Creating Judaism: Creating Judaism

Creating Judaism: History, Tradition, Practice
Michael L. Satlow

Glossary
Abulafia, Abraham (1240–ca. 1291): Jewish mystic, known for his messianism.
aggadah: All non-legal rabbinic literature, e.g., stories. Often contrasted with halakhah.
Agudath Ha-Rabbanim: Founded in 1902, an organization of ultra-Orthodox rabbis.
agunah: “Anchored” woman, one whose husband can or will not grant her a divorce.
Alfasi, Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob (1013–1103): Also know as the Rif, head of the yeshiva in Lucena
(Andalusia), and author of Sefer Halakhot.
Aaliyah: Literally, in Hebrew, “ascent,” refers to moving to Israel. Can also refer in a synagogue to
“ascent” to the bimah to say a blessing over the Torah reading.
Almohads: Conservative Muslims from North Africa who overthrew the Almoravids.
Almoravids: Berbers from the area of Morocco;, conservative Muslims.
Am yisrael: “People of Israel,” a concept of Israel as a cohesive social group.
Aamoraim: Rabbis who lived ca. 250 CE CE—500.
Amram ben Sheshna (mid- ninth century, CE CE): One of the Ggeonim; authored the earliest extant
siddur.
Anan ben David (flourished,. 770 CE CE): Opposed the rabbinic notion of the Oral Torah, ultimately
seen as the founder of Karaism.
Apocrypha: A collection of Jewish texts not included in the Tanak, but accepted into the Catholic
Bible.
Aramaic: A Semitic language much like Hebrew; used as the official language of the Persian empire.
Arba’ah Turim: Written by Rabbi Jacob ben Asher (Toledo, ca. 1270–ca. 1343; Toledo), a law code
upon which the Shulhan Arukh builds.
Aristobulous: A Jewish-Greek philosopher who probably lived in the second or first centuries BCE.
Ashkenazim: Those Jews who trace their heritage back to medieval Germany (“Ashkenaz”).
ba’al shem: “Master of the name,” Eastern European Jewish wonder- worker.
Ba’al Shem Tov: “The Master of the Good Name,” refers to Israel ben Eliezer (1698–1760), usually
considered the founder of Hasidism.
Babylonian Talmud (Bavli): Redacted around 500 CE CE, a sprawling work of rabbinic literature
containing commentary on the Mishnah, law, stories, and dialectical argumentation.
Bar Kokhba: “Son of the star,” the name applied to the leader of a Jewish uprising in Palestine in
132 CE CE.
Bar, bat mitzvah: The marking (and sometimes celebration) of a Jewish child’s attainment of the age
of legal responsibility (twelve for a female, thirteen for a male).
Bbimah: The raised area dais in a synagogue, on which either prayers are led or the Torah read.
Biur: Translation (finished 1783), led by Moses Mendelssohn, of the Torah into German, with
commentary.
Book of Beliefs and Opinions: Philosophical tract written by Se‘adyah Geon in 933.
brit milah: “Covenant of circumcision,” circumcision of a Jewish boy when eight days old as a mark
of God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants.
Cairo Geniza: A sStore of ancient Jewish texts found in the attic of the Ben Ezra Ssynagogue in
Cairo.
Canonization: The process or act through which a text is designated as sacred.
Conservative Judaism: A modern ideological movement that seeks to maintain a traditional but
flexible stance toward Jewish law.
creatio ex nihilo: The idea that God created the world from nothing; there was no pre-existant
matter.
Crescas, Hasdai ben Abraham (1340–1410): Jewish philosopher, author of Light of the Lord.
Dead Sea Scrolls: Assorted ancient texts found near the Dead Sea that are thought to testify to a
Jewish sect from the Second Temple period.
devekut: “Cleaving,” used by Hasidim (drawing on Lurianic Kabbalah) to refer to a cleaving to God.
dhimmi: An Islamic category of “protected minorities,” referring to Jews and Christians.
Diaspora: Refers to the land outside of Palestine (land of Israel).
