A

Abraham

First of the patriarchs, father of Isaac and Ishmael; grandfather of Jacob and Esau; ancient figure whose story is recounted in Genesis, with whom God first made a covenant: Abraham agreed to circumcise himself and his children, to follow God, and in return he would be given countless ancestors and a land to live in (Canaan): considered the ancestor of both Jews and Muslims (and the spiritual ancestor of Christians), the legendary first monotheist

Adonai

"my Lord"; a circumlocution used instead of the Name of God (YHWH) in rabbinic liturgies and readings from the Tanak

aggadah

"legend"; rabbinic interpretation of biblical narratives (usually from the Torah), often elaborated in midrash

akedah

The Binding of Isaac, recounted in Genesis 22

amidah

"rising up" or "standing"; also called Shemoneh Esrei ("Eighteen") or Tefillah ("The Prayer"); the liturgy of blessings developed in the classical period by the rabbis, which remains (in various forms) at the heart of all regular Jewish services that follow a rabbinical format

Aramaic

Ancient Semitic language (related to Hebrew), spoken throughout the ancient Near East from roughly 500 BCE - 650 CE (when it was replaced by Arabic); some of the later portions of the Bible employ Aramaic, and it was the language in which the rabbis composed the Talmud and some early prayers still found in the standard rabbinic liturgy

Ashkenazim

"Westerners" (or "Germans"); a term applied to Jews whose ancestors originated in Western Europe (principally France and Germany), who resettled in Eastern Europe (principally Poland, Russia, and Lithuania) in the sixteenth century; descendants of Ashkenazim are settled throughout the world, and maintain certain customs and variations of traditions distinct from the Sephardim

B

Baal Shem Tov

"Master of the Good Name," lived ca. 1700-1760; a title of respect given to the Ukrainian mystic rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, the founder of the Hasidic movement

Babylonian Exile

ca. 586-538 BCE; the period of Jewish history immediately following the first destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire in Mesopotamia when the leaders of the southern Kingdom of Judah were forced into exile in Babylon; the Exile was ended when the Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Persian. The Babylonian Exile is taken as a turning point, when the inhabitants of Judah (the Jews) began to alter their notions of God and communal identity to incorporate existence outside of the Land

The Balfour Declaration

A statement of intent written by Lord Arthur Balfour in 1917 on behalf of the British government to Lionel Rothschild, on behalf of the Zionist Federation, in which the British government pledged its support (in its capacity as holder of the post-War mandate of Palestine) to help establish a homeland for Jews in the Palestinian mandate

bar mitzvah (bat mitzvah)

Aramaic, "son [or daughter] of the covenant"; the status achieved when a young man or woman becomes obliged to observe the commandments of the Torah, according to rabbinic halachah (12 for girls, 13 for boys); in the modern period, this new status has been accompanied by the ritual participation in the Torah liturgy (for boys and, much more recently, for girls) and be celebrated at a reception.

berachah

"blessing"; any of a series of ritually prescribed benedictions recited for specific occasions (rituals, rites, liturgies, etc.), such as the ritual blessing of wine, the blessings over the Torah before chanting from it, the blessings recited at a marriage, and so forth.

berit milah

"covenant of circumcision"; the ritual performance of circumcision on an infant (8-day) newborn Jewish boy (or, the ritual circumcision of a convert to Judaism), in accordance with God's covenant with Abraham (Genesis 17). Often it is referred to simply as a bris (the Ashkenazic pronunciation of berit), and is accompanied by a small reception.

blood libel

A slander against western European (and, later, global) Jewry begun in the high middle ages (around 1100) that accused local Jewish communities of kidnapping and murdering Christian children in order to use their blood in Jewish rituals (often, making matzot for Pesach)

C

Canaan

Biblical name given to the Land of Promise in the Torah and some historical books of the Prophets, later the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah; the inhabitants, the Canaanites, worshipped gods (Baal, Asherah) to whom the Israelites sometimes turned in defiance of their covenant with YHWH

cohen, cohanim

"priest, priests"

1. any male member of the hereditary class of priests descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses, responsible for ritual sacrifices performed at the Temple in Jerusalem until its final destruction in 70 CE

2. any male modern descendant of the hereditary priestly class, given special obligations and honors in the rabbinic liturgical system (some liberal branches of modern Judaism recognize female descendants of Aaron, called bat cohen)

