there arose of necessity a practical need for a system of worship possible
for the great majority of the people, who could at best visit Jerusalem
but once or twice a year. The synagogue seems to have been a development
of the exile, when there was no temple and no sacrifice. It was the
characteristic institution of Judaism as a religion of the law, furnishing
in every place opportunity for prayer and study. The elders of each
community seem ordinarily to have been in control of its synagogue, and to
have had authority to exclude from its fellowship persons who had come
under the ban. In addition to these officials there was a ruler of the
synagogue, who had the direction of all that concerned the worship; a
_chazzan_, or minister, who had the care of the sacred books, administered
discipline, and instructed the children in reading the scripture; and two
or more receivers of alms. The Sabbath services consisted of prayers, and
reading of the scriptures--both law and prophets,--and an address or
sermon. It was in the sermon that the people learned to know the
"traditions of the elders," whether as applications of the law to the
daily life, or as legendary embellishments of Hebrew history and prophecy.
The preacher might be any one whom the ruler of the synagague recognized
as worthy to address the congregation.

16. The religious life which centred in the synagogue found daily
expression in the observance of the law and the traditions. In the measure
of its control by the scribes it was concerned chiefly with the Sabbath,
with the various ablutions needful to the maintenance of ceremonial
purity, with the distinctions between clean and unclean food, with the
times and ways of fasting, and with the wearing of fringes and
phylacteries. These lifeless ceremonies seem to our day wearisome and
petty in the extreme. It is probable, however, that the growth of the
various traditions had been so gradual that, as has been aptly said, the
whole usage seemed no more unreasonable to the Jews than the etiquette of