Around the year 40 CE, the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria wrote a short, luminous account of a community he knew firsthand: the Therapeutae, a group of men and women who left the noise of the city to live in simple dwellings beside Lake Mareotis in Egypt. There they devoted their days to prayer, the study of sacred scripture, and the contemplative life — gathering each Sabbath to hear a discourse, and every seven weeks to share a banquet of bread, water, and wisdom that ended in an all-night vigil of hymns and dancing. This modern edition renders Philo's classic in clear, inviting English while remaining faithful to the meaning and spirit of the original. It is a timeless meditation on stillness, community, and the pursuit of the divine — as relevant today as it was two thousand years ago. Part of The Sacred Wisdom Library.