Ecclesiasticus (Ben Sirah): A biblical book found today only in the Apocrypha.
Enoch: A mMinor biblical character around whom a strong apocalyptic tradition grew in the Second
Temple period, resulting in pseudepigraphical books such as 1 Enoch.
eruv: A rabbinic legal institution that transforms a “public” space into a “private” one, and thus allows
a Jew to carry in it during Shabbat.
eschatology: The cConcept of the end of time.
Essenes: A Jewish sect during the Second Temple period; perhaps the authors of the Dead Sea
scrolls.
Essentialism: The iIdea that a thing has a unique essence.
etrog: A cCitron, used on Sukkot.
Eyn Sof: The concept of the “infinite” in kabbalistic thought, the source out of which the Ssefirot
emanate.
Eexilarch: The political leader of the Jews in Babylonia; the office continued into the Muslim period.
Ezra: Biblical figure, said to lead exiles from Persia to Jerusalem (ca. 420 BCE); seems to have the
Torah in his possession.
fatwa: An Islamic legal responsum.
Frank, Jacob (1726–1791): Polish leader of an antinomian Jewish group known, after his name,
eponymously as the Frankists.
Frankel, Zacharias (1801–1875): A German Jew who developed a school of historical Judaism, a
forerunner to Conservative Judaism.
Geiger, Abraham (1810–1874): A German rabbi whose writings were seminal for the development
of the Reform movement.
Gemara: The rabbinic commentary on the Mishnah, which together with the Mishnah comprise the
Talmud.
gematria: An iInterpretive technique of translating letters into numerical values and then back into
other words that have the same value
Ggeonim: The leaders of the rabbinic academies from ca. 550 CE CE—1050.
Gersonides (Levi ben Gershom or the Ralbag; 1288–1344): Jewish philosopher and author of The
Wars of the Lord.
get: A Jewish document of divorce.
Graetz, Heinrich (1817–1891): Jewish German Jewish historian.
Guide of the Perplexed: Written in Arabic by Maimonides; finished in 1190.
Gush Emmunim: Literally, “Block of the Faithful,” a religious-Zionist movement in Israel.
hadith: Sayings of the prophet Muhammad.
hHaggadah: The liturgy for the Passover seder.
Hhalakhah: Jewish law.
Halakhot Gedolot: Geonic legal guide to the Babylonian Talmud.
Halakhot Pesukot: Geonic legal work that survives only in fragments.
Hhalav yisrael: “Milk of an Israelite,” the idea that kosher dairy products need to be produced and
handled only by Jews.
Halevi, Judah (1075?–ca. 1140): A Spanish poet and writer, author of the Kuzari.
Hannukah: Eight-day minor holiday commemorating of the rededication of the Temple in 165 BCE.
Haredi: “Trembler,” refers today to an ultra-Orthodox Jew.
Hasidism: A revivalist movement that began in eighteenth- century Poland.
Haskalah: The Jewish “Enlightenment” of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Hasmoneans: The descendant monarchs of the Maccabees.
havdallah: Ceremony marking the end of the Sabbath.
Havurah Mmovement: An anti-institutional Jewish movement in the United States in the 1960’s and
1970’s.
Hebrew Union College. Founded in 1885 in Cincinnati; now, after merging with the Jewish Institute
of Religion, the central seminary for the training of Reform rabbis in North America.
Hekhalot literature: A collection of texts from late antiquity or the geonic period that describe
ascents to heaven.
Hellenism: A complex of linguistic, political, and cultural features that marked the Near East.
Herzl, Theodor (1860–1904): An Austrian Jew who is credited with founding modern political
Zionism.
Hirsh, Samson Raphael (1808–1888): German rabbi normally credited with founding “neo-
Orthodoxy” or “Modern Orthodoxy.”
Holocaust: Also known as the Shoah in Hebrew, refers to the murder of over six million Jews during
World War II.
Hoshanna Rabba: The last day of Sukkot; thought to end the annual period of judgment.
Ibn Ezra, Abraham (1092–1167): Spanish commentator on the Tanak; notable for his philological
interests.
