ABSTRACT
Sources relevant to the Second Temple show that psalms from book of Psalms constituted the bulk of the material sung at cultic rites. The total number of psalms known to have been sung by Levites at sacrificial rites at the Second Temple is thus 14. So relatively small a repertory for daily and festal use is consistent with the methods by which Levite musicians learned their musical skills, with their singing from memory and with the infrequency of their tours of duty at the Temple. Many psalms are furnished with superscriptions and rubrics of a liturgical or musical nature, which suggests that they were used in the cult. Ancient Jewish cultic music was valid only in connection with the cult, and the cult was valid only at the Temple in Jerusalem. When Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 70 CE, and the Temple destroyed, the cult ceased, and with it cultic music.