Conservative Movement

A modern form of Liberal Judaism, established primarily in the United States in the early twentieth century, that acknowledges the authority of the rabbinate and traditional halachah, but leaves room for the modernization and adaptation of that tradition to new circumstances

covenant

Berit; the central form of affiliation between the descendants of Jacob (Israelites) and God (YHWH) outlined in the Torah and further detailed in the remaining books of the Tanak; a series of rules, regulations, and duties owed by God and Israel to each other in order to maintain their special relationship. The Tanak recounts several covenants between God and Israel:

• the covenant with Abraham, that Abraham and his male descendants would be circumcised;

• the covenant with Moses, that all Israelites would be God's people and would construct their social and religious lives according to God's specific commandments, as laid out in the Torah;

• the covenant with David, that David's dynastic house would always lead Israel.

D

David

Legendary ruler of the united kingdom of Israel, whose story is recounted in the books of 1-2 Samuel; established Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and formed a special covenant with God that his descendants would always rule over Israel; later Jewish forms of messianism believed that the special anointed servant of God, the messiah, would be a descendant of David who would restore Jews to their rightful standing with God and in the world

Dead Sea Scrolls

Collection of documents (mostly fragmentary, mostly written in Aramaic) discovered in a set of caves near the site of Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea in 1947; this library of documents probably belonged to a separatist community (perhaps the Essenes) who withdrew from Jerusalem to await the final battle between Good and Evil; they inhabited this desert space from about 160 BCE to the 70s CE. Some documents are community rules, prophecies, and biblical interpretations (pesharim); also among these documents are the oldest surviving Hebrew copies of most of the books of the Tanak

E

Essenes

An ascetic sect of Judaism that emerged after the Maccabean Revolt (160 BCE), that survived until the end of the First Jewish War (73 CE), that followed particularly rigorous purity regulations; they are perhaps the same apocalyptic community that left the Dead Sea Scrolls

Exodus

The miraculous liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt by God through the agency of Moses, recounted in the first chapters of the book of Exodus; immediately following the Exodus, God formed the covenant with Israel through Moses. The Exodus is commemorated in the annual festival of Pesach (Passover)

H

haggada

The special liturgical manual used at the seder

halachah

"procedure"; the special body of rules and regulations for daily life derived from the commandments of the Torah and promulgated by the rabbis, contained mostly in the Mishnah and Talmud

Hanukkah

"rededication"; the minor historical festival commemorating the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in 163 BCE during the Maccabean revolt

Haredim

"[God-]fearers"; also called "ultra-Orthodox," a modern form of Traditionalist Judaism that opposes maintenance of traditional ("Torah-true") Judaism to any form of adaptation to modern culture; often fiercely messianic, most Haredim reject the modern state of Israel because it was not instituted by God or his messiah

Hasidim

"the pious ones"; originally a group of popular mystical Jews, founded by the Baal Shem Tov in eighteenth-century eastern Europe, centered on joy in worship, transcendence, and God's immanence (nearness), felt in ecstatic worship; frequently in conflict with the more traditionalist Talmudic Rabbis of Lithuania; eventually, the pietistic, mystical ideas of the Hasidim merged with more "ultra-Orthodox" groups to form enclaves of hyper-traditionalist Judaism centered around a rebbe (the religious, often spiritual leader of a community), often a hereditary position within a particular Hasidic community

Hebrew

Ancient Semitic language, related to modern Arabic, spoken in the inland of the eastern Mediterranean basin; although Hebrew ceased being a spoken language soon after the Babylonian Exile (circa 530 BCE), when Aramaic became the common spoken language of the Near East, it continued as a religious language among Jewish scholars (particularly rabbis) throughout the Middle Ages; eventually, as part of the cultural efforts of Jewish nationalists (Zionists), Hebrew was revived in the early twentieth century (using Sephardic pronunciation) as a living, spoken language

hellenism

Belief in the ancient world that Greek language, philosophy, and art was superior to all other forms of culture; hellenism was spread throughout the Mediterranean and Near East by the conquests of Alexander the Great (330s BCE), and continued by his successors in the Hellenistic Greek Kingdoms of Greece, Egypt, and Syria; among Jews, hellenism usually provoked one of two responses (or, at times, a complex combination of the two): 1. incorporation of Greek ideas into a Jewish world-view; 2. absolute resistance to the imposition of Greek ideas onto traditional Jewish values

