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Ashkenazi Judaism
Nusach Ashkenaz is a style of Jewish liturgy conducted by Ashkenazi Jews. It is primarily a way to order and include prayers, and differs from Nusach Sefard (as used by the Hasidic Judaism, Hasidim) and Baladi-rite prayer, and still more from the Sephardic law and customs#Liturgy, Sephardic rite proper, in the placement and presence of certain prayers. Subdivisions Nusach Ashkenaz may be subdivided into the German or Western branch - ''Minhag Ashkenaz'' - used in Western and Central Europe, and the Polish/Lithuanian or Eastern branch - ''Minhag Polin'' - used in Eastern Europe, the United States and by some Israeli Ashkenazim, particularly those who identify as Lithuanian Jews, Litvaks ("Lithuanian"). In strictness, the term ''Minhag Ashkenaz'' applied only to the usages of German Jews south and west of the Elbe, most notably the community of Frankfurt. North-Eastern German communities such as Hamburg regarded themselves as following ''Minhag Polin'', although their musical traditi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jewish Liturgy
Jewish liturgy is the liturgy, customary public worship of Judaism. The liturgy may include responsive reading, songs, or music, as found in the Torah and Haftorah, the Amidah, piyyutim, and Psalms. Singing or reading the Psalms has a special role in the Jewish liturgy, in particular they are used in the daily Jewish prayer services of Shacharit, Mincha, and Arvit. Torah reading is done every morning on Shabbat. In Babylonia, it was a one-year pattern, instead of a three-year pattern as done in Israel. Over the last 2000 years, traditional variations have emerged among the traditional liturgy, liturgical Minhag, customs of different Jewish communities, such as Ashkenazic, Sephardic, Yemenite Jews, Yemenite, Palestinian minhag, Eretz Yisrael and others, or rather recent liturgical inventions such as Hassidic, and Nusach Ari, Chabad. However the differences are minor compared with the commonalities. Most of the Jewish liturgy is sung or chanted with traditional melodies or Hebrew c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hashkafa
''Hashkafa'' ( he, השקפה, lit., "outlook"; plural ''hashkafot'', ''hashkafos'', ''hashkafas'') is the Hebrew term for worldview and guiding philosophy, used almost exclusively within Orthodox Judaism. A ''hashkafa'' is a perspective that Orthodox Jews adopt that defines many aspects of their lives. ''Hashkafa'' thus plays a crucial role in how these interact with the world around them, and influences individual beliefs about secularity, gender roles, and modernity. In that it guides many practical decisions - where to send children to school, what synagogue to attend, and what community to live in - ''hashkafa'' works in conjunction with ''halakha'' or Jewish law. ''Hashkafot'' Although there are numerous hashkafas ("70") within Orthodox Judaism, they may be grouped broadly as Haredi, Hasidic and Modern Orthodox / Religious Zionist, with different approaches and emphases concerning specific topics. Other ''hashkafas'' include ''Torah im Derech Eretz'', '' Talmidei haRamba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minor Tractate
The minor tractates (Hebrew: מסכתות קטנות, ''masechtot qetanot'') are essays from the Talmudic period or later dealing with topics about which no formal tractate exists in the Mishnah. They may thus be contrasted to the Tosefta, whose tractates parallel those of the Mishnah. Each minor tractate contains all the important material bearing on a single subject. While they are mishnaic in form and are called "tractates," the topics discussed in them are arranged more systematically than in the Mishnah; for they are eminently practical in purpose, being, in a certain sense, the first manuals in which the data scattered through prolix sources have been collected in a brief and comprehensive form. There about 15 minor tractates. The first eight or so contain much original material; the last seven or so are collections of material scattered throughout the Talmud. Ancient authorities mention especially seven such tractates, which are doubtless the earliest ones. Their name and f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amram Gaon
Amram Gaon ( he, עמרם גאון, or Amram bar Sheshna, Hebrew: עמרם בר רב ששנא, or sometimes: Amram ben Sheshna or Amram b. Sheshna; died 875) was a '' gaon'', head of the Jewish Talmud Academy of Sura during the 9th century. He authored many responsa, but his chief work was liturgical. He was the first to arrange a complete liturgy for the synagogue. His Prayer Book (''Siddur Rav Amram'' or ''Seder Rav Amram''), which took the form of a long responsum to the Jews of Spain, is still extant and was an important influence on most of the current rites in use among the Jews. Biography Amram ben Sheshna was a pupil of Natronai ben Hilai, Gaon of Sura, and was exceptionally honored with the title of Gaon within the lifetime of his teacher. Eventually, he broke away from his teacher and started his own seat of learning. Upon Natronai's death, about 857, the full title and dignities of the ''geonate'' were conferred upon Amram, a title which he held for 18 years, un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geonim
''Geonim'' ( he, גאונים; ; also transliterated Gaonim, singular Gaon) were the presidents of the two great Babylonian Talmudic Academies of Sura and Pumbedita, in the Abbasid Caliphate, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders of the Jewish community worldwide in the early medieval era, in contrast to the ''Resh Galuta'' (exilarch) who wielded secular authority over the Jews in Islamic lands. ''Geonim'' is the plural of (''Gaon) , which means "pride" or "splendor" in Biblical Hebrew and since the 19th century "genius" as in modern Hebrew. As a title of a Babylonian college president it meant something like "His Excellency". The ''Geonim'' played a prominent and decisive role in the transmission and teaching of Torah and Jewish law. They taught Talmud and decided on issues on which no ruling had been rendered during the period of the Talmud. The Geonim were also spiritual leaders of the Jewish community of their time. Era The period of the Geonim began in 58 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Land Of Israel
