Synagogue Employees

From Hayyim Schauss’ “The Jewish Festivals” description of the Temple of Herod:

“The other gates are covered with gold plates, but the great eastern gate has no covering, for it is made of costly bronze, that shines even brighter than gold. It is called ‘Nicanor’s Gate,’ after a rich Egyptian Jew who presented it to the Temple as a gift. The golden plates on the other gates are also a gift, from a rich Alexandrian Jew.

Nicanor’s gate is so large that when it is shut every evening twenty men are needed to push together the heavy doors and to shove the bolts and bars into the stone threshold. In all two hundred men are employed in the daily opening and shutting of the gates of the Temple” (page 128).

Reading this immediately brought to mind a hypothetical conversation circa ’09 C.E. between a woman and her betrothed who’s employed by the Temple as a Gate Closer.

“Joe, I don’t want to go to services alone, again. It’s so boring.”
“I know, honey. I wish I could go with you. I got to go or  I’m going to be late. Hopefully I can get out early, but I probably can’t.  If I get overtime I’ll buy you something special.”

“For the dinner party we’re having for Sukkot? I need a salad bowl!”

A similar conversation occurs between me and Misha, who works as a sound engineer at a big Manhattan synagogue, whose gates were donated by rich Jews, and especially needs extra workers on the Days of Awe.

*Addendum: Misha says that some synagogues do make efforts to employ a non-Jewish crew.