use in, the Temple service itself, and poetic texts from the biblical prophetic litera-
ture provided – in Greek, and perhaps in some locales in Latin, translation – a ready-
made, authoritative repository for synagogue prayer. The sanctusof the Latin and
Greek Mass is obviously based on the keddushahof the Jewish prayer service, itself
highly dependent upon biblical texts, particularly Isaiah. It is probable that the
sanctusrelies upon Greek and/or Latin versions of the keddushahin use in Diaspora
Jewish liturgy.
Biblical support for attachment to and support for the Jerusalem TempleThe Torah of Moses envisaged a society in which members had regular access to
the Temple cult. As the occasion demanded or devotion so inclined, one brought
to YHWH’s Temple purification offerings to finalize purification from uncleanness,
guilt offerings to expiate transgressions performed unwittingly, peace offerings,
votive offerings and thank offerings, first fruits, second tithe, the omeroffering, and
the Passover offering. Three times a year one was enjoined to make pilgrimage to
Jerusalem and the Temple on the principal agricultural festivals. Such ready access
to the Temple was impossible for Diaspora Jews, indeed impossible for most Jews
in the Land of Israel not living in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem. The Temple
cult as imagined in the Torah of Moses also imagined a city-state-sized society (as
it probably had been during the period of Ezra and Nehemiah and their immediate
successors at the beginning of the Persian period, until perhaps the time of
Alexander the Great).
Still on the strength of the norms of the Torah, Diaspora Jews continued to have
an affinity for, and consistently supported, the Jerusalem Temple until its destruc-
tion in 70 ce. As we noted earlier, while the Temple stood, Diaspora Jews with the
required means attempted to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem for one of the great
festivals – however infrequently this might be for any one individual in his or her
lifetime. Individuals also sent money to have sacrifices offered on their behalf or to
support the regular daily offerings. Diaspora communities collected an annual poll
tax, on the strength of laws in Exodus 30. 11–16 concerning the half-shekel, and
sent these amassed sums to Jerusalem’s Temple – this despite Roman legislation which
seemingly barred such massive transfers of funds across provincial borders. Rome appar-
ently chose to look the other way, with the exception of one Flaccus, proconsul of
Asia in Cicero’s time. Flaccus was tried for his confiscation of these funds amassed
by the Jews of the province of Asia. After the demise of the Temple, Rome had this
same tax collected and remitted to the Roman authorities to support the pagan
temple to Jupiter built on the site of the Temple to YHWH. With the establish-
ment of the Palestinian Jewish Patriarchate as a Roman-sanctioned administrative entity
in the Land of Israel in the latter part of the second century ce, Diaspora Jewish
communities similarly collected and amassed revenues that were sent to the Land of
Israel to support the functions of the Patriarchy; a practice stopped early in the fifth
century by the Christian Roman emperors (Linder 1987).
Further with respect to the centrality of Jerusalem in Diaspora Jews’ conscious-
ness, Philo of Alexandria describes Jerusalem as the mother city of the many366 Jack N. Lightstone