On Monday they can half open them at
dark. But on Thursday they may open them for honor to the approaching
Sabbath.

7. "If these days pass over, and there be no answer?" "People diminish
business, building, planting, betrothals and marriages, and salutations of
peace between man and his friend, as children of men ashamed before
OMNIPRESENCE." The men of eminence have again recourse to fasting, till
Nisan be ended. If Nisan be ended, and the rain comes down, it is a mark
of cursing, as is said,(321) "Is it not wheat harvest to-day?" etc.

Chapter II

1. "What is the order of the fast-days?" "Men draw out the ark containing
the rolls of the Law to the public street of the city, and they put burnt
ashes on the top of the ark, and on the head of the prince, and on the
head of the president of the tribunal, and everyone takes and puts ashes
on his own head." The most aged of them says before them touching words,
"Brethren, it is not said for the men of Nineveh, 'And God saw their
sackcloth and their fasting,'(322) but 'God saw their works, that they
returned from their evil way.' And in the tradition (of the prophet) he
says,(323) 'Rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord
your God.' "

2. When they stood in prayer, they placed before the ark an aged man and
full of experience, one who had children and an unblemished house, that
his heart be not distracted in prayer, and he says before them twenty-four
blessings, the usual eighteen for every day, and he adds to them six more.

3. These are they, "remembrances,"(324) and "blowing of the
trumpets,"(325) "In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and He heard
me,"(326) "I will lift up my eyes unto the hills,"(327) "out of the depths
have I cried unto Thee, O Lord,"(328) "A prayer of the afflicted when he
is overwhelmed."(329) Rabbi Judah says, "it was not necessary to say the
'remembrances,' and 'the trumpets,' but he said instead of them, 'If there
be in the land famine, if there be pestilence,' "(330) etc. "The word of
the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth."(331) And he said
their closing benediction.

4. For the first additional prayer he said, "He who answered Abraham our
father on Mount Moriah, He shall answer you, and hear the voice of your
cry this day. Blessed be Thou, Lord, the Redeemer of Israel." For the
second he said, "He who answered our fathers by the Red Sea, He will
answer you, and hear the voice of your cry this day