De Specialibus Legibus (lib. i‑iv)

At all events, behold, he nourished our forefathers even in the desert for forty years. [*]( Deuteronomy viii. 2.)

And this day of the fast is celebrated in the tenth month, because the number ten is a perfect number.

Therefore God has ordained that abstinence from food should take place in [*]( Deuteronomy viii. 2.)

For thus the clear stream which proceeds from the fountain of reason was likely to be borne smoothly and evenly to the soul, since the uninterrupted use of food inundating the body contributes also to confuse the reason. But if the supply of food be checked, then the reason getting a firm footing as ir in a dry road, will be able to proceed in safety without stumbling;

and besides it was fitting that when the supply of all things had turned out according to the wishes of the people and become completed, they should, amid the abundance of their harvest, preserve a commemoration of their previous want by abstinence from food, and should offer up prayers, in order that they might never come to a real experience of a want of necessary food.

The last of all the annual festivals is that which is called the feast of tabernacles, which is fixed for the season of the autumnal equinox. And by this festival the lawgiver teaches two lessons, both that it is necessary to honour equality, the first principle and beginning of justice, the principle akin to unshadowed light; and that it is becoming also, after witnessing the perfection of all the fruits of the year, to give thanks to that Being who has made them perfect.

For the autumn (μετόπωρον), as its very name shows is the season which comes after (μετά) the fruits of the year (τὴν ὀπώραν) are now gathered into the granaries, on account of the providence of nature which loves the living creatures upon the earth.

And, indeed, the people are commanded to pass the whole period of the feast under tents, either because there is no longer any necessity for remaining in the open air labouring at the cultivation of the land, since there is nothing left in the land, but all .... is stored up in the barns, on account of the injuries which otherwise might be likely to visit it from the burning of the sun or the violence of the rains.

It is also intended as a commemoration of the long journeying of their ancestors, while making which through the desert

And it is proper in the time of riches to remember one’s poverty, and in an hour of glory to recollect the days of one’s disgrace, and at a season of peace to think upon the dangers that are past.

Again, the beginning of this festival is appointed for the fifteenth day of the month, on account of the reason which has already been mentioned respecting the spring season, also that the world may be full, not by day only but also by night, of the most beautiful light, the sun and moon on their rising opposite to one another with uninterrupted light, without any darkness interposing itself between so as to divide them.

And after the festival has lasted seven days, he adds an eighth as a seal, calling it a kind of crowning feast, not only as it would seem to this festival, but also to all the feasts of the year which we have enumerated; for it is the last feast of the year, and is a very stable and holy sort of conclusion, befitting men who have now received all the produce from the land, and who are no longer in perplexity and apprehension respecting any barrenness or scarcity.

I have spoken in this way about the sacred week and the sacred number seven at more than usual length, wishing to show that all the feasts of the year are, as it were, the offspring of the number seven, which stands in the relation of a mother. [*]( I have translated this as it is printed in Schwichest’s edition. Mangey makes the treatise end at " mother.") ... Follies and joys; and because in such assemblies and in a cheerful course of life there are thus established seasons of delight unconnected with any sorrow or depression supporting both the body and the soul; the one by the pleasure and the other by the opportunities for philosophical study which they afford. [*](in Yonge, this is "A TREATISE ON THE FESTIVAL OF THE BASKET OF FIRST-FRUITS. his treatise is not given in Mangey’s edition.")

There is, besides all these, another festival [*](Deuteronomy xxvi. 1.) sacred to God, and a solemn assembly on the day of the festival which [*]( I have translated this as it is printed in Schwichest’s edition. Mangey makes the treatise end at " mother.") [*](his treatise is not given in Mangey’s edition.) [*](Deuteronomy xxvi. 1.)

Nevertheless, any one may easily see that it has about it some of the characteristics of a sacred festival, and that it comes very near to having the privileges of a solemn assembly. For every one of those men who had lands and possessions, having filled vessels with every different species of fruit borne by fruit-bearing trees; which vessels, as I have said before, are called castalli, brings with great joy the first fruits of his abundant crop into the temple, and standing in front of the altar gives the basket to the priest, uttering at the same time the very beautiful and admirable hymn prescribed for the occasion; and if he does not happen to remember it, he listens to it with all attention while the priest recites it.

And the hymn is as follows:—"The leaders of our nation renounced Syria, and migrated to Egypt. Being but few in number, they increased till they became a populous nation. Their descendants being oppressed in innumerable ways by the natives of the land, when no assistance did any longer appear to be expected from men, became the suppliants of God, having fled for refuge to entreat his assistance.

Therefore he, who is merciful to all who are unjustly treated, having received their supplication, smote those who oppressed them with signs and wonders, and prodigies, and with all the marvellous works which he wrought at that time. And he delivered those who were being insulted and enduring every kind of perfidious oppression, not only leading them forth to freedom, but even giving them in addition a most fertile land;

for it is from the fruits of this land, O bounteous God! that we now bring you the first fruits; if indeed it is a proper expression to say that he who receives them from you brings them to you. For, O Master! they are all your favours and your gifts, of which you [*]( Castallus is interpreted "a basket with a pointed bottom.")

This hymn is sung from the beginning of summer to to the end of autumn, by two choruses replying to one another uninterruptedly, on two separate occasions, each at the end of one complete half of ten years; because men cannot all at once bring the fruits of the seasons to God in accordance with his express command, but different men bring them at different seasons; and sometimes even the same persons bring first fruits from the same lands at different times;

for since some fruits become ripe more speedily, and others more slowly, either on account of the differences of the situations in which they are grown, as being hotter or colder, or from innumerable other reasons, it follows that the time for offering the first fruits of such productions is undefined and uncertain, being extended over a great space.