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October 10, 2003
Drawing of the waters
There is no Temple any more, but we have Jerusalem.
DVORA WAYSMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
The plaza outside the Aish HaTorah Yeshivah in the Jewish Quarter
of Jerusalem's Old City is beginning to fill with young people.
It is 10 o'clock on Tuesday night during Hol Hamoed Sukkot, an intermediate
day of the Festival of Booths. A band has started to play and, suddenly,
everyone is dancing – the men forming a joyful procession;
the women holding hands and dancing in a circle, long hair or kerchiefs
flying in the breeze. Music and singing fill the air above the noise
of friends greeting each other, while a yellow moon looks down on
the beautiful, restored Jewish Quarter, burnishing the grey stone
to pale gold.
The joy and merrymaking is today all that remains of the Drawing
of the Waters ceremony which, in Temple times, attracted the most
enthusiastic response from the populace.
"He that hath not beheld the joy of the drawing of water hath
never seen joy in his life," we are told in the Mishnah. (Suk.V:1)
The origin of the ceremony is unknown, but it was already mentioned
in Isaiah. It began on the second evening of Sukkot, lasting for
six nights, except for the Sabbath. Jerusalemites and pilgrims flocked
to the outer court of the Temple, which was called the Court of
Women, while a barrier was erected to separate the sexes. An enormous
golden candelabra was set up, and young priests fed it from vessels
of oil. Flames leapt to the sky and every street in Jerusalem is
said to have shone with their light.
The most pious men were chosen to execute a torch dance, while the
people, led by the Levites, sang psalms and hymns to the accompaniment
of flutes, harps and cymbals. Then a procession of priests would
descend the 15 steps to where the multitude was assembled, pausing
on each step to sing one of the Psalms of Degrees. How the congregation
must have thrilled to the words of the 125th Psalm: "As the
mountains are round about Jerusalem so the Lord is round about His
people, from henceforth even forever."
They heard it under the open sky, surrounded by the same dim shape
of the hills of which they sang. At the upper (eastern) gate, two
priests with trumpets marked the advance of the procession and,
when they reached the lowest step they turned west, facing the Temple,
and recited: "Our fathers who were in this place turned their
backs upon the Temple and their faces they turned eastward towards
the sun. But as for us, our eyes are unto God."
By this time it was dawn, the stars fading and the clouds flushed
with pink. The long procession left the Temple, wending its way
to the pool of Shiloah (Siloam) in a triumphal march. The pool was
formed by the overflow of water in Hezekiah's tunnel, which led
from the Gihon Spring into the city. At the pool, a golden ewer
was filled with water and brought back to the Temple. There, the
High Priest poured it over the altar at the same time as a libation
of wine.
There is an amusing story about the Sadducees, who opposed this
ceremony. A Sadducean prince, Alexander Jannaeus, once officiated
as High Priest and contemptuously poured out the water at his feet,
instead of on the altar. The populace were so incensed that they
pelted him with their etrogim (citrons) and, from then on,
the priest was bidden to raise his hands as he poured the water
on the altar.
Today, there is no Temple, no altar and no water in the Pool of
Shiloah as the spring dried up in 70 CE, but we still have Jerusalem,
our eternal capital; and the joy of the Drawing of the Waters is
symbolically recaptured every year during Hol Hamoed Sukkot, as
we sing, dance and rejoice in the same city under the same moon,
as instructed in Isaiah 12:3: "Therefore with joy shall ye
draw water out of the wells of salvation."
Dvora Waysman is a freelance writer living in Jerusalem.
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