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the niche and the apse in synagogues 205

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE NICHE AND THE APSE IN SYNAGOGUES

7.1. Introduction: Where were the Holy Scrolls kept in the ancient synagogue?

The problem of where to keep the Holy Scrolls was an enduring one for the Jewish communities of the ancient world. As early as the second century CE, the Torah Scroll, containing the Five Books of Moses in Hebrew (the Pentateuch), was considered to be the most holy object within the synagogue.1 Where were they kept? Prob- ably until the fifth century, the Scrolls were not kept exclusively within the synagogue building, but this led to even more difficulties involving their sanctity. The Palestinian Talmud mentions that Torah Scrolls were kept in private houses, sometimes on the ledge of a window.2 Cabinets were also used to store scrolls, but not exclusively, since a hammer was placed in the same cabinet as a scroll.3 In the same location in the Palestinian Talmud, the question of the sacredness of a cabinet that was used for secular purposes is

1 P.Meg 3.1 (See supra, 166 n. 12) 2 The Palestinian Talmud refers to the issue of sanctity when a Torah Scroll is kept in the bedroom of a private house (PT Berakhot 3:5, 6d): לא ישמש אדם מיטתו וספר תורה עמו בבית. ר, ירמיה בשם ר, אבהו אם היה כרוך במפה או שהיה נתון מחלון שהוא גבוה עשרה טפחים מותר A person may not engage in sexual relations if there is a Torah scroll in the house with him. Rabbi Jeremiah in the name of Rabbi Abbahu, if it is wrapped in a cover or placed up in a window recess ten handbreadths high, it is permitted. See the discussion in Fine, 1997, 70. 3 PT Meg. 3:1: ר, ירמיה אזל לגוולנה חמתון יהבין בכושא בנו ארונא Rabbi Jeremiah went to Gavlannah. He saw them putting a hammer into the Ark. See also: Levine, 1991, 55.

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raised, and whether consecrating a secular cabinet is valid.4 In the study of the evolution of the synagogue building, the Ark containing the Torah Scrolls is assumed to have been portable, being brought into the synagogue only when necessary, and removed before the congregation was permitted to leave the prayer hall.5 Scholars in the early part of the twentieth century thought that second- and third-century synagogues had no permanent place for the Torah Ark.6 When sixth-century synagogues with apses were uncovered, it was assumed that the apse had become the permanent location for the Torah Ark. In the sixth-century synagogue at Sardis, outside the Land of Israel in Asia Minor, the large and imposing apse contains three tiers of benches which proves that here, at least, the apse could not have contained the Torah Ark (Fig. 7:1).7 In this synagogue, at the opposite end of the hall, flanking the entrances, are two large platforms each surmounted by columns supporting a pediment. At least one of these aediculae is thought to have been the location for the Torah Shrine (Fig. 7:2).8

4 PT Meg. 3:1: ומה אם אלו שנעשו לשם ספר אינן קדושות אלא בשעי, התשמיש זו שבניי לשם חצר לא כייש אלו שעשאן לשם חולין והקדישן מה הן כמה דאת אמר תמן בנייה לשם חצר והקדישי קדשי והכא עשאם לשם חולין והקדישן קדש As to these [namely, the Ark for a scroll or coverings for a scroll]—if one had made them to begin with for secular purposes, and then went and consecrated them, what is the law governing them? It is in accord with that which you say there: ‘If one built it for a courtyard and declared it consecrated, it is regarded as holy.’ Here, if he made them for a secular purpose and then consecrated them, they are deemed consecrated. 5 B. Sotah 39b: ואמר רבי תנחום אמר רבי יהושע בן לוי: אין הציבור ראשין לצאת עד שינטל ספר תורה ויניח במקומו ‘Rabbi Tanhum said in the name of Rabbi Yehushua ben Levi, the community is not permitted to leave (the synagogue) until the Torah Scroll is set in its place.’ It is unclear whether this Babylonian source refers to the scrolls alone, or if the scrolls were stored in a chest, so that both the chest and the scrolls would have been removed from the prayer hall; see also Fine, 1997, 77. 6 Sukenik, 1934, 18,52; Kraabel, 1979, 479 footnote 7. 7 The unique synthronon in the apse was added in the third phase of the building, on top of a mosaic floor dating to the late third century; Seager, 1972, 430-3. 8 The fourth-century aedicule at Ostia has been reconstructed in a similar fashion, (excavated from 1961-2). See: Squarciapino, 1963, 196-197; Seager, 1981, 183; Fine, 1995, 52-55; White, 1997, 36-37.

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