Herod

Half-Jewish, half-Idumean prince who was established as King of Judea by Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, following the Roman Civil war in the 30s BCE; Herod (known as "Herod the Great") was a brilliant but troubled ruler (he had several of his wives and children executed on suspicion of sedition) who managed to rebuilt Judea as a prosperous Roman client kingdom until his death in 4 BCE. He is best known for rebuilding the Second Temple in Jerusalem, as well as other magnificent building projects throughout Judea. After his death, his kingdom was split into four "tetrarchies," including Judea-proper (the area around Jerusalem, eventually ruled by a roman governor) and Galilee in the north

I

Israel

1. A second name given to Jacob, grandson of Abraham, after wrestling with an angel of God

2. The collection name of Jacob's descendants (children of Israel, or Israelites)

3. The name of the Kingdom in the Land of Promise established by Saul, united by David and Solomon; after the death of Solomon, the name given to the breakaway northern Kingdom destroyed in 722 by the Assyrians

4. The collective name of all modern Jews who are neither cohen nor levi

5. The name given to the modern Jewish nation-state formed on the site of ancient Land

J

Jerusalem

According to the Tanak, the city of Jerusalem was conquered by David and established as the capital of his united kingdom of Israel; his son Solomon constructed the First Temple there (later, after the return from the Babylonian Exile, the Second Temple was built there, which stood until the Romans destroyed it in 70 CE).

Jesus

(English form of Latin form of Greek translation of Aramaic name Yeshua, a form of the Hebrew name Joshua) A Jewish preacher from Galilee in the beginning of the first century CE who claimed (or was later claimed by his followers) to be the anointed servant of God (messiah; Greek: Christos). After coming to Jerusalem for Pesach (Passover) he was executed by the Roman governor of Judea; his followers claimed his rose from the dead and, eventually, that he was the son of God. By the fourth century, the majority of the followers of Jesus (Christians) were of gentile origin, and distinguished themselves religious from Jews.

Jewish Wars

Used to refer to the two revolts by Jews in Judea against the Roman Empire in the first two centuries CE.

1. The First Jewish War (66-73 CE): Ended in the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (70 CE) and the civic disability of Jews across the Empire (a special tax was instituted as war reparations);

2. The Second Jewish War (132-135 CE), also called the Bar Kokhba War, after the (possibly messianic) leader of the revolt, Simon Bar Kokhba ("son of the Star"), ended in the destruction of Jerusalem (and expulsion of Jews from its precincts), and the reorganization of the province of Judea into Palestine.

Judah Ha-Nasi (the Prince)

The Jewish aristocrat from Galilee responsible for compiling and editing the Mishnah, circa 200 CE; also likely held official title as a nobleman of the Roman Empire; in rabbinic literature, he is known simply as "Rabbi"

K

kabbalah

"tradition"; refers to the body of mystical teachings and texts--often associated with rabbis of the classical period--that began appearing in the middle ages as an alternate form of esoteric piety (see Zohar); most forms of Kabbalah posited a connection between observance of halachah, mystical ascent to God, and reunification of the primeval structure of the cosmos

Karaite; Karaism

Anti-rabbinic form of Judaism that emerged in the ninth-century CE in the Middle East (as rabbinism was gaining normative authority throughout the Islamic world); Karaites (literally, "Scripturalists") rejected the authority of the rabbis and the notion of "oral Torah," and insisted that any interpretation of the covenant must be based solely on the written Scriptures; varieties of Karaite synagogue communities persisted into the modern period

kashrut, kosher

"divided, division"; kashrut refers to the dietary laws derived from the commandments in the Torah and expanded and elaborated in halachah by the rabbis; a food item which is edible according to Jewish dietary law (either by kind of animal or method of preparation) is kosher; by extension, any item considered ritually fit for Jewish use is kosher

kavannah

"cleaving"; originating in the pietistic circles of the Hasidim, the term refers to a sense of close connection to God achieved in ritual prayer

ketubah

"document"; a ritually prepared marriage contract

kiddush

"sanctified"; the ritual blessings over the wine conducted on Shabbat and other festivals

kiddushin

"sanctification"; the ritual marriage ceremony

kippah

"cap"; also called a yarmulke, a head covering worn by Ashkenazi Orthodox Jewish males at all times, and Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist Jewish males (and some females) during Jewish rituals and liturgies; originating as an optional commandment in rabbinic times as a sign of respect for God ("up there"), the wearing and the style of the kippah has come to symbolize degrees of integration of Jewish identity into daily life

