JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

*Minyan, group of ten male adult Jews, the minimum required for
communal prayer.
*Mishnah, earliest codification of Jewish Oral Law.
Mishnah (pl. mishnayot), subdivision of tractates of the Mishnah.
Mitnagged (pl. *Mitnaggedim), originally, opponents of *Ḥasidism
in Eastern Europe.
*Mitzvah, biblical or rabbinic injunction; applied also to good or
charitable deeds.
Mohel, official performing circumcisions.
*Moshav, smallholders’ cooperative agricultural settlement in
Israel, see moshav ovedim.
Moshavah, earliest type of Jewish village in modern Ereẓ Israel in
which farming is conducted on individual farms mostly on privately
owned land.
Moshav ovedim (“workers’ moshav”), agricultural village in Israel
whose inhabitants possess individual homes and holdings but
cooperate in the purchase of equipment, sale of produce, mutual
aid, etc.
*Moshav shittufi (“collective moshav”), agricultural village in Israel
whose members possess individual homesteads but where the agriculture
and economy are conducted as a collective unit.
Mostegab (Ar.), poem with biblical verse at beginning of each
stanza.
*Muqaddam (Ar., pl. muqaddamūn), “leader,” “head of the community.”
*Musaf, additional service on Sabbath and festivals; originally the
additional sacrifice offered in the Temple.
Musar, traditional ethical literature.
*Musar movement, ethical movement developing in the latter part
of the 19th century among Orthodox Jewish groups in Lithuania;
founded by R. Israel *Lipkin (Salanter).
*Nagid (pl. negidim), title applied in Muslim (and some Christian)
countries in the Middle Ages to a leader recognized by the state
as head of the Jewish community.
Nakdan (pl. nakdanim), “punctuator”; scholar of the 9th to 14th
centuries who provided biblical manuscripts with masoretic apparatus,
vowels, and accents.
*Nasi (pl. nesi’im), talmudic term for president of the Sanhedrin,
who was also the spiritual head and later, political representative
of the Jewish people; from second century a descendant of Hillel
recognized by the Roman authorities as patriarch of the Jews.
Now applied to the president of the State of Israel.
*Negev, the southern, mostly arid, area of Israel.
*Ne’ilah, concluding service on the *Day of Atonement.
Neofiti, term applied in southern Italy to converts to Christianity
from Judaism and their descendants who were suspected of
maintaining secret allegiance to Judaism.
*Neology; Neolog; Neologism, trend of *Reform Judaism in Hungary
forming separate congregations after 1868.
*Nevelah (lit. “carcass”), meat forbidden by the *dietary laws on
account of the absence of, or defect in, the act of *sheḥitah (ritual
slaughter).
*New Christians, term applied especially in Spain and Portugal to
converts from Judaism (and from Islam) and their descendants;
“Half New Christian” designated a person one of whose parents
was of full Jewish blood.
*Niddah (“menstruous woman”), woman during the period of
menstruation.
*Nisan, first month of the Jewish religious year, seventh of the civil,
approximating to March-April.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 1
glossary
Niẓoẓot, “sparks”; mystical term for sparks of the holy light imprisoned
in all matter.
Nosaḥ (nusaḥ) “version”; (1) textual variant; (2) term applied to
distinguish the various prayer rites, e.g., nosaḥ Ashkenaz; (3) the
accepted tradition of synagogue melody.
*Notarikon, method of abbreviating Hebrew works or phrases by
acronym.
Novella(e) (Heb. *ḥiddush (im)), commentary on talmudic and
later rabbinic subjects that derives new facts or principles from
the implications of the text.
*Nuremberg Laws, Nazi laws excluding Jews from German citizenship,
and imposing other restrictions.
Ofan, hymns inserted into a passage of the morning prayer.
*Omer, first sheaf cut during the barley harvest, offered in the Temple
on the second day of Passover.
Omer, Counting of (Heb. Sefirat ha-Omer), 49 days counted from
the day on which the omer was first offered in the Temple (according
to the rabbis the 16th of Nisan, i.e., the second day of Passover)
until the festival of Shavuot; now a period of semi-mourning.
Oraḥ Ḥayyim, see Shulḥan Arukh.
*Orthodoxy (Orthodox Judaism), modern term for the strictly traditional
sector of Jewry.
*Pale of Settlement, 25 provinces of czarist Russia where Jews were
permitted permanent residence.
*Palmaḥ (abbr. for Heb. peluggot maḥaẓ; “shock companies”), striking
arm of the *Haganah.
*Pardes, medieval biblical exegesis giving the literal, allegorical,
homiletical, and esoteric interpretations.
*Parnas, chief synagogue functionary, originally vested with both
religious and administrative functions; subsequently an elected
lay leader.
Partition plan(s), proposals for dividing Ereẓ Israel into autonomous
areas.
Paytan, composer of *piyyut (liturgical poetry).
*Peel Commission, British Royal Commission appointed by the
British government in 1936 to inquire into the Palestine problem
and make recommendations for its solution.
Pesaḥ, *Passover.
*Pilpul, in talmudic and rabbinic literature, a sharp dialectic used
particularly by talmudists in Poland from the 16th century.
*Pinkas, community register or minute-book.
*Piyyut, (pl. piyyutim), Hebrew liturgical poetry.
*Pizmon, poem with refrain.
Posek (pl. *posekim), decisor; codifier or rabbinic scholar who pronounces
decisions in disputes and on questions of Jewish law.
*Prosbul, legal method of overcoming the cancelation of debts with
the advent of the *sabbatical year.
*Purim, festival held on Adar 14 or 15 in commemoration of the
delivery of the Jews of Persia in the time of *Esther.
Rabban, honorific title higher than that of rabbi, applied to heads
of the *Sanhedrin in mishnaic times.
*Rabbanite, adherent of rabbinic Judaism. In contradistinction
to *Karaite.
Reb, rebbe, Yiddish form for rabbi, applied generally to a teacher
or ḥasidic rabbi.
*Reconstructionism, trend in Jewish thought originating in the
United States.
*Reform Judaism, trend in Judaism advocating modification of
*Orthodoxy in conformity with the exigencies of contemporary
life and thought.