Glossary

Editor’s note: The following glossary provides a brief list of terms found in multiple articles in this volume. Authors were requested as much as possible to conform to these common spellings and modes of reference; however, variations may occur when authors have particular preferences that relate to the subject matter they are addressing and their own particular backgrounds.

 
• aliyah

  In Hebrew the word aliyah means “to go up,” “to ascend.” In the context of modern Zionism, Aliyah refers to migrating to, and settling in, the Land of Israel. In the context of traditional Judaism, aliyah refers to being called up to the Torah when it is read in the synagogue. Thus, one might be offered the honor of receiving the fourth aliyah on the Sabbath, when the Torah is read as part of the morning service.

 
• Ashkenazi Jews

  Jews whose lineage derives from Western, Central, and Eastern Europe.

 
• bar mitzvah

  A Jewish male at the age of thirteen comes of age in the sense of being obligated to fulfill the commandments. The ceremony to mark this rite of passage is celebrated frequently among Jews, regardless of levels of observance.

 
• bat mitzvah

  Traditionally, a Jewish female at the age of twelve comes of age. Today many Jews celebrate the bat mitzvah at the age of thirteen, marking a commitment to gender equality. The first bat mitzvah ceremony was celebrated in 1922 for the daughter of Mordecai Kaplan, and demonstrated a belief that Judaism should be reconstructed to adapt to modern times.

 
• beschert

  A Yiddish term for someone’s destiny, fate, or romantic soulmate.

 
• bimah (also spelled bema or bima)

  In many synagogues the front section, raised above the rest of the sanctuary, is where the ark is located in which the Torah scrolls are kept. Often sermons would be delivered from this area. In more recent times, the table on which the Torah scroll is placed when it is read is often located on the bimah.

 
• Bracha

  A prayer that is formulated as a blessing, usually using a fixed formula.

 
• Chavurah (also spelled Havurah)

  A voluntary association of Jews for the sake of fulfilling a religious or social function. Historically, Jews formed such associations to provide burial services (Hevrah or Chevra Kadisha) or recite selections from the Book of Psalms (Chevrah Tehillim). In the 1960s, Jews who were dissatisfied with suburban synagogues and with the organized Jewish community formed chavurot (pl. of chavurah) as intimate, alternative, informal settings in which to study, pray, and socialize.

 
• daven

  Yiddish word that means “to pray.” Davening is often accompanied by a forward and back swaying motion.

 
• Eretz Yisrael

  The Land of Israel.

 
• frum

  Yiddish term for fervently observant Jews who are meticulous about following the strictures of Jewish Law; the term commonly applies to Orthodox Jews.

 
• Haaretz

  A Hebrew term meaning “the Land,” referring to the Land of Israel.

 
• Halacha

  Jewish Law.

 
• Halutzim

  Literally, “pioneers,” the term refers to Zionist Jews who began to settle in the Land of Israel in the late nineteenth century.

 
• hamantaschen

  Pastry traditionally eaten on the holiday of Purim. Shaped like a triangle to evoke the three-cornered hat that Haman is claimed to have worn.

 
• Haredi, Haredim (also spelled Charedi, Charedim)

  Orthodox Jews are generally divided between Modern Orthodox, who are open to integrating aspects of modern culture with Judaism, and haredi Jews who tend to limit such integration. The latter are often called “ultra-Orthdox.” Haredim approach life with a constant sense of the divine presence and have a feeling of awe or fear in relation to that presence.

 
• Hashem

  A Hebrew term for God. Jews avoid pronouncing the actual name of God, YHWH, but in prayer and in study pronounce it as Adonai (Lord). To avoid using that term when speaking of God at times other than in prayer or study, traditional Jews customarily substitute Hashem which literally means “the name.” A common expression is barukh Hashem, “praise or thank God.”

 
• Hasidic, Hasidism (also spelled Chassidic, Chassidism)

  Literally meaning “pious” or “pietist,” Hasidism was a revival movement in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe that de-emphasized the value of formal Torah study and held that all Jews could attain intimacy with God through ecstatic prayer. Hasidism emphasized the value of joy and undermined the authority of local, communal institutions by developing trans-local “courts” associated with particular charismatic rebbes. Hasidim today are a major segment of Haredim.

 
• Haskalah

  A movement of Jewish intellectuals that emerged in the late eighteenth century who sought to modernize Judaism, Jewish education, and Jewish social practices, in order to facilitate Jewish integration into European society and culture. Adopting the rationalism of the European Enlightenment, the Haskalah movement inspired the movement for religious reform, the academic study of Judaism, and Zionism.

 
• Kapparah

  Atonement. Colloquially, the term means someone who substitutes for another who did something wrong.

 
• kibbutz, kibbutzim

  Communal, collective agricultural settlements created by Labor Zionists in Palestine in the early twentieth century.

 
• klezmer

  Eastern European Jewish folk music.

 
• klezmorim

  Musicians who play klezmer music.

 
• leibedik

  Lively, often used in relation to music or dance—to be, act leibedik.

 
• mechitzah (also spelled mechitza or mekhitse)

  A physical divider that separates men from women in the synagogue to prevent distraction during prayer. Non-Orthodox variants of modern Judaism have removed the divider and allow men and women to worship together.

 
• Midrash

  Jewish exegesis of the Bible. The term covers both a process and a type of literature.

 
• Minyan

  Prayer quorum, traditionally comprised of ten males age thirteen or older. Influenced by feminism, non-orthodox forms of Judaism have allowed for inclusion of women in minyanim.

 
• Mitnagdim (also spelled Mithnagdim or Misnagim)

  Literally, “opponents,” the term refers to traditional Jews in Eastern Europe who resisted the rise of Hasidism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

 
• Mitzrayim

  Hebrew term for Egypt.

