Aggada.—The non-legal part of the Talmudic or Midrashic literature as distinguished from Halachah; including stories, legends, etc., derived from “Hagged”, to tell, to narrate.
Aggadic.—Adjective to Aggada.
Am Ha’Aratz.—The Jew who is uneducated in Jewish matters. Literally “the people of the land”, the peasants.
Anshey K’nesset ha’Gdolah.—The members of the Great Synagogue, also called the Great Assembly; its first President was Ezra.
Avodah.—Work, Manual Labour; also Divine Worship.
Baal Ha’Bayis.—The average married Jew, settled in a community. Literally “Master of the house”.
Baal K’riah.—The reader of the weekly portion of the Law in the Synagogue. Lit. “master of reading”.
Bachad.—Abbreviation of B’rit Chalutzim Datiim, movement of religious pioneers for Palestine.
Bet Ha’midrash.—The “house of study” where people gather to listen to the lectures of the rabbis.
B’rerah.—Lit. “clarification”, an intricate principle of Talmudic Law, by which legal consequences which are linked up with certain conditions are valid now, even though these conditions can be clarified only in the future, if the conditions are already inherent in the situation and are bound to emerge at a later date.
Chalutz.-—Pioneer for Palestine.
Chasakah.—Lit. “holding”; “presumption” in the legal sense; also “usucaption,” etc.
Chazan.—The Reader in the Synagogue, also under Sh’liach Tsibbur, plural, Chazanim.
Cheder.—The Jewish school in former times; lit. a room.
Din.—A law or precept, plural, Dinim.
Eretz Israel.—The land of Israel, Palestine today.
Eretz.—Land, today often used for Palestine.
Even Ha’Ezer.—The third part of the Shulchan Aruch.
Galut.—Exile.
Gaon.—Great Jewish scholar (referring to traditional literature).
Gittin.—Title of one of the tractates of the Talmud, meaning “Documents of Divorce”; Gittin plural of Get, usually a divorce document.
G’mara.—The greater part of the Talmud, explaining the Mishnah.
Golah.-—The people in exile.
Halachah.—The legal part of the Talmudic or Midrashic literature; adjective, Halachic.
Hilchot.—Plural of Halachah, meaning Laws or actual decisions.
Hilch’ta Li’ Mshicha.—A Law for the time of the Messiah, not applicable today.
Kaddish.—Prayer usually recited by mourners.
Kerem b’Yavneh.-—The seat of the Great Sanhedrin in Yavneh after the destruction of the second Temple, figuratively called “the vineyard in Yavneh”.
Kibbutz Galuyot.-—“Home-gathering of the exiled”, the Messianic return of the Jewish people to Eretz Israel.
K’tubbot.—Tractate of the Talmud, meaning “marriage contracts”, plural of K’tubbah.
K’vanah.—Inner concentration on prayer, devotion.
K’vutzah.—Collective Jewish settlement in modern Palestine.
Lainen.—The Reading of the Law in the Synagogue (Yiddish).
Ma’amad Sh’loshton.—Lit. “the stand of the three”, a principle of Jewish Law according to which a creditor can assign a debt by oral notice to his own creditor in the presence of his own debtor.
Meshek.—Agricultural settlement in modern Palestine.
Midrash.—Earliest traditional exegetic literature explaining the Bible.
Mishnah.—The Teaching (derived from “Shanah”, to repeat), the Oral Tradition in its systematised, and partly codified, form.
Mishnayot.—The six orders of the Mishnah.
Nashim.—The third order of the Mishnah and Talmud, treating mainly of marriage, divorce laws, etc., and many aspects of family life, as well as the relations between the sexes. Lit. “Women”.
Nussach.—See Nussach Ha’T’fillah.
Nussach Ha’T’fillah.—The traditional musical style for the recitation of the prayers in the synagogue.
Piyyut.—Early religious poetry, introduced into the Synagogue as additional liturgy to the original order of the prayers.
Sanhedrin.—The High Court in Jerusalem, later in other places in the country.
Shabbos Goy.—Gentile lighting the fire, etc., in an orthodox Jewish house on a Sabbath.
Sh’liach Tsibbur.—The “Deputy of the Congregation”, the Reader in the Synagogue; see also Chazan.
Shulchan Aruch.—Lit. “The laid Table”; the generally accepted code of Jewish Law consisting of four parts, compiled in its present form by J. Caro (died 1575), who adopted the order of the “Turim” by R. Jacob ben Asher.
S’lichah.—Additional liturgy for the days preceding the New Year, the Ten Days of Penitence and the Day of Atonement. Lit. Forgiving.
Talmid Chacham.—The Jewish scholar (referring to traditional literature), opposite of Am Ha’Aretz.
Talmud.—The great record of the Oral Law, consisting of the Mishnah and G’mara.
Talmud Torah.—The study of the Torah.
T’fillat Yachid.—The private (individual) prayer.
Torah.—The Bible, the Teaching, the Law.
Torah im Derech Eretz.—Lit. “Torah combined with the way of the world”; the principle of Neo-Orthodoxy in Germany meaning, very differently from its original sense, the combination between Judaism and European civilisation.
Torat Mosheh.—The Torah of Moses.
Yotser.—Part of the liturgy, late addition to the original order of the Synagogue service.
Y’shivah.-—The Talmudical College, a kind of Talmudical High School and University. Plural Y’shivot.
Y’shivah Bachur.—A pupil or student of the Y’shivah.