Ibn Gabirol, Samuel (ca. 1021- –ca. 1058): Jewish poet and philosopher, author of Fons Vitae.
Ibn Janah, Abulwalid Merwan (Rabbi Jonah; born ca. 990 CE): A native of Cordoba, author of The
Book of Embroidery and The Book of Roots, some of the first works of Hebrew grammar.
Israel: Can refer to (1). Jacob, the biblical character; (2). Jacob’s descendants (the “children of
Israel”); (3). the land that the Torah promises to Abraham’s descendants; (4). the modern political
state.
Isserles, Rabbi Moses (1530–1572): Polish rabbi who glossed the Shulhan Arukh from an
Ashkenazic perspective.
Jacob of Marvège (twelfth to thirteenth centuries): Author of “Responsa from Heaven.”
Jerusalem, or On Religious Power and Judaism: Moses Mendelssohn’s best -known work (1783); a
contemporary definition of Judaism and argument for Jewish civic rights.
Jewish Theological Seminary of America: Founded in 1887 in New York; now the central seminary
for the training of Conservative rabbis in North America.
Josephus: Jewish historian who lived in the first century, CE CE.
Judah, Rabbi, the “Prince” (or Patriarch): Redacted the Mishnah and served as some kind of
Jewish communal leader.
Judenstaat, Der: “The Jewish State,” Theodor Herzl’s Zionist manifesto.
Kabbalah: “Tradition,” the distinctive Jewish mysticism that arose in the Middle Ages and was
exemplified by the Zohar.
Kabbalat Shabbat: A collection of psalms and hymns recited immediately prior to Shabbat; added
by Lurianic kabbalists in the sixteenth century.
Kagen, Rabbi Israel Meir (1838–1933): Polish rabbi known as the Hafetz Hayyim who authored an
influential commentary on part of the Shulhan Arukh, the Mishnah Berurah.
Kaplan, Mordecai (1881–1983): An American thinker whose ideas founded the Reconstructionist
movement.
Karaism: Movement in the Ggeonic period that rejected the Oral Torah and authority of the rabbis.
Karo, Rabbi Joseph (1488–1575): Author of the Shulhan Arukh.
Kkashrut, kosher: The Jewish dietary laws.
Kkehillah: “Community,” designating the local, semi-autonomous Jewish communities of medieval
Europe.
ketubbah: Refers primarily to the statutory payment that a husband (or his estate) owes to his wife
on dissolution of the marriage; can also refer to the marriage contract itself.
Kkibbutz: A communal settlement in the modern State of Israel.
Kkippah (yarmulke): A form of head- covering traditionally worn by some Eastern European men,
and is now a standard custom(and now American and Israeli) men.
Kol Nidre: Geonic prayer annulling all vows; traditionally recited the eve of the Day of Atonement.
Kook, Rabbi Abraham Isaac (1865–1935): Rabbi in Palestine well-known for his distinctive mystical
theology that incorporated Zionism.
Kuzari: Written in Arabic by Judah Halevi, a purported dialogue between a king, a Jew, a Christian,
a Muslim, and a philosopher.
Lekha Dodi: Kabbalistic hymn written in sixteenth century by Solomon Alkabez; now incorporated
into most modern versions of Kabbalat Shabbat.
Leeser, Isaac (1806–1868): Spiritual leader of Mikve Israel in Philadelphia; retranslated the
Hebrew Bible into English, published by the Jewish Publication Society.
Lubavitch Hasidim. Also known as Habad, a group of Hasidim.
lulav: A bBunching of three species of foliage, waved together on Sukkot.
Luria, Isaac (1534–1572): A kKabbalist in Safed, credited with developing a new kabbalistic system.
maamad: The cCouncil of lay leaders in Sephardic communities in Amsterdam and the New World.
Maccabean Rrevolt: The uUprising against the Seleucids led in 165 BCE by the Maccabee brothers.
Maccabees, Book 1: A cCourt history of the Maccabees and the Hasmonean kings, probably
originally written in Hebrew around 100 BCEBCE and now in the Apocrypha.
