• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

How did Jews in the holy land worship when they could not get to the Temple?

jbg

jbg

Active Member
How did Jews in the holy land worship when they could not get to the Temple?

During the days of the Jews lived in the holy land, both before 586 BCE, and after Cyrus allowed the Jews to return, most shoes did not live within a close radius of Jerusalem. In fact, the most fertile parts of that area where the gallery and the coastal areas, near modern Tel Aviv, and Haifa, as now.

The operative question is how Jews worshiped during other than those rare occasions that they could abandon foreman field or village life, and travel to Jerusalem? Even if they could get transportation, leaving large areas unguarded was flatly impossible. I doubted the Jews worshiped only every three or four years.

I’ve asked just about every Rabbi and Cantor that I’ve had meaningful contact with and nobody has a good answer. Does anyone else?
 
Harel13

Harel13

Am Yisrael Chai
Staff member
Premium Member
Just to strengthen your point, Philo of Alexandria once stated that he had only visited the Temple once (or maybe twice, I'll try to check later) in his life.

In the Second Temple period we have the appearance of shuls in various communities around the world.

A friend once suggested to me that during the First Temple period that this may have been one of the reasons why it was difficult unifying Am Yisrael around worship at the Temple and why archeologists have found several external cultic sites around the Land of Israel (e.g. Tel Arad Temple - Madain Project (en)). I can't say what adherents to the central temple religion did when not coming to Yerushalayim.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top