The Maccabaean

The Sabbath in Palestine is observed by nearly all Jews alike, the Askenazim having acquired many Sephardic customs. In no country does the Jew appreciate the true value of the Sabbath as he does in Palestine. Here, the holy day exists in all its religious and national vitality. The Sabbath preparations are begun on Thursday evening. The native women prepare their own bread and pastry on Thursday night and on Friday morning take it to the oven to be baked. Marketing is the work of the husband, and very early on Friday morning he goes out to make his purchases.

The first article he probably will buy is vegetables. A native Jew cannot live without the legumes that are in season, which are prepared and cooked into delicious dishes. The next thing he may secure is a few pounds of mutton, beef being rarely eaten by him.

In Jerusalem, the hurry and bustle on a Friday afternoon is beyond description. Through the Jaffa gate flows a continuous stream of Askenazim, Mograbin, Yemenites and other Oriental Jews. Some shine their boots (there are probably more Jewish boot-blacks in Jerusalem than in New York), others are pressing and stiffening their Tarbooshes, the Jewish .coachmen are hurrying their passengers into the carriages to be driven quickly to Meah Scharim, Beth Israel, the Bokhara quarter, Machneh Yehudah and other Jewish places. Most Jews consider it obligatory to go to the Bath, to dress in their Sabbath robes and to hurry off to the Wailing Wall, there to pray before the coming in of the Sabbath.

The Wailing Wall on a Sabbath eve is most picturesque and impressive. Before this remnant of the Temple, after twenty centuries of ruin, there still gather the descendants of its ancient worshippers to wail over its de-

parted glory. Jews from the antipodes are united into one bond of brotherhood.- On this holy spot disappears ever secular thought, which gives place to lofty sentiments of love and reverence. On a Friday afternoon, one is transferred to ancient Jerusalem, one imagines the tongues of flame raging among the golden windows of the Temple, and sees the destruction of the Jewish national centre, nay, even weeping by the only wall extant to mark the wrath of God and the fulfilment of the prophecies of his seers. .

When the time for kindling the candles arrived, a Schammas proceeds to several parts of the Jewish quarter, and ascending the highest position, proclaims the setting in of the Sabbath with the sounding of a horn. The first call is a sign for closing shops and the cessation of labor, the second and third, for lighting the candles and proceeding to synagogue.

The candles consist of cotton tapers that float on the surface of some oil put in a glass vessel especially made for this purpose. This vessel is suspended in the form of a chandelier by brass chains and hangs just over the dining table.

The Sephardim pray early, and on their return from synagogue exclaim "Schabbat Schalom" (the Sabbath of Peace), the response to which is, "Schabbat Schalom Bevorach" (the Peace of Sabath is Blessed). The children, in order of birth, then kiss the hands of their parents and relatives, who lay their hands on the children's heads and asy, "May you live to be a bridegroom (or bride)," as the case may be. The parents themselves then go through the ceremonies of the proscribed kiss, if there be any older persons invited to spend the Sabbath with them. A visitor always receives the most prominent