Maccabees, Book 2: A tTheological account of the Macabean uprising, written in the Diaspora,
probably in Greek, around 100 BCEBCE and now in the Apocrypha.
Maimonides (1135–1204): Jewish philosopher and legal codifier.
mamzer: The cChild of an adulterous or incestuous union.
Marranos: “Pigs,” the insulting term given in Spain to the Jewish converts to Christianity who
continued to practice Judaism secretly.
maskilim: “Enlighteners,” the active participants of the Haskalah.
Masoretes, Masoretic Ttext: The scribes who, during the Ggeonic period, punctuated the Tanak,
creating a stable Hebrew text.
Mmatzah: The unleavened bread eaten on Pesach.
Mendelssohn, Moses (1729–1786): Jewish German Jewish philosopher and writer.
Mepharshim: Medieval rabbinic scholars whose comments on the Tanak generally followed the
peshat method.
Messianic Jews: Modern -day Jews who accept Jesus as the messiah.
mechitzah: A partition that separates men from women in a place of prayer.
Midrash: A distinctively rabbinic genre of biblical interpretation.
mikveh: A body of water, immersion in which can remove ritual impurity.
minhag: A local, Jewish custom.
minyan: A prayer quorum, either ten Jewish men, (traditionally), or, in modern liberal Judaism, any
combination of ten Jewish men orand/or women.
Mishnah: Redacted ca. 220 CE CE, the first work of Oral Torah.
Mishneh Torah: A cCode of law written by Maimonides in Hebrew; completed in 1178.
mitnagdim: “Opponents,” referring to those who opposed Hasidism.
Mitzvah, mitzvot (plural): A cCommandment.
Nahmanides (Rabbi Moses ben Nahman; 1194- –ca. 1270): Wrote scriptural and halakhic
commentaries; member of conservative kabbalistic circle in Catalonia.
Nebuchadnezzar: The Babylonian king who destroyed the first Jerusalem Temple in 586 BCE BCE.
niddah: A mMenstruant.
omer: Grain offering that immediately follows Passover and begins the seven week countdown to
Pentecost (Shavuot).
Oral Torah: A rRabbinic concept that God’s revelation on Sinai included what would become the
rabbinic tradition.
Orthodox Judaism, Modern: A movement founded by Samson Raphael Hirsch in nineteenth -
century Germany, seeks to integrate secular knowledge with tradition.
Orthodox Union: Founded in 1898 as the Orthodox Jewish Congregational Union of America, it is
the central institution for Modern Orthodoxy in North America
Palestinian Talmud (Jerusalem Talmud, Yerushalmi): The Mishnah together with its amoraic
commentary, redacted in Palestine about 400 CE CE.
Passover (Pesach): The fFestival of unleavened bread that also commemorates the exodus from
Egypt.
Patrilineal descent: Refers to the Reform movement’s decision in 1983 to recognize the children of
Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers who are committed to Judaism, as Jewish.
Paul: Jew from Asia Minor who believed that Jesus was the messiah.
Pentecost (Shavuot): Holiday that occurs fifty days after Passover.
peshat: A “cContextual” approach to biblical interpretation, that seeks to employ contemporary
“scientific” techniques.
Pharisees: A Jewish sect of the Second Temple period; perhaps predecessors of the Rabbis.
Philo (ca. 30 BCE BCE—30 CE CE): A Jewish philosopher writing in Greek in Alexandria, Egypt.
Pittsburgh Platform (1885): An iImportant early codification of Reform Judaism in America.
piyyut: A fForm of Jewish liturgical poetry that begins in late antiquity.
polythetic: A mMethod of categorizing things based on overlapping sets of shared characteristics.
Ppriest (kohen): Officiated in the Temple when it stood, but now only observing vestigial functions.
Thought to be a descendent of Aaron, through the father’s line.
Pprophet: One who received a direct communication from God. The Rabbis thought that prophecy
ceased during the Second Temple period.
Purim: Minor holiday marked by the reading of the book of Esther.
Qumran: The site near the Dead Sea where the Dead Sea scrolls were found.
