an
should take them home."

5. "How was the command for the willow?" "There was a place below
Jerusalem called Moza;(263) thither the people went down and gathered
drooping willow-branches. And they came and erected them at the side of
the altar, with their tops bending over the altar. They blew the trumpet,
and sounded an alarm, and blew a blast. Every day they made one circuit
round the altar, and said, 'Save now, I beseech Thee, O Lord! O Lord, I
beseech Thee, send now prosperity.' " Rabbi Judah said, "I and HE save
now, I beseech thee."(264) On the day itself(265) they made seven circuits
round the altar. "As they withdrew what did they say?" "Beauty is thine, O
Altar!" "Beauty is thine, O Altar!" R. Eleazar said, "To the LORD and to
thee, O Altar!" "To the LORD, and to thee, O Altar!"

6. As they did on the week-days, so they did on the Sabbath, save that
they gathered the willow-boughs on the Sabbath-eve, and put them into
vases of gold, that they might not fade. R. Joshua, son of Beroka, says,
"they brought date-branches, and thrashed them on the ground at the sides
of the altar" (others say "on the altar"). And the day itself was called
"the day for thrashing the branches."

7. Immediately the children threw down their palm-branches, and ate their
citrons.

8. The hymn and rejoicings were for eight days. "How?" "It is taught, that
a man is bound to the hymn, and the rejoicings in honor of the last day of
the feast, even as on its other days." "How is the booth for seven days?"
"When a man has completed his eating, he is not to pull down his booth;
but after the evening sacrifice he may remove his furniture in honor of
the last day of the feast."

9. "How was the pouring out of the water?" "A golden pitcher holding three
logs(266) was filled from Siloam. When they came (with it) to the
water-gate they blew the trumpet, an alarm, and a blast. The priest then
went up the ascent to the altar, and turned to his left. Two silver basins
were there." R. Judah says, "they were of lime, but their look was dark
from the wine." And they were bored with two narrow nostrils, one wider,
the other narrower, that both might get empty at once. "The one to the
west was for the water; the other to the east was for the wine; but if the
water was poured into the wine basin, or the wine into the water basin, it
was allowed." R. Judah said, "they poured out one log on each of the eight
days." To him, who poured out, they said, "li