L

Ladino

Hybrid of Hebrew and Spanish and Arabic that developed among Sephardic Jews in the early modern period, written in Hebrew characters

levi

1. (Levi) One of the 12 sons of Jacob, and eponymous ancestor of the tribe of Levi (levites)

2. a hereditary class of priestly assistants to the cohanim, responsible for maintenance duties in the Temple until the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE

3. any (usually male) descendant of the priestly levites who, in modern Judaism, bear certain ritual obligations and honors in the regular rabbinic liturgy (some communities recognize female descendants of the levites as Bat Levi, "daughter of the levites")

M

Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon; Rambam)

Prominent medieval rabbi and physician (lived 1134-1205), whose family fled Islamic rigorists in Spain and settled in Egypt; Maimonides (also known by the acronym Rambam, for Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) integrated the high philosophical teachings of Aristotle into the traditional Talmudic teachings of Judaism, and became an intellectual leader for Jewish communities throughout the Islamic rabbinic world; he wrote massive commentaries of rabbinic teaching (such as the Mishneh Torah and the Guide to the Perplexed) in Arabic and Hebrew that became influential throughout the Jewish world

masorah (Masoretic Text)

"tradition"; the work of a group of medieval rabbis in Palestine who established an official text for the Tanak by adding vowels and cantillation (singing) marks; their text became standard for rabbinic Jews into the present day

matzot

Unleavened bread eaten during the Jewish festival of Pesach (Passover).

Mendelssohn, Moses

A Prussian Jew (lived 1729-1786) influenced by the German Enlightenment who worked to adapt traditional Judaism to Enlightenment philosophy, arguing for emancipation of Jews and the reformulation of Judaism as a modern religion; he translated parts of the Tanak into modern German, and worked to integrate Judaism into German culture; he was highly influential on the later Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah) and the Reform movements

Mesopotamia

Label used for the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (roughly modern Iraq), the home of many powerful empires in the last three millennia BCE that battled over the land of the Jews

messiah

"anointed one" (Hebrew, mashiach); used in the Tanak to refer to any servant of God (priest, prophet, king) who was rubbed with oil to indicate his service to God; eventually used to describe an ultimate, semi-divine figure (usually imagined to be a priest descended from Aaron, or a warrior-king descended from David) who would come at the end of history to restore Israel and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, ushering in a new age of Jewish redemption

midrash

"interpretation"; any rabbinically executed interpretation of the Tanak; many midrashim executed in the period of classical rabbinic Judaism have been preserved as part of the oral Torah, along with the Talmud

minyan

Mishnah

"recapitulation" or "repetition"; refers to the rabbinic compilation of oral Law compiled under the direction of Judah the Prince (circa 200 CE), dealing with matters of halachah; organized according to six orders (general rubrics of Jewish law, such as vows or festivals), the Mishnah became the handbook of rabbinic interpretation of halachah; the mass of interpretations of the Mishnah together form the Talmud

mitzvah

Moses

Biblical hero (whose story is recounted in the last four books of the Torah) credited with leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and mediating the covenant between God and Israel; in rabbinic tradition, especially, Moses is revered as the recipient of oral and written Torah, and the paragon of all virtues

Muhammad

Founder of Islam, considered by the Muslims that final Prophet (including earlier prophets such as Abraham, Moses, Solomon, and Jesus) who delivered the final word of God in the form of the Qur'an

N

Nahmanides (Ramban)

Ashkenazi scholar and mystic (circa 1194-1270) instrumental in bringing traditions of kabbalah and philosophical intellectualism to rabbinic academies in Western Europe; although he thought Maimonides had gone too far in integrating Aristotelian philosophy into Talmudic Judaism, he nonetheless mediated "high" philosophy into Ashkenazic Talmudic study; he was famously summoned to Paris to debate a Christian (who had converted to Judaism), in the aftermath of which he fled to Jerusalem

O

oral Torah

Cornerstone of the rabbinic theory of Jewish identity after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE; the rabbis believed that alongside the written Torah given to Moses (in its entirety) at Mount Sinai, God had also given an oral Torah, transmitted orally from Moses down to the rabbis; containing elaborations of covenant law (halachah) as well as interpretations of biblical stories, it was believed that oral Torah emerged from the disputations of learned sages in the classical period, and was eventually codified in written form in the Mishnah, Talmud, and midrashim