Rabad (Rabbi Abraham ben David of Posquières; 1125–1198): Objected to Maimonides’s
codification of the halakhah.
Rabbanite: During the Ggeonic period, a supporter of the rabbinic tradition and institutions, against
the Karaites.
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS): Founded in New York in 1897 to train
Orthodox rabbis; now part of Yeshiva University.
Rabbis: “The Rabbis” rRefers to the authors of the classical rabbinic literature, ca. 70 CE CE—640;
“rabbi” literally means “my teacher,” and has been used as an official title from the rabbinic period
to the present.
Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo ben Isaac; 1049–1105): The most pPreeminent commentator on the Tanak
and Talmud; lived in Provence.
Rrebbe: The lLeader of a Hasidic group (see also, Ttzadik). “The Rrebbe” today often refers to
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the leader of Lubavitch, who died in 1994.
Reconstructionist Judaism: A mModern ideological movement based on the ideas of Mordecai
Kaplan.
Redaction: The pProcess of editing separate documents to make them into a single text.
Reform Judaism: A mModern ideological movement that began in nineteenth -century Germany.
Today, the largest of the modern movements.
Rosh Hashanah: A hHoliday marking the Jewish new year and the beginning of the “Tten days of
Penitencerepentence.” In the Torah, called the holiday of “trumpeting.”
Sabbatai Zvi (1625–1676): A “fFailed messiah” who, toward the end of his life, converted to Islam.
Sadducees: A Jewish sect from the Second Temple period.
Satmar Hasidim: Now settled primarily in New York, a Hasidic sect.
Schlesinger, Akiva Joseph (1837–1922): A lLeader of Haredi Judaism.
Se‘adyah ben Joseph: Served as Ggeon of Sura, 928–942.
seder: The cCeremonial meal held on the first night (or, in the Diaspora, first two nights) of
Passover. The hHaggadah is read during it.
Sefer haBahir: “The Book of Illumination,” written in twelfth-12th or thirteenth-13th century
Provence, an early kabbalistic text.
Sefer HaRazim: Book of mystical (and “magical”) formulae and experiences, written in late antiquity.
Ssefirah, Ssefirot: “sphere,”; the kabbalistic term for the emanations of the Godhead.
Seleucids: A Hellenistic dynasty based in Syria, and winning control over Palestine in 200 BCE BCE.
Sephardim: Those Jews who trace their heritage back to medieval Spain (Sepharad).
Septuagint: The Greek translation of the Torah (and ultimately the rest of the Tanak), prepared in
Egypt about 200 BCE BCE.
Shabbat: The Jewish Sabbath, starting Friday at sunset and ending Saturday night.
shatnez: The bBiblical prohibition of mixing wool and linen in the same garment.
Shearith Israel: The fFirst Jewish congregation (1704; New York) founded in America.
Shekchinah: God’s “presence.” Used by kabbalists to denote the last emanation, closest to
humans, and God’s feminine side.
sheloshim: The tThirty -day period of mourning for a close relative; less restrictive than the shiva.
Shema: Deuteronomy 6:4, although can also refer to the paragraph that follows it together with
some other biblical passages. Part of the traditional Jewish liturgy.
Shemini Atzeret: A sSemi-independent holiday immediately following Sukkot.
shiva: The sSeven -day period of intensive mourning for a close relative.
Shneur Zalman of Liady (1745–1813): Founder of Habad (Lubavitch) Hasidism and author of the
Tanya.
shofar: A tTrumpet made from a ram’s horn and associated especially onwith Rosh Hashanah.
Shulhan Arukh: Joseph Karo’s sixteenth -century Jewish law code.
siddur: Literally, “order.”; The Jewish prayer- book.
sitra ahara: The “oOther side,”; used by kabbalists to refer to the power of evil.
Six -Day War: In a short war in 1967, Israel emerged victorious over her Arab neighbors and
occupied Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Sinai Desert.
Sofer, Rabbi Moses (1763–1839): Also known as the Hatam Sofer, urged little accommodation of
modernity.
