judaism without a temple 255
biblical book of Esther (see Chapter 2). The reading of the scroll of
Esther was evidently an established part of synagogue liturgy as known
already to the rabbis in the early third century ce, since a whole tractate
of the Mishnah was devoted to its regulation. The tradition of accom-
panying the reading with carnival seems to go back to late antiquity.
According to the Babylonian Talmud, hearing the scroll read out is a
duty incumbent on women as well as men, and people are encouraged
to get so drunk that they can no longer distinguish the hero of the tale,
Mordecai, from the villain Haman.
The focus of some of these festival liturgies was with the rest of the
community in synagogue, but much – from the Pesach Seder to the
Hanukkah lamps – took place primarily in the home, and a desire to
beautify such liturgical practices encouraged production of distinctive
domestic ceremonial objects, such as Sabbath lamps and candlesticks,
silver kiddush cups for wine to sanctify the Sabbath and plates for hal‑
lah (a plaited loaf of special Sabbath bread), spice containers for
havdalah, eight- branched lamps for the Hanukkah lights and decor-
ative vessels for the special foods of the Passover Seders. Such objects,
with the mezuzah on the doorposts, would mark the religious affiliation
of a Jewish home as clearly as a picture of Christ might signify a Chris-
tian home, or a verse from the Koran might indicate Islam.^21
The impact of the prevailing religious cultures which surrounded Jewish
communities was as much through Jewish opposition as through imi-
tation and adoption. In the first centuries after 70 ce, when Jews
everywhere were compelled to respond in some way to what they con-
sidered to be pagan idolaters, the rabbis proved adept at simplifying
and caricaturing much of the pagan life around them, confining their
concern to Jewish avoidance of anything which might smack of idol-
atry: ‘For three days before the festivals of the gentiles it is forbidden to
have business with them ... And these are the festivals of the gentiles:
the calends, the saturnalia, the commemoration of empire, the anniver-
saries of kings, and the day of birth and the day of death.’ The Jews of
Dura- Europos commissioned from a local painter a depiction for their
synagogue of the destruction of the idol Dagon and seem to have come
close to polemic against the numerous pagan cults in their vicinity.
But numerous synagogue mosaics from late Roman Palestine depict the
sun god Helios on his four- horsed chariot surrounded by the signs of
the zodiac, and a synagogue floor from sixth- century Gaza portrays
King David as an Orpheus figure with his lyre, without any apparent