Orthodox Judaism

Term coined in the nineteenth century after the schism of the Reform Movement to describe "traditionalist" Judaism that refused to adapt to modern, Western civilization; eventually "Orthodoxy" split into various factions, from "Modern Orthodox," who believe in some measure of cultural adaptation (clothing, participation in civil society) but reject any form of religious adaptation, to "ultra-Orthodox" (haredim), who reject any form of cultural or religious adaptation as a breach of covenant loyalty

P

Persia

Ancient territory between Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf (roughly, modern Iran) from which emerged various Empires that rules great territories throughout the ancient Near East; the Achaemenid Persians (under Cyrus the Great, circa 538 BCE) freed the Jews from the Babylonian Exile; the Sassanid Persian (fifth-sixth centuries CE) provided space for the flourishing rabbinic academies that produced the Babylonian Talmud

Pesach

Passover; spring holiday, originally in the Torah as an agricultural festival, one of the three pilgrimage festivals in which all those who were able were expected to travel to the Temple in Jerusalem to perform sacrifices; eventually merged into the Feast of Unleavened Bread to become a major festival (now celebrated in the home) commemorating the Exodus from Egypt

pesher

Verse-by-verse interpretation of Scripture which find significance in the ancient text for contemporary situations

Pharisees

An ancient sect of Judaism (flourishing roughly 140s BCE-70 CE) that emphasized ritual purity in everyday life as a way of maintaining Jewish identity under foreign rule, and in the diaspora; later rabbis (particularly in the Talmud) claimed intellectual descent from the Pharisees and took up such traditional Pharisaic beliefs as reliance upon oral tradition and a belief in the resurrection of the dead at the end of time.

Purim

"lots"; a late winter/early spring historical festival commemorating the salvation of Jews living in the ancient Achaemenid Persian Empire from genocide, as recounted in the biblical book of Esther; in medieval and modern Judaism, Purim became a festival of raucous celebration, encouraging costumes, pageants, and drunkenness in the celebration of Jewish freedom

R

rabbi; Rabbinism

Rabbi was originally a title of respect ("my master," like the French monsieur); it eventually became a title used of the scholarly experts in oral Torah (Talmud) who established a viable form of post-Temple Judaism based on religious observance and regular liturgical prayer following the two Jewish Wars. The halachah of the rabbis was eventually codified into the Talmud (produced in Palestine and in Persia); once the Muslims achieved domination of the Near East, North Africa, and Western Europe, the rabbinic academies in Baghdad achieved normative authority over most of world Judaism (authority eventually extending into Europe), and the rabbi became the expert political, religious, and social leader of Jewish communities, based on his training in a tradition from the sages of the classical period. Until recently, rabbinic authority has been entirely a male privilege.

Rashi

Acronym for the Western European rabbinic sage Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac (1040-1105), who produced authoritative commentaries on the Talmud from his rabbinic academy in medieval France which remain standard commentaries in printed editions of the Talmud

Reconstructionist Movement

Founded in the mid-twentieth century as a North American alternative to Reform or Conservative Judaism, Reconstructionist Jews downplay the traditional authority of the rabbi and insist on the living, organic, and evolving nature of Jewish culture and traditions in the modern world; originally a loosely affiliated group of communities, Reconstructionist Jews have become more structured and federated (like Reform and Conservative Jews) in recent decades.

Reform Movement

Originally a radically modernist adaptation of traditional Judaism emerging out of the German Enlightenment at the end of the 18th century, the Reform movement sought to strip all "medieval" and anachronistic elements out of Jewish traditions and remake it as a modern (almost Protestant) religion: language, dress, and much custom traditionally considered halachah (such as kashrut) were excised as anachronistic and any doctrine that seemed too separatist (messianism, zionism) was removed from prayers as too isolationist. Over the centuries, particularly in North America, Reform Judaism has varied greatly in its rejection of "traditionalism"; the most recent platform of American Reform Judaism (in 1999) sought to reintegrate once rejected ideas such as Hebrew language and cultural traditionalism into the fabric of modern Judaism. A fundamental principle of Reform Judaism remains, however, that tradition must be subordinate to the needs of a living Jewish community, not the other way around.

responsa

A category of post-classical rabbinic writing that applies traditional Talmudic halachah to new or unexpected situations; usually framed in the form of a letter of response (responsum) from a respected rabbi to the query of a particular Jew or Jewish community, responsa (along with Talmudic commentaries and halachic codes produced in the early modern period) have allowed traditionalist rabbinic Judaism to remain flexible and adaptable, while still maintaining the absolute authority of Talmud.

