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Hershel Schachter
Rabbi Hershel Schachter (born ) is an American Orthodox rabbi, posek (religious law authority) and rosh yeshiva (dean) at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), part of Yeshiva University (YU) in New York City. Schachter is an '' halakhic'' (Jewish law) advisor for the Orthodox Union, and has rendered notable decisions in a number of contemporary topic areas. Early life and education Hershel Schachter was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania to Melech Schachter, a rosh yeshiva (dean) at Yeshiva University (YU). Schachter became an assistant to Joseph Ber Soloveitchik at the age of 22. He earned a B.A. from Yeshiva College and an M.A. in Hebrew literature from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies in 1967. After receiving ''semikhah'' (rabbinic ordination) that year at the age of 26, Schachter became the youngest rosh yeshiva at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), and was appointed ''rosh kollel'' (dean of the ''kollel'') in 1971. Schacht ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honorifics In Judaism
There are a number of honorifics in Judaism that vary depending on the status of, and the relationship to, the person to whom one is referring. Rabbi The word ''Rabbi'', means "master" and is traditionally used for a religious teacher. In English in particular, it came to be commonly used to refer to any ordained Jewish scholar. In Israel, among the Haredim, ''Rabbi'' can be used colloquially interchangeably with the Yiddish ''Reb'', and is used as a friendly title, similar to calling someone "Sir". Lastly it is also used when referring to the Tannaim. Rav ''"Rav"'' is the Hebrew word for "master." ''"Rav"'' can be used as a generic honorific for a teacher or a personal spiritual guide, similar to Rabbi. In Modern Hebrew, ''Rav'' is used for all rabbis. The word can also be used as a prefix to a profession or title to show high rank or profficiency. For example: רב חובל, rav-sailor, meaning ''ship captain'', or רב אומן, rav-artist, meaning master of a craft or ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Ber Soloveitchik
Joseph Ber Soloveitchik ( he, יוסף דב הלוי סולובייצ׳יק ''Yosef Dov ha-Levi Soloveychik''; February 27, 1903 – April 9, 1993) was a major American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, and modern Jewish philosopher. He was a scion of the Lithuanian Jewish Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty. As a ''rosh yeshiva'' of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University in New York City, The Rav, as he came to be known, ordained close to 2,000 rabbis over the course of almost half a century. Rabbinic literature sometimes refers to him as הגרי"ד, short for "The great Rabbi Yosef Dov". He served as an advisor, guide, mentor, and role-model for tens of thousands of Jews, both as a Talmudic scholar and as a religious leader. He is regarded as a seminal figure by Modern Orthodox Judaism. Heritage Joseph Ber Soloveitchik was born on February 27, 1903, in Pruzhany, Imperial Russia (later Poland, now Belarus). He came from a rabbinical dynasty dating back some 200 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ipso Facto
is a Latin phrase, directly translated as "by the fact itself", which means that a specific phenomenon is a ''direct'' consequence, a resultant ''effect'', of the action in question, instead of being brought about by a previous action. It is a term of art used in philosophy, law, and science. (Contrast this with the expressions "by itself" or "per se".) Aside from its technical uses, it occurs frequently in literature, particularly in scholarly addenda: e.g., "Faustus had signed his life away, and was, , incapable of repentance" (from Christopher Marlowe, ''The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus'') or "These prejudices are rooted in the idea that every tramp is a blackguard" (from George Orwell, ''Down and Out in Paris and London''). Its use is also found in rabbinic writings: "If a man sells a house, he sells with it the door." In Catholic canon law denotes the automatic character of the loss of membership in a religious body by someone guilty of a specified action. Within t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gemarah
The Gemara (also transliterated Gemarah, or in Yiddish Gemo(r)re; from Aramaic , from the Semitic root ג-מ-ר ''gamar'', to finish or complete) is the component of the Talmud comprising rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah written in 63 books. At first, Gemara was only transmitted orally and was forbidden to be written down, however after the Mishnah was published by Judah the Prince (c. 200 CE), the work was studied exhaustively by generation after generation of rabbis in Babylonia and the Land of Israel. Their discussions were written down in a series of books that became the Gemara, which when combined with the Mishnah constituted the Talmud. There are two versions of the Gemara. The Jerusalem Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi), also known as the Palestinian Talmud, was compiled by Jewish scholars of the Land of Israel, primarily of the academies of Tiberias and Caesarea, and was published between about 350–400 CE. The Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) was pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sefer (Hebrew)
''Sifrei Kodesh'' ( he, ספרי קודש, , Holy books), commonly referred to as ''sefarim'' ( he, ספרים, , books), or in its singular form, ''sefer'', are books of Jewish religious literature and are viewed by religious Jews as sacred. These are generally works of Torah literature, i.e. Tanakh and all works that expound on it, including the Mishnah, Midrash, Talmud, and all works of ''halakha'', Musar, Hasidism, Kabbalah, or ''machshavah'' ("Jewish Thought"). Historically, ''sifrei kodesh'' were generally written in Hebrew with some in Judeo-Aramaic or Arabic, although in recent years, thousands of titles in other languages, most notably English, were published. An alternative spelling for 'sefarim' is ''seforim''. Terms The term ''Sifrei Kodesh'' is Hebrew for "Holy Books", and includes all books that are considered holy in Rabbinic Judaism. This includes all Torah literature as well as Jewish prayer books. Among Orthodox Jews the word ''sefer'' (plural ''s'f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shimon Shkop
