From Jerusalem a letter goes out to the brethren in Egypt, and its whole errand is a feast: keep the days of the temple's purification and of the fire given when Nehemias raised the altar anew. Received as Scripture by Catholics and the Orthodox, set apart from the canon by the Reformers, the book has been valued across the tradition even where its authority is disputed. Two festal letters open it, and the second reaches back to the exile, when the priests hid the altar fire in a dry pit and Nehemias's men, sent long after to recover it, drew up not fire but thick water that blazed the moment the sun broke from the cloud. They named the place Nephthar, which is to say purification, and blessed the God who had kept His fire alive through captivity and return. Before the wars and the martyrs, the writer sets memory and a summons to worship: the God of Israel had not let His altar go cold.