Free The Crown and the Cross: The Life of Christ by Frank G. Slaughter Page B

generally done with only those who showed considerable precocity. Jesus belonged to this latter class, but His instruction was carried out first in the home, since He was too small as yet to be sent to the town school which was held in the synagogue. Everything about His everyday life and education was intended to inculcate in Him a love for God and God’s Law, the dominant force in all Jewish life.
    An ever-present reminder of every Jew’s obligation to his God was the mezuzah attached to the doorpost of each dwelling. A small square of parchment, folded lengthwise, it contained exactly twenty-two lines from the words of God to Moses beginning:
    Hear, 0 Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one!
    You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
    with all your soul, and with all your strength.
    The quotation from the ancient writings ended with the admonition which was the fountainhead of all teaching among, the Jews:
    These words which I command you today shall be in your heart.
    You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
    that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied
    in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them,
    like the days of the heavens above the earth.
    Placed in a metal case and affixed to the doorpost, the mezuzah was touched by everyone entering the house. Afterwards each who touched it would kiss the finger and speak a prayer that, as promised by the psalmist, “The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in, from this time forth and even forevermore.” Even though carried in His mother’s arms, Jesus could still reach out chubby fingers to touch the mezuzah, and it was a proud day when He could stand on tiptoes and reach the sacred metal box as He entered the house.
    From the time He was able to speak, Jesus took part like all Jewish children in the daily prayers of the family and the enjoyment of the Sabbath, which was a time of rejoicing and praising the Lord. The passing of the seasons also brought the religious holidays or feasts.
    Particularly enchanting for a child was the Chanukah, or Feast of Dedication, celebrated at the beginning of the winter season. Then in each house on the first day of the festival, one candle would be lighted for every member of the household, increasing by one each day until on the eighth and last evening the number was eight times that of the first. Then Nazareth blazed with light and the children moved through the streets or across the rooftops with hushed steps and eyes filled with awe to watch and pick out the houses of friends and relatives.
    The Feast of Purim in the spring and the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles near the beginning of autumn were times of merrymaking and boisterous good cheer which particularly appealed to the boys. Most solemn of all was the Passover, held on the fourteenth day of Nisan, the first month of the religious year. Occurring in spring, it was a time of thanksgiving for the mercy of God in passing over the firstborn of the Children of Israel in Egypt, when the angel of death had warned Pharaoh to let the people go. At this feast the youngest in the family traditionally asked why it was celebrated and, while the family gathered around to listen, the father told once again the thrilling story of how the Children of Israel had been selected by God as His very own, how the land had been promised to Abraham, and how David the king had welded the tribes into a great and prosperous nation. Religion in a Jewish home was a thing of joy, the guiding spirit of every activity.
    Because the works of the heathen in any form were considered outside the Jew’s sphere of study, education was almost entirely religious in character. Almost from His first words, Jesus began to learn verses from the sacred writings, wise sayings, blessings, and benedictions used every day, and other bits of religious lore. Being a precocious child He read the Scriptures early and eagerly. Indeed,