Spinoza, Baruch (1632–1677): Jewish philosopher in Amsterdam.
sukkah: A bBooth in which Jews are to eat (and sleep) during the holiday of Sukkot.
synagogue: A Jewish prayer -house, usually permanently housing a scroll of the Torah.
takkanah: A rRabbinic legal decree.
Ttallit: A fFour -cornered fringed garment shawl worn at Jewish prayer services.
tallit katan: A fFour- cornered fringed garment traditionally worn by men all the time, usually
underneath one’s shirt.
Talmud Torah: The aActivity of studying rabbinic texts, thought by the rabbis to be a religious
obligation in its own right.
Tanak: Corresponds more or less to the “Old Testament.” An acronym of its three parts, Torah,
Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings).
Ttannaim: Rabbis who lived from 70 CE CE—ca. 250.
tekhines: Popular supplications, written mainly in Eastern Europe in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries.
tefillin: phylacteries, leather boxes containing portions of the Torah that are worn by men during
some prayer services as well as in private prayer.
Temple: Usually refers to the Temple in Jerusalem;. Nnow a frequent designation for a synagogue.
Temple Scroll: One of the Dead Sea scrolls; contains an idealized model of the Jerusalem Temple.
Tten Ddays of Penitencerepentence: The pPeriod between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
teshuvah: Can refer to “turning,” the act of repentance, or to “response,” denoting a rabbinic legal
responsum.
theodicy: The “pProblem” of God’s justice.
theurgy: The uUse of certain practices and verbal formulas to harness the divine power to do one’s
will
“Thirteen Principles of Faith”: Maimonides’s codification of what he saw as the “essential beliefs” of
Judaism.
tikkun: A “fFixing”; a concept in Lurianic Kabbalah that repairs defects in the Godhead.
Tisha b’Av: A mMinor holiday on the ninth day of the month of Av, a fast day, commemorating the
destruction of both the fFirst and sSecond Temples. A fast day.
Torah: Can refer to the Pentateuch; the scroll on which it is written; or the entire and continuing
content of God’s revelation.
Tu bBeshevat: The fFifteenth day of the month of Shevat, marking the “new year for the trees.”
Ttzadik: “Righteous one,”; Hasidim used this term to refer to their leader, whom they saw as
exceptionally holy.
ulama: The Islamic scholarly class.
Union of Reform Judaism: The uUnion of North American Reform congregations.
upsherin: The Eastern European custom of cutting the hair of a Jewish boy for the first time around
his third birthday.
Vilna Gaon (Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman; 1720–97): Legendary scholar and opponent of the
emerging Hasidim.
Vulgate: The Latin translation of the Bible, produced by Jerome in the fifth -century CE CE.
Western Wall: The wWestern retaining wall of the Jerusalem Temple, and today a popularthe most
revered Jewish holy site.
Wise, Isaac Meyer (1819–1900): Early Reform rabbi in America, founded Hebrew Union College in
1875.
Wissenschaft des Judentums: “Science of Judaism,” the German movement in the nineteenth
century to study Judaism academically.
Yavneh: According to the Rabbis, the site of the first rabbinic academy.
YHWH: The tetragrammaton, the four-lettered name of God found in the Torah.
Yiddish: A Jewish language that developed in medieval Germany but was used by Eastern
European Jews well into the twentieth century.
Yyiddishkeit: Denotes Jewish culture in an Eastern European context.
Yigdal: Metrical Hebrew hymn based on Maimonides’s “Tthirteen Pprinciples of Ffaith,” written in
1404 and part of many modern Jewish liturgies
Yohanan ben Zakkai, Rabban: Credited with founding the rabbinic academy at Yavneh.
Yom Kippur: The Day of Atonement, a major fast day.
Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel: Established the foundations of the Second Temple ca. 515 BCE BCE.
Zion: Another term for the Promised Land.
Zionism: The political movement to establish a Jewish country in Palestine.
Zohar: Mystical, Aramaic commentary on the Torah, attributed to Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai but
probably written (or compiled) in the thirteenth century by Moses de Leon.

Glossary