided courtyard space, for prayer and the sacrificial altar, but also for communal activity - equivalent of that enclosed part of every cathedral and many churches which exists for the same purpose.
8:17 VA YA'ASU CHOL HA KAHAL HA SHAVIM MIN HA SHEVI SUKOT VA YESHVU VA SUKOT KI LO ASU MIYMEY YESHU'A BIN NUN KEN BENEY YISRA-EL AD HA YOM HA HU VA TEHI SIMCHAH GEDOLAH ME'OD
וַיַּעֲשׂוּ כָל הַקָּהָל הַשָּׁבִים מִן הַשְּׁבִי סֻכּוֹת וַיֵּשְׁבוּ בַסֻּכּוֹת כִּי לֹא עָשׂוּ מִימֵי יֵשׁוּעַ בִּן נוּן כֵּן בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל עַד הַיּוֹם הַהוּא וַתְּהִי שִׂמְחָה גְּדוֹלָה מְאֹד
BN: And the entire congregation of those who had come back from captivity erected sukot, and dwelt in the sukot; for since the days of Yeshu'a bin Nun until that day the Beney Yisra-El had not done so. And there was very great joy.
HA KAHAL: All the returnees. What about the descendants of those Yehudim who were not taken into captivity? And all the other good citizens of Yehudah, made up of countless other tribes and peoples? Did they not participate?
YESHU'A BIN NUN: Yes! At last! Confirmation that needs to be taken back to the Book of Ezra and earlier in Nechem-Yah, but also to Torah references, my own Dictionary of Names, and especially his own book, but also forward to the Christian texts - Yeshu'a, not Yehoshu'a. Jesus, in Latin.
Go back to the text of Joshua, but I don't recall that they lived in booths in this manner in his day - though they did when Mosheh gave the Law for the second time, in the Book of Deuteronomy, and obviously Yehoshu'a was there. Either way, this is the inauguration - or re-inauguration after 900 years - of what would become and remain a major annual festival - though there is no evidence of Ushpizin at this stage, and the mix-up with Purim has been noted.
8:18 VA YIKR'A BE SEPHER TORAH HA ELOHIM YOM BE YOM MIN HA YOM HA RI'SHON AD HA YOM HA ACHARON VA YA'ASU CHAG SHIV'AT YAMIM U VA YOM HA SHEMINI ATSERET KA MISHPAT
וַיִּקְרָא בְּסֵפֶר תּוֹרַת הָאֱלֹהִים יוֹם בְּיוֹם מִן הַיּוֹם הָרִאשׁוֹן עַד הַיּוֹם הָאַחֲרוֹן וַיַּעֲשׂוּ חָג שִׁבְעַת יָמִים וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁמִינִי עֲצֶרֶת כַּמִּשְׁפָּט
BN: Also, day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read from the Scroll of the Torah of Elohim. And they kept the feast for seven days; and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the ordinance.
SEPHER TORAH HA ELOHIM: Which means it took him eight full days to read... however much of the Torah there was at that time, however much of it he managed in that time.
SHEMINI ATSERET: The "solemn assembly" remains in place to this day, and now carries the name SHEMINI ATSERET, though there is also conflict over Shemini and another festival added later, Simchat Torah, which celebrates the completion of the annual cycle of the reading of the law, commenced now immediately after the end of Sukot, and not on Rosh ha Shanah as Ezra did. In some communities Shemini and Simchat are held on the same day, in others a day apart, extending the festivities to eight days, or nine, in some parts of theDiaspora: 7 days + 1, 7 days + 1 + 1, or 8 days +1, depending on how you interpret the various Toraic and Rabbinical instructions... a fuller explanation of this can be found here.
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