f the
scroll of Esther and its popular rejoicing, assumed in the course of time
a more earnest character, because the plot of Haman and the rescue of the
Jews became typical in Jewish history. Therefore the story of Amalek, the
arch-foe of Israel, is read in the Synagogue on the preceding Sabbath as a
reminder of the constant battle which Israel must wage for its supreme
religious task.(1508)

15. Through the entire history of Judaism since the Exile, the Synagogue
brought its religious truth home to the people each Sabbath and holy day
through the reading and expounding of the Torah and the prophets. These
words of consolation and admonition struck a deep chord in the hearts of
the people, so that learning was the coveted prize of all and ignorance of
the law became a mark of inferiority. Beside these stated occasions, all
times of joy or sadness such as weddings and funerals were given some
attention in the Synagogue, as linking the individual to the communal
life, and linking his personal joy and sorrow with the past sadness and
future glory of Jerusalem, as if they but mirrored the greater events of
the people. Thus the whole life was to be placed in the service of the
social body, and could not be torn asunder or divided into things holy and
things profane. Religion must send forth its rays like the sun, illumining
and warming all of man's deeds and thoughts.

16. The weakness of the Synagogue was its Orientalism. Amid all the
changes of time and environment, it remained separated from the
surrounding world to such an extent that it could no longer exert an
influence to win outsiders for its great truths. Until recently the Hebrew
language was retained for the entire liturgy, although it had become
unintelligible to the majority of the Jews in western lands, and even
though the rabbis had declared in Talmudic times that the verse: "Hear O
Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One" indicates that the words
should be spoken in a language which can be heard and understood by the
people.(1509) The Torah likewise was, and in the ancient Synagogue is
still read exclusively in the Hebrew original, in spite of the fact that
the original reading under Ezra was accompanied by a translation and
interpretation in the Aramaic vernacular. Thus only could the Torah become
"the heritage of the whole congregation of Jacob," which fact gave rise to
both the Aramaic and Greek translations of the Bible which carried the
truths of