The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Israel (other)). The definitions of the limits of this territory vary between passages in the Hebrew Bible, with specific mentions in Genesis 15, Exodus 23, Numbers 34 and Ezekiel 47. Nine times elsewhere in the Bible, the settled land is referred as "from Dan to Beersheba", and three times it is referred as "from the entrance of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt" (1 Kings 8:65, 1 Chronicles 13:5 and 2 Chronicles 7:8). These biblical limits for the land differ from the borders of established historical Israelite and later Jewish kingdoms, including the United Kingdom of Israel, the two kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah, the Hasmonean Kingdom, and the Herodian kingdom. At their heights, these realms ruled lands with similar but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish And Portuguese Jews
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the immediate generations following the forced expulsion of unconverted Jews Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, from Spain in 1492 and Expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Portugal, from Portugal in 1497. Although the 1492 and 1497 expulsions of unconverted Jews from Spain and Portugal were separate events from the Spanish Inquisition, Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions (which were established over a decade earlier in 1478), they were ultimately linked, as the Inquisition eventually also led to the fleeing out of Iberia of many descendants of Jewish converts to Catholicism in subsequent generations. Despite the fact that the original Edicts of Expulsion did not apply to Jewish-origin New Christian ''conversos'' —as these were now legally Chris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moses Gaster
Moses Gaster (17 September 1856 – 5 March 1939) was a Romanian, later British scholar, the ''Hakham'' of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation, London, and a Hebrew and Romanian linguist. Moses Gaster was an active Zionist in Romania as well as in England, where in 1899 he helped establish the English Zionist Federation. He was the father of Jack and Theodor Gaster and the grandfather of Marghanita Laski. He was also son-in-law to Michael Friedländer and father-in-law to Neville Laski. Biography Life in Romania Gaster was born in Bucharest into a renowned Jewish Austrian family which had settled in Wallachia at the beginning of the 19th century. He was the eldest son of Chevalier Abraham Emanuel Gaster, who was the consul of the Netherlands in Bucharest and the grandson of Asriel Gaster, a prosperous merchant and community leader. His mother, Pnina Judith Rubinstein, came from a rabbinical dynasty which included Rabbi Levi Isaac ben Meir. After having taken a degre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hakham
''Hakham'' (or ''chakam(i), haham(i), hacham(i)''; he, חכם ', "wise") is a term in Judaism, meaning a wise or skillful man; it often refers to someone who is a great Torah scholar. It can also refer to any cultured and learned person: "He who says a wise thing is called a ''hakham'', even if he be not a Jew." Hence in Talmudic-Midrashic literature, wise gentiles are commonly called ' ("wise men of the nations of the world"). In Sephardic usage, ''hakham'' is a synonym for "rabbi". In ancient times ''Hakham'' as an official title is found as early as the first Sanhedrin, after the reconstruction of that body, when the Hadrianic religious persecutions had ceased. In addition to the nasi Simeon ben Gamliel, two other scholars stood at the head of the Sanhedrin, namely Nathan the Babylonian as ''Av Beit Din'' and Rabbi Meir as ''hakham''. Another ''hakham'' mentioned by name was Simon, the son of Judah the Prince, who after the death of his father officiated as ''hakham'', wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babylonian Captivity
The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile is the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon, the capital city of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, following their defeat in the Jewish–Babylonian War and the destruction of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. The event is described in the Hebrew Bible, and its historicity is supported by archaeological and extra-biblical evidence. After the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem, which resulted in tribute being paid by the Judean king Jehoiakim. In the fourth year of Nebuchadnezzar II's reign, Jehoiakim refused to pay further tribute, which led to another siege of the city in Nebuchadnezzar II's seventh year (598/597 BCE) that culminated in the death of Jehoiakim and the exile to Babylonia of his successor Jeconiah, his court, and many others; Jeconiah's successor Zedekiah and others were exiled when Nebuch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palestinian Minhag
The Palestinian minhag or Palestinian liturgy, ( he, נוסח ארץ ישראל, translit: ''Nusach Eretz Yisrael'' translation: "Rite or Prayer Service of The Land of Israel") as opposed to the Babylonian minhag, refers to the rite and ritual of medieval Palestinian Jewry in relation to the traditional order and form of the prayers. A complete collection has not been preserved from antiquity, but several passages of it are scattered in both the Babylonian Talmud and Jerusalem Talmud, in the Midrashim, in the Pesiktot, in minor tractate Soferim, and in some responsa of the Palestinian Geonim. Some excerpts have been preserved in the Siddur of Saadia Gaon and the Cairo geniza yielded some important texts, such as the Eighteen Benedictions. One fragment of a Palestinian ''siddur'' discovered in the ''genizah'' was written in Hebrew with various introductions and explanations in Judaeo-Arabic. The Geniza fragments mostly date from the 12th century, and reflect the usages of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leopold Zunz
Leopold Zunz ( he, יום טוב צונץ—''Yom Tov Tzuntz'', yi, ליפמן צונץ—''Lipmann Zunz''; 10 August 1794 – 17 March 1886) was the founder of academic Judaic Studies (''Wissenschaft des Judentums''), the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual. Nahum Glatzer, Pelger Grego"Zunz, Leopold" ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' (2nd ed., 2007) Zunz's historical investigations and contemporary writings had an important influence on contemporary Judaism. Biography Leopold Zunz was born at Detmold, the son of Talmud scholar Immanuel Menachem Zunz (1759-1802) and Hendel Behrens (1773-1809), the daughter of Dov Beer, an assistant cantor of the Detmold community. The year following his birth his family moved to Hamburg, where, as a young boy, he began learning Hebrew grammar, the Pentateuch, and the Talmud. His father, who was his first teacher, died in July 1802, when Zunz was not quite eight years old.Kaufmann, David (1900).Zunz, Leopold" In: ''Allgemein ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
