ABSTRACT
Until relatively recently, scholars interested in the history of the ancient synagogue in Eretz Israel were largely dependent upon Talmudic texts, which, in many ways, provided a familiar view of the synagogue. The diverse wanderings of the Jews may have brought them to lands where variations in liturgy and ritual were introduced, but the synagogue appeared to have weathered the vicissitudes of Jewish existence. Indeed, the fact that the Shema, the Amidah, the sabbath and festival musafim, and the weekly scriptural readings became and continued to be the mainstay of the synagogue service only further enhanced the perception that the synagogue of the past and that of the present were essentially the same. Certainly, Jews who studied the Talmudic tractate Berakhot as well as later responsa and law codes pertaining to the synagogue and its liturgy found a largely pertinent world.
