What were they used for?

[Dr. Shon]

Wags said, "They had to have a way to support themselves. Just like Paul was a tent maker by trade."

Thank you. That was one of the things I was wondering about. And thank you for the research you are doing. It is truly appreciated.

 

[Wags]

I must have been tired.... It completely slipped my mind that Paul was from the tribe of Benjamin so a Rabbi (teacher) or in his case Pharisee did not have to be of the tribe of Levi.

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[font=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]Philippians 3[/font][font=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]:5 circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;[/font]

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[Henaynei]

it was asked if there were Temples and sacrifices in various villages - the answer: no - only in Jerusalem.

Now, othere than the High Priest and the Sanhedrin levites did not ordinarily serve all year round in the Temple - they served by courses or families, on emonth at a time - tjhis is one reason we can date the birth of Yeshua because Zachariah was serving in the Temple during his course So, while a family of Levites may live in another town than Jerusalem - they still served a month a year in Jerusalem and in the temple. Some of the money - indeed much of it - would have gone to pay for the daily keep of these priests and their families - and for the new clothes each course of priests needed for their service - during their time of sevice - as well as money to pay for the upkeep of the articles and items of the Temple - repair of normal wear and tear - the cost of new knives, rope - for slaughtering - the cost of olive oil for the lamps - the cost of the holy anointing oil and the holy incense - the costs of keeping theTemple functioning must have been enormous

 

[Sephania]

And don't forget the biggest expense, the wood for the continually burning fire on the altar of sacrifice. If you just add up the daily sacrifices not on a Holy Day you will see that that was a whole lot a cookin' going on! Some sacrifices had to be completely burnt up, reduced to ashes.

If you want to read up on the courses that Henaynei spoke of go to 1 Chronicles 28. There you will see how HaShem himself gave the plans to King David for the temple and ordered the Levites to serve by certain divisions. They were divided up into 24 courses so that they each took turns serving the L-RD in the holy Temple. There were also several "classes" of priests, such as Singers, Musicians, Gatekeepers, treasure keepers and Assistants to the other Priests. Each course served twice a year plus 3 weeks.
The priests and the Levites were divided into 24 courses within their assigned class. The length of each course was 7 days . The week of service began and ended on the Sabbath . In addition, all the priests served for 3 extra weeks during the year .

Each course of priests and Levites came on duty for a week, from one Sabbath to another. It should be made clear that not every priest and Levite in a course served every day. The service was subdivided among the various families, which constituted a course. The number of families in a course varied. The singers had only one family in each course whereas the other classes had up to 9 families in a course.

It also must be remembered that another "duty" of the Levitical tribe was the "keeper of the law". They were to be the teachers to the people of HaShems law handed down to Moshe. In the "New Testament" they are referred to as the "Priest and lawyers" for they were the ones who interpreted the law.

You will find today many a Cohanim that are attorney- of secular law.

Here is a link that might help you. http://www3.telus.net/public/kstam/en/temple/details/priest_service.htm

 

[Dr. Shon]

Thanks Wags, Zayit and Henaynei! Great info. And I'll check out that link!