246 A History of Judaism
ram’s horn in the Holy City but not in the provinces. After the Temple was
destroyed Rabban Yohanan b. Zakkai ordained that they might blow it
wheresoever there was a court. R. Eliezer said, ‘Rabban Yohanan b. Zak-
kai ordained it so only for Yavneh.’ They replied, ‘It is all one whether it
was Yavneh or any other place wherein was a court.’ ... Beforetime the
lulav was carried seven days in the Temple, but in the provinces one day
only. After the Temple was destroyed, Rabban Yohanan b. Zakkai ordained
that in the provinces it should be carried seven days in memory of the
Temple ... Beforetime they used to admit evidence about the new moon
throughout the day. Once the witnesses tarried so long in coming that the
levites were disordered in their singing; so it was ordained that evidence
could be admitted only until the afternoon offering ... After the Temple
was destroyed Rabban Yohanan b. Zakkai ordained that they might admit
evidence about the new moon throughout the day.^9The emphasis on ensuring liturgical continuity is significant. In the cen-
turies after 70 ce synagogue buildings gradually began to take on an
aura of sanctity, albeit at a level below that of the Temple. Synagogue
mosaic inscriptions in Aramaic and Greek record the gifts of pious Jews
to ‘this sacred place’ in numerous sites in Galilee in the fifth and sixth
centuries. Considerable expenditure on such mosaics, many of them
elaborately depicting biblical scenes such as the binding of Isaac by
Abraham, in itself attests the new veneration accorded to these
buildings.
Archaeologists in the early 1930s found in Dura- Europos on the
Euphrates a synagogue of the third century ce embellished with a
remarkable series of paintings illustrating a variety of biblical stories,
from Miriam rescuing Moses from the Nile to the vision of Ezekiel of
the resurrection of the valley of dry bones (see p. 293). At the centre of
the main wall in the Dura- Europos frescoes is a niche on which was
depicted the Jewish Temple and some of its appurtenances. The same
image is to be found on many of the mosaics in Palestine in late antiq-
uity, along with stylized versions of palm branches, rams’ horns and
other items associated with the great festivals. The synagogue had
become, by late antiquity, what the rabbis described sometimes as a
‘small sanctuary’, in allusion to God’s words in the book of Ezekiel:
‘Though I removed them far away among the nations, and though I
scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them
for a little while in the countries where they have gone.’
In ensuing centuries, synagogues were to be increasingly embellished.