Shimon Yehuda Shkop ( he, שמעון שקופ; 1860 – October 22, 1939) was a rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Yeshiva of Telshe and then of Yeshiva Shaar HaTorah of Grodno, and a Talmid Chacham (Talmudic scholar). Early life Shkop was born in Torez, today in Belarus, in 1860. At the age of twelve he went to study in the Mir Yeshiva for two years. He then traveled to the Volozhin yeshiva where he studied with Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin for six years. His study partners included Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Telz and Grodno Shkop married a niece of Eliezer Gordon, and in 1884 was appointed a rosh mesivta at Telz Yeshiva, where he remained for 18 years. While there, he developed a system of Talmudic study which became known as the "Telz way of learning." In 1903, he became rabbi of Moltsh, and in 1907 of Bransk. Among his students in Moltsh was Yechezkel Sarna, who studied under Shkop for a year in 1906, before leaving to the Slabodka yeshiva when Shkop himself left. From 1920 to 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lech-Lecha (parsha)
Lech-Lecha, Lekh-Lekha, or Lech-L'cha ( ''leḵ-ləḵā''—Hebrew for "go!" or "leave!", literally "go for you"—the fifth and sixth words in the parashah) is the third weekly Torah portion (, ''parashah'') in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes . The parashah tells the stories of God's calling of Abram (who would become Abraham), Abram's passing off his wife Sarai as his sister, Abram's dividing the land with his nephew Lot, the war between the four kings and the five, the covenant between the pieces, Sarai's tensions with her maid Hagar and Hagar's son Ishmael, and the covenant of circumcision (''brit milah''). The parashah is made up of 6,336 Hebrew letters, 1,686 Hebrew words, 126 verses, and 208 lines in a Torah Scroll (''Sefer Torah''). Jews read it on the third Sabbath after Simchat Torah, in October or November. Readings In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , '' aliyot''. In the Masoretic Text ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shabbat
Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical stories describing the creation of the heaven and earth in six days and the redemption from slavery and The Exodus from Egypt, and look forward to a future Messianic Age. Since the Jewish religious calendar counts days from sunset to sunset, Shabbat begins in the evening of what on the civil calendar is Friday. Shabbat observance entails refraining from work activities, often with great rigor, and engaging in restful activities to honour the day. Judaism's traditional position is that the unbroken seventh-day Shabbat originated among the Jewish people, as their first and most sacred institution. Variations upon Shabbat are widespread in Judaism and, with adaptations, throughout the Abrahamic and many other religions. According to ''halakha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kashrut
(also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), from the Ashkenazic pronunciation (KUHsher) of the Hebrew (), meaning "fit" (in this context: "fit for consumption"). Although the details of the laws of are numerous and complex, they rest on a few basic principles: * Only certain types of mammals, birds and fish meeting specific criteria are kosher; the consumption of the flesh of any animals that do not meet these criteria, such as pork, frogs, and shellfish, is forbidden. * Kosher mammals and birds must be slaughtered according to a process known as ; blood may never be consumed and must be removed from meat by a process of salting and soaking in water for the meat to be permissible for use. * Meat and meat derivatives may never be mixed with milk and milk derivatives: separate equipm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halakha
''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandments ('' mitzvot''), subsequent Talmudic and rabbinic laws, and the customs and traditions which were compiled in the many books such as the ''Shulchan Aruch''. ''Halakha'' is often translated as "Jewish law", although a more literal translation of it might be "the way to behave" or "the way of walking". The word is derived from the root which means "to behave" (also "to go" or "to walk"). ''Halakha'' not only guides religious practices and beliefs, it also guides numerous aspects of day-to-day life. Historically, in the Jewish diaspora, ''halakha'' served many Jewish communities as an enforceable avenue of law – both civil and religious, since no differentiation of them exists in classical Judaism. Since the Jewish Enlightenment (''Hask ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kollel
A kollel ( he, כולל, , , a "gathering" or "collection" f scholars is an institute for full-time, advanced study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kollel features shiurim (lectures) and learning ''sedarim'' (sessions); unlike most yeshivot, the student body of a kollel typically consists mostly of married men. A kollel generally pays a regular monthly stipend to its members. History Original sense Originally, the word was used in the sense of "community". Each group of European Jews settling in Israel established their own community with their own support system. Each community was referred to as the "kollel of " to identify the specific community of the Old Yishuv. The overwhelming majority of these Jews were scholars who left their homelands to devote themselves to study Torah and serve God for the rest of their lives. The kollel was the umbrella organization for all their needs. The first examples were Kolel Perushim (students of the Vilna Gaon who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semikhah
Semikhah ( he, סמיכה) is the traditional Jewish name for rabbinic ordination. The original ''semikhah'' was the formal "transmission of authority" from Moses through the generations. This form of ''semikhah'' ceased between 360 and 425 CE. Since then ''semikhah'' has continued in a less formal way. Throughout history there have been several attempts to reestablish the classical ''semikhah''. In recent times, some institutions grant ordination for the role of ''hazzan'' (cantor), extending the "investiture" granted there from the 1950s. Less commonly, since the 1990s, ordination is granted for the role of lay leader - sometimes titled '' darshan''. Ordination may then also be specifically termed , "rabbinical ordination", , "cantorial ordination", or , "maggidic ordination". The title of "rabbi" has "proliferated greatly over the last century". Nowadays ''Semikha'' is also granted for a limited form of ordination, focused on the application of Halakha in specific settin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
