The 'Processions'
or 'parade dances' were evidences continually in Temple Festivities
and Worship. Indeed the use of certain Psalms in that period
centered around Temple Festivals.
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"Many
of the Psalms are expressive of the parade
dance, or dance procession, in a way which
show it to have been the characteristic form
of the festival (Psalms 30:12, 87:7, 149:3,
150:4; Is. 30:29) and that this was where many
of the Psalms were used."14
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The full scope of
Hebrew history (other than for the years in captivity) from
the crossing of the Red Sea to the final days of the Temple
were filled with dance expression.
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"The
cultic dance went on right down to the last
days of the Temple. Rabbinic tradition speaks
particularly of a torch dance by night at the
water pouring ceremony at the Feast of Tabernacles:
It was said that the gladness there was above
everything. Pious men danced with torches in
their hands and sang songs of joy and praised,
while the Levites played all sorts of instruments.
The dance drew great crowds of spectators for
whom grandstands had been erected. It did not
end until the morning at a given sign, when
water from the spring of Shiloh was poured over
the altar. This is certainly not the invention
of later Jewish times, but a very old tradition"15
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The major gain for
Israel's worship was in a very strong sense her major problem.
The worship of Israeli choirs, musicians and dancers, while
given expertise and producing excellence to the degree that
even foreign powers were in amazement (i.e., the Queen of Sheba,
etc.). still found a slow but sure disinvolvement with many
of her people. A 'professional' leadership with a committed
and paid choir, orchestra and dancers provided an excellence
unequaled. Scholarship is unified in its agreement that the
musicians, singers and dancers of the temple era were:
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"...almost
completely professional and sacerdotal (performed
by priests). The Jewish laymen participated
principally as a spectator and a listener.
It is reasoned that he may have frequently joined
in the traditional responses 'Amen' and 'Alleluia,'
and possibly in an antiphonal refrain like 'for
his steadfast love endures forever' (Psalm 136)."16
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That the prophets
condemned men because they did not really so participate means
that not all entered into the reality of worship, true worship
must be free and unconstrained, the offering of a worshiping
spirit and not the mere attendance at a ceremony.
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"There
is evidence that much of the pre-excilic worship
was marked by rejoicing - the shrines were the
scene of dancing - and there are passages in
the Psalms which clearly indicate that dancing
had a place in the worship of the Temple."17
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While Israel's streets
were filled with the dances of rejoicing men and women during
her festivals and feast days, her slide toward the years of
captivity robbed her as a nation of the purity of true worship.
To
be continued
Footnotes
14. W. O. E. Osterley,
The Sacred Dance (Cambridge: N. P., 1923), p. 94
15. Mowinckel, The
Psalms in Israel's Worship op. cit., p. 83
16. Hustad, Jubilate,
op. cit., p. 83
17. H. H. Rowley,
Worship in Ancient Israel, op. cit., pp. 119-120
