JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

GLOSSARY
Asterisked terms have separate entries in the Encyclopaedia.
Actions Committee, early name of the Zionist General Council,
the supreme institution of the World Zionist Organization in the
interim between Congresses. The Zionist Executive’s name was
then the “Small Actions Committee.”
*Adar, twelfth month of the Jewish religious year, sixth of the civil,
approximating to February–March.
*Aggadah, name given to those sections of Talmud and Midrash containing
homiletic expositions of the Bible, stories, legends, folklore,
anecdotes, or maxims. In contradistinction to *halakhah.
*Agunah, woman unable to remarry according to Jewish law, because
of desertion by her husband or inability to accept presumption
of death.
*Aharonim, later rabbinic authorities. In contradistinction to *rishonim
(“early ones”).
Ahavah, liturgical poem inserted in the second benediction of the
morning prayer (*Ahavah Rabbah) of the festivals and/or special
Sabbaths.
Aktion (Ger.), operation involving the mass assembly, deportation,
and murder of Jews by the Nazis during the *Holocaust.
*Aliyah, (1) being called to Reading of the Law in synagogue; (2)
immigration to Ereẓ Israel; (3) one of the waves of immigration
to Ereẓ Israel from the early 1880s.
*Amidah, main prayer recited at all services; also known as Shemoneh
Esreh and Tefillah.
*Amora (pl. amoraim), title given to the Jewish scholars in Ereẓ
Israel and Babylonia in the third to sixth centuries who were responsible
for the *Gemara.
Aravah, the *willow; one of the *Four Species used on *Sukkot (“festival
of Tabernacles”) together with the *etrog, hadas, and *lulav.
*Arvit, evening prayer.
Asarah be-Tevet, fast on the 10th of Tevet commemorating the
commencement of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.
Asefat ha-Nivḥarim, representative assembly elected by Jews in
Palestine during the period of the British Mandate (1920–48).
*Ashkenaz, name applied generally in medieval rabbinical literature
to Germany.
*Ashkenazi (pl. Ashkenazim), German or West-, Central-, or East-
European Jew(s), as contrasted with *Sephardi(m).
*Av, fifth month of the Jewish religious year, eleventh of the civil,
approximating to July–August.
*Av bet din, vice president of the supreme court (bet din ha-gadol)
in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period; later, title given to
communal rabbis as heads of the religious courts (see *bet din).
*Badḥan, jester, particularly at traditional Jewish weddings in
Eastern Europe.
*Bakkashah (Heb. “supplication”), type of petitionary prayer,
mainly recited in the Sephardi rite on Rosh Ha-Shanah and the
Day of Atonement.
Bar, “son of . . . ”; frequently appearing in personal names.
*Baraita (pl. beraitot), statement of *tanna not found in
*Mishnah.
*Bar mitzvah, ceremony marking the initiation of a boy at the age
of 13 into the Jewish religious community.
Ben, “son of . . . ”, frequently appearing in personal names.
Berakhah (pl. berakhot), *benediction, blessing; formula of praise
and thanksgiving.
*Bet din (pl. battei din), rabbinic court of law.
*Bet ha-midrash, school for higher rabbinic learning; often attached
to or serving as a synagogue.
*Bilu, first modern movement for pioneering and agricultural settlement
in Ereẓ Israel, founded in 1882 at Kharkov, Russia.
*Bund, Jewish socialist party founded in Vilna in 1897, supporting
Jewish national rights; Yiddishist, and anti-Zionist.
Cohen (pl. Cohanim), see Kohen.
*Conservative Judaism, trend in Judaism developed in the United
States in the 20th century which, while opposing extreme changes
in traditional observances, permits certain modifications of halakhah
in response to the changing needs of the Jewish people.
*Consistory (Fr. consistoire), governing body of a Jewish communal
district in France and certain other countries.
*Converso(s), term applied in Spain and Portugal to converted
Jew(s), and sometimes more loosely to their descendants.
*Crypto-Jew, term applied to a person who although observing
outwardly Christianity (or some other religion) was at heart a Jew
and maintained Jewish observances as far as possible (see Converso;
Marrano; Neofiti; New Christian; Jadῑd al-Islām).
*Dayyan, member of rabbinic court.
Decisor, equivalent to the Hebrew posek (pl. *posekim), the rabbi
who gives the decision (halakhah) in Jewish law or practice.
*Devekut, “devotion”; attachment or adhesion to God; communion
with God.
*Diaspora, Jews living in the “dispersion” outside Ereẓ Israel; area
of Jewish settlement outside Ereẓ Israel.
Din, a law (both secular and religious), legal decision, or lawsuit.
Divan, diwan, collection of poems, especially in Hebrew, Arabic,
or Persian.
Dunam, unit of land area (1,000 sq. m., c. ¼ acre), used in Israel.
Einsatzgruppen, mobile units of Nazi S.S. and S.D.; in U.S.S.R. and
Serbia, mobile killing units.
*Ein-Sof, “without end”; “the infinite”; hidden, impersonal aspect
of God; also used as a Divine Name.
*Elul, sixth month of the Jewish religious calendar, 12th of the civil,
precedes the High Holiday season in the fall.
Endloesung, see *Final Solution.
*Ereẓ Israel, Land of Israel; Palestine.
*Eruv, technical term for rabbinical provision permitting the alleviation
of certain restrictions.
*Etrog, citron; one of the *Four Species used on *Sukkot together
with the *lulav, hadas, and aravah.
Even ha-Ezer, see Shulḥan Arukh.
*Exilarch, lay head of Jewish community in Babylonia (see also
resh galuta), and elsewhere.
*Final Solution (Ger. Endloesung), in Nazi terminology, the Naziplanned
mass murder and total annihilation of the Jews.
*Gabbai, official of a Jewish congregation; originally a charity collector.
*Galut, “exile”; the condition of the Jewish people in dispersion.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 1