 
• mitzvah (pl. mitzvot)

  Commandments, traditionally understood as God’s commandments. In more recent popular use, a mitzvah is understood as a “good deed.”

 
• Mizrahi

  Mizrahim Jews from Middle Eastern lineage.

 
• Nakba

  Arabic term meaning “disaster” or “catastrophe,” and used to refer to the expulsion of Palestinians resulting from Israel’s War of Independence.

 
• nudnik

  Yiddish word for a “nudge”; a pest.

 
• parasha (or parashah, pl. parshiyot)

  The Torah (Pentateuch) is the first section of the Hebrew Bible. The Torah is divided into sections, parashiyot, and each week one section, parasha, is read in the synagogue. In the course of a year, the entire Pentateuch is read in the synagogue. The weekly Torah portion is complemented by the Haftarah, a selection from the Prophets.

 
• Rebbe, rebbe

  The leader of a Chassidic court or sect (e.g., Rebbe Elimelekh) or a reference to a leader, in general, of a Chassidic court (e.g., the image of the dancing rebbe).

 
• Sabra (pl. Sabras)

  A term designating native-born Israeli Jews. The word derives from the term for the fruit of the prickly pear cactus, and it conveys the hardiness, resilience, and roughness of Israeli-born Jews on the outside, versus their sweetness on the inside.

 
• Seder

  Ritual observance including eating, singing, and reading the Haggadah on the first and second nights of Passover.

 
• Sephardic, Sephardi Jews

  Jews whose lineage derives from the Jews who lived in Spain in the Middle Ages and who, after the expulsion from Spain in 1492, dispersed and settled throughout the Mediterranean world and into portions of the Balkans.

 
• Shabbat

  The Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, Saturday.

 
• Shavuot

  Festival of Weeks, also called Pentecost.

 
• Shema

  Core element of Jewish prayer. The Shema begins with Deut. 6:5, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” The entire prayer consists of three sections from the Pentateuch and is preceded and followed by blessings.

 
• shikured

  Yiddish term meaning “drunk.”

 
• Shoah

  Hebrew term used to refer to the Holocaust. This biblical term originally referred to fully burnt sacrifices, but in the mid-1950s the term became the most common designation of the destruction of European Jewry in World War II, replacing the term Hurban (meaning “destruction”).

 
• shtetl

  Villages and small towns in Eastern Europe in which Jews were a large percentage of the population.

 
• shul

  Yiddish term for synagogue.

 
• siddur (pl. siddurim)

  Jewish prayer book. While there are some variations between different rites, all Jewish prayer books contain the same core prayers.

 
• simcha

  Literally meaning “joy,” the term refers to a celebratory occasion of a major life-cycle event, such as a wedding.

 
• tallit (Yid. talis)

  Prayer shawl on the four corners of which the tzitzit, commanded in Num. 15:37–41, are attached.

 
• Talmud

  The central text of rabbinic literature. The Talmud explicates the Mishnah, the first text of Jewish Oral Law. Arranged in tractates, the Babylonian Talmud was edited in the seventh century in Babylonia and over time it emerged as the text that governs all aspects of Jewish life. The authority of the Babylonian Talmud superseded the authority of the Jerusalem Talmud (also known as the Palestinian Talmud), which was codified in the early fifth century.

 
• tikkun olam

  Repairing the world. In rabbinic Judaism, the term originally referred to the commitment to follow God’s commandments in order to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth. In medieval Jewish mysticism, the term came to mean observance of God’s commandments in order to repair the cosmic rift that occurred at the time of Creation. For many contemporary Jews tikkun olam serves as an aspiration to make the world more just and harmonious through social action that engages humanity and nature.

 
• tefillin

  Prayer boxes containing scrolls inscribed with various biblical texts, which are bound to one’s arm and head with leather straps. Various biblical verses, especially Deuteronomy 6:8, serve as the basis of the practice.

 
• Torah

  Literally, Torah means “instruction” and it refers to divine teaching. The rabbinic tradition differentiates between the Written Torah, which was revealed by God to Moses at Sinai, and the Oral Torah, which consists of rabbinic explication of the Written Torah. Narrowly speaking, Torah refers to the first section of the Hebrew Bible, the Five Books of Moses (i.e., the Pentateuch).

 
• yarmulke

  A Yiddish term meaning skullcap, the head covering worn by Jews for study and prayer, and by some Jews all the time as a mark of reverence to God.

 
• Yemenite Jews or Yemeni Jews (Heb. Teimanim)

  Jews who live, or once lived, in Yemen.

 
• Yiddish

  A Jewish language spoken by Ashkenazi Jews throughout Europe. Yiddish developed in the Middle Ages as a variant of a dialect, and it includes Hebrew words as well as words from local languages, for example, Polish or Russian. Yiddish is written in Hebrew letters.

 
• the Yishuv

  The Jewish community in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Jews have lived in the Land of Israel over the centuries, but since Zionist settlement began, the term Yishuv has been used to refer to the modern Jewish community between 1880–1948.

 
• Yizkor

  A special memorial prayer added several times a year to the prayer service, including on Yom Kippur.

 
• Yontif

  Yiddish for Jewish Holiday, in particular those holidays when Jews do not engage in work, such as the first and last days of Passover.

 
• zaddik (pl. zaddikim)

  Literally, a righteous person; Hasidic leaders, rebbes, are also called zaddikim and are believed to be intermediaries between ordinary Jews and God.

 
• Zionists

  Jews who promote the settlement of the Land of Israel and see it as a central expression of Jewish identity, and who criticize the shortcomings of Jewish existence in the Diaspora. Zionists see the Jewish People as a nation with the right to national self-determination.