Rosh Hashanah

"Head of the Year"; annual, autumn celebration of the New Year, the beginning of the New Year Cycle that ends with Yom Kippur

S

Sadducees

An ancient sect of Judaism (roughly 140s-70 CE) associated with upper-class members of Jerusalem society who were affiliated with the worship conducted in the Temple (mainly priestly families) and supposedly rejected many of the religious premises of the Pharisees (oral traditional, resurrection of the dead) that were later taken up by the rabbinic movement.

seder

"order"; the ritual meal eaten in the home on the first night (or two nights) of Pesach (Passover)

Sephardim

"Far-Westerners" or "Spanish"; Jews originally settled in far Western Europe (Spain, Portugal, North Africa) who fled to the Near East (the Ottoman Empire) in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries after expulsion from Christian Iberia, forming distinctive Jewish communities throughout southwest Asia and southeastern Europe, maintaining to this day interpretations of rabbinic Judaism distinct from the Ashkenazim.

Septuagint

Greek, "Seventy"; an ancient Greek translation of the Tanak executed in Alexandria, Egypt, between 200 BCE and 100 CE and used among hellenized Jewish communities until the rise of rabbinic Judaism.

Shabbat (Sabbath)

The seventh day of the week (Saturday), a day of rest from work in honor of the creation (see Genesis 1); the commandment to "rest" on Shabbat is found in the Torah, and the definition of "work" and "rest" are elaborated by the rabbis in Talmudic halachah.

Shabbati Zevi

(1626-1676) A man from the Ottoman Empire who claimed to be the Jewish messiah, and provoked a mass expectation of messianic deliverance among Jews across Europe and the Near East. After his arrest by Turkish officials, he converted to Islam in 1666, and died 10 years later. Despite his apostasy, some followers still expected his messianic return.

Shavuot

The summer harvest festival, celebrated seven weeks after Pesach; one of the three pilgrimage festivals in antiquity, during which all who were able were expected to come to Jerusalem and make offerings at the Temple. Later, it became a festival to commemorate the formation of the covenant at Mount Sinai.

Shoah

The Holocaust; the massacre of millions of European Jews by Nazis before and during World War II.

Shulchan Aruch

"The Set Table"; a code of halachah comprising early modern commentaries on the Talmud: Sephardic and Ashkenazic versions became the core of modern rabbinic halachah.

siddur

literally, "ordered"; a Jewish prayerbook

Solomon

Legendary King of Israel (circa 950 BCE), the son of King David, credited with building the first Temple to the God of Israel in Jerusalem; also considered a great wise man and poet and, in some rabbinic traditions, a master of supernatural forces.

Sukkot

"Booths"; autumn harvest festival, commemorating the wandering of the Israelites in the desert after the Exodus; one of the three biblical "pilgrimage holidays," during which Jews who were able were expected to travel to Jerusalem to perform sacrifices at the Temple; now commemorated by domestic rituals, including the construction of a temporary shelter (sukkah) on a Jewish house

Synagogue

"community"; originally, this Greek term referred to any community of Jews in the Mediterranean diaspora in antiquity (e.g., "the synagogue of Rome" indicated all the Jews who lived in the city of Rome); later it came to signify the "community center" of diaspora Jewish communities and, under the influence of the rabbis, the synagogue became specifically the House of Prayer and the House of Study, the center of Jewish religious life after the destruction of the Temple

T

tallit

A rectangular prayer shawl worn by Jewish males (and, in some more liberal Jewish movements, Jewish females) during certain liturgical rituals; the tallit has special, ritually significant fringes on its corners, called tzitzit

Talmud

"Learning"; authoritative compendium of halachah and oral Torah for all rabbinic Jews (although with differing amounts of permanent authority in varying modern denominations). In late antiquity, rabbinic academies produced two Talmuds: the Yerushalmi ("Jerusalem" or "Palestinian Talmud") was closed still incomplete around 425 CE in Galilee; the Bavli ("Babylonian Talmud"), much longer, was closed around 500 CE, and eventually became the authoritative Talmud for all rabbinic Jews. Both Talmuds are made up of the Mishnah and gemara (commentaries on the Mishnah).

