Not so Philo, who, desiring to give the day a
value for all, regards it as God's covenant with the whole of
humanity.[162]
The Sabbath idea is reflected in all the festivals, which have as
their dominating idea man's joyful gratitude to God. Influenced
probably by a mystic fondness for certain numbers, Philo enumerates
ten festivals, as follows:[163] (1) Each day in the year, if we use it
aright--a truly Philonic conception; (2) The Sabbath; (3) The new
moon--then in Alexandria, as in Palestine, a solemn day; (4) The
Passover; (5) The bringing of the first barley ('Omer); (6) The Feast
of Unleavened Bread. These last three are separate aspects of one
celebration, which is divided up so as to produce the holy decad. (7)
Pentecost; (8) New Year; (9) Atonement (to the mystic the Feast of
feasts); (10) Tabernacles. Following his design of revealing in
Judaism a religion of universal validity, Philo points out in all
these festivals a double meaning. On the one hand, they mark God's
providence to His chosen people, shown in some great event of their
history--this is the special meaning for the Israelite--and, on the
other, they indicate God's goodness as revealed in the march of
nature, and thus help to bind man to the universal process. So
Passover is the festival of the spring and a memorial of the creation
([Hebrew: zbr lm'sha br'shit]) as well as the memorial of the great Exodus,
and of our gratitude for the deliverance from the inhospitable land of
Egypt.
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