The Origin of the Synagogue: a Re-Assessment

THE ORIGIN OF THE SYNAGOGUE: A RE-ASSESSMENT

RACHEL HACHLILI Universityof Haifa

The problem of the synagogue's origin is one of the most impor- tant issues in the history of the Jewish people, and one which is often in dispute. The purpose of this essay is to re-assess the different theories subscribed to regarding the main questions: the time, form, func- tion and place of the synagogue's origin.

Scholars have advocated these positions: The synagogue originated:

1. In the late First Temple period (7th century B.C.E.) in Eretz Israel. 2. In the Babylonian exile, in the diaspora. 3. In the Jerusalem Temple courts, with the Return from Babylonian exile. 4. In third century B.C.E. Egypt. 5. In the Second Temple period, when the Hasmonean revolu- tion brought about the emergence of the synagogue.

1. Scholars maintain' that the institution of the synagogue was cre- ated by the Deuteronomic Reformation of Joshiah in 621 B.C.E. in Judaea. They suggest that the bamoth, the former places of cultic sacrificial shrines, were transformed into meeting places for public worship, with prayer and songs, and without sacrifice. The rural congregation needed such places because of the difficulties involved in long pilgrimages to

' Gutmann, J. The Origin of the Synagogue, The Current State of Research, in J. Gutmann, ed., 7he Synagogue:Studies in Origins,Archaeology and Architecture.New York: KTAV 1975: p. 73 and notes 7, 8, citing the scholars who advocate this theory. 35

Jerusalem. However, the fact that the original use of the bamoth with sacrifice continued after the death of king Joshiah does not give much credence to this idea. Furthermore, this theory is largely based on Biblical citations such as Psalms 74,8 and Jeremiah 39,8, mentioning the destructions of mo-adei-el and beth ha-am, in an attempt to read these words as meaning a meeting place, i.e. a synagogue. Scholars2 base their theory on terms which might have acquired their meaning at a much later time. 2. Exile to Babylon, after the destruction of the First Temple (in 586 B.C.E.), is considered by some scholars to have led to the evolu- tion of a local house of worship. The exiled Jews in Babylonia gath- ered in places for communal worship and instruction. These local places are considered to be the basis for the institution of the synagogue that developed upon the return of the exiles to Eretz Israel.3 Kraeling main- tains' that based on the findings of the Dura Europos synagogue, "Babylonia, rather than Palestine, should be regarded as the pioneer in, and the most significant contributor to, the development of the synagogue as a formal structure." The later Babylonian synagogues of the Talmudic period (4th-6th centuries C.E.) were traditionally considered to be linked to the begin- ning of the Babylonian diaspora.' However, no archaeological remains of such places were found in Babylonia. It is possible that the meeting places in Babylonia were for community purposes, and that the congregation might have kept the memory of the Temple worship alive and encouraged the hope of rebuilding the Temple. 3. Scholars contends on the basis of rabbinic tradition that the synagogue originated in the Torah reading and prayer assemblies conducted

2 Gutmann, J. Synagogue Origins: Theories and Facts, in J. Gutmann, ed., Ancient Synagogues-TheState of Research.Michigan: Brown Judaic Studies no. 22, 1981: 1-3; Gutmann 1975: 73-74, above n. 1. 3 Moore, G.F., Judaism in the First Centuriesof the ChristianEra, vol. I. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1927: p. 283; Zeitlin, S., The Origin of the Synagogue in J. Gutmann, ed., TheSynagogue: Studies in Origins,Archaeology and Architecture. New York: KTAV: 1975: p. 18; Gutmann 1975: 72, above note 1. 4 Kraeling, C.H., The Excavationat Dura Europos,Final ReportVIII, part 1: The Syna- gogue.New Haven 1979: p. 33. 5 Oppenheimer, A., Synagogueswith a Historic Associationin Talmudic Babylonia, in A. Kasher, A. Oppenheimer and U. Rappaport, Synagoguesin Antiquity.Jerusalem (Hebrew), 1987: p. 147; Gafni, I., Synagogues in Talmudic Babylonia: Tradition and Reality, in A. Kasher, A. Oppenheimer and U. Rappaport, Synagoguesin Antiquity. Jerusalem 1987 (Hebrew). English summary: p. x. 6 Safrai, S., The Synagogue and its Worship, Societyand Religionin the SecondTemple