Tanak

An acronym for the Jewish Scriptures (also called the Hebrew Bible), comprising:

• Torah (or Law), which recount the story of humanity from creation through the Exodus of the Israelites and the formation of the covenant;

• Nevi'im (or Prophets), which continue the story of Israel from independence in the Land to destruction and Babylonian Exile, and include books of oracles and prophecies from this period;

• Ketuvim (or Writings), a miscellany of historical books, short stories, prophecies, songs, and philosophical texts.

Most of the Tanak was written in Hebrew (some portions are in Aramaic), and was composed and edited over a long period of time: the oldest sources may date as far back as 1000 BCE, while the latest sources may date from 100 BCE. The Tanak was collected and canonized in stages, between circa 500 BCE and 100 CE, soon after the destruction of the Second Temple.

tefillin

Small hollow boxes containing parchments with Torah verses written on them, with leather straps on them; some Jewish males (and, in more liberal denominations, some Jewish females) strap these boxes to their forearm and forehead during certain ritual prayers, in a rabbinic interpretation of Torah precepts.

Temple

1. According to the Tanak, Solomon built a single, centralized worship-center to YHWH on a hill called Zion in Jerusalem, in which to peform all ceremonies, rituals, and sacrifices in conformity with the Mosaic covenant; and all other worship-centers were forbidden. The Temple was destroyed at the onset of the Babylonian Exile (586 BCE) and a Second Temple was rebuilt under the Persians (in the 510s; this Second Temple was dramatically expanded and built up by Herod the Great in the first centuries BCE and CE). This Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in the First Jewish War (70 CE), and has never been rebuilt (the Temple Mount has been, since the seventh century, a holy site for all Muslims, the Haram al-Sharif). Some Jews believe that, when the messiah comes to end history and usher in a new age, the Third Temple will be built.

2. A term used for local houses of worship (synagogues) in the Reform Movement; originally, the use of this term was meant to signal that these German Reform Jews no longer hoped for a return to Zion and were fully integrated into German, diaspora culture.

theodicy

The quest for God's justice; seeking to determine how "bad things" might happen even to God's "chosen people."

Torah

1. The Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanak): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy

2. In rabbinic Judaism, a more general term for God's revealed covenant with the Jews delivered to Moses at Mount Sinai, comprising both the written Torah (the Pentateuch and, by extension, the entire Tanak), and the oral Torah, the body of oral traditions passed down from Moses to the rabbis and eventually encoded in the Talmud

3. In mystical Judaism, the eternal and pre-existent blueprint for all of creation that exists with God beyond the human realm, to which human mystics can attempt to connect through its earthly incarnation, the written Torah.

Y

YHWH, Yahweh

The proper name of the God of Israel, the pronunciation of which was deliberately lost in antiquity when it was considered too sacred too pronounce; it survives as the four consonants YHWH in Scriptural texts written without vowels (these four letters are known as the Tetragrammaton). Modern scholars believe it may originally have  been pronounced "Yahweh," a causal form of the Hebrew verb "to be" ("The One Who Causes to Be"). Usually when it is encountered in biblical readings or prayers or berachot (blessings), a circumlocution is used as a substitution, such as Adonai (my Lord), or HaShem (the Name). Medieval Christians who misread Jewish manuscripts believed it was pronounced Jehovah.

Yiddish

From the German word Juedisch ("Jewish"), a vernacular language spoken by Ashkenazim in early modern eastern Europe; a linguistic hybrid of Low German and Hebrew, written in Hebrew characters; Jews in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries upheld Yiddish as literary language of cultural significance.

Yom Kippur

"Day of Atonement"; the second holy day in the autumn New Year's Cycle in the Jewish calendar (begun with Rosh Hashanah), during which Jews who are able fast from sundown to sundown in intense prayer to atone for individual and communal sins committed against God during the year: the most solemn holy day of the Jewish calendar

Z

Zionism

Jewish nationalism, as it developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the wake of emancipation and renewed persecution of European Jews; increasingly focused on establishing a national Jewish homeland in the Land; the name comes from Zion, the name of the hill on which the Temple had stood, and a poetic symbol for the entire Land of promise

Zohar

"[Book of] Splendor"; Medieval manual of Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) framed as a commentary on the Torah; although ascribed to the second-century rabbinic hero Shimon bar Yohai, it was likely written by the twelfth-century Spanish Kabbalist Moses de Leon.