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Qinot
Kinnot ( he, קינות; also kinnos, kinoth, qinot, qinoth; singular kinah, qinah or kinnah) are Hebrew dirges (sad poems) or elegies. The term is used to refer both to dirges in the Hebrew Bible, and also to later poems which are traditionally recited by Jews on Tisha B'Av. In the Bible In the Hebrew Bible, the term ''kinah'' or ''qinah'' refers to a dirge or lament, especially as sung by Jewish professional mourning women. The Jerusalem Bible refers to Isaiah 47 as a ''qinah'' or "lament for Babylon", and to Ezekiel 19 as a ''qinah'' or lamentation over the rulers of Israel. A. W. Streane suggests that , on the prophesied downfall of Jerusalem, is written "in Ḳinah metre". Tisha BeAv recitation On Tisha B'Av, Jews traditionally recite a series of elegiac poems, known as ''kinnot'', after the evening and morning prayers. These poems mourn the destruction of both the First and Second Temple in Jerusalem and other tragedies in Jewish history, including the Crusa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dirge
A dirge ( la, dirige, naenia) is a somber song or lament expressing mourning or grief, such as would be appropriate for performance at a funeral. Often taking the form of a brief hymn, dirges are typically shorter and less meditative than elegies. Dirges are often slow and bear the character of funeral marches. Poetic dirges may be dedicated to a specific individual or otherwise thematically refer to death. The English word ''dirge'' is derived from the Latin ''Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam'' ("Direct my way in your sight, O Lord my God"), the first words of the first antiphon (a short chant in Christian liturgy) in the Matins (a canonical hour before sunrise) of the Office for the Dead (a prayer cycle), based on (5:9 in the Vulgate). The original meaning of ''dirge'' in English referred to this office, particularly as it appeared within breviaries and primer prayer books. History In the late Medieval period, it was common for Western Christian lait ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were carried out in pogroms and mass shootings; by a policy of extermination through labor in concentration camps; and in gas chambers and gas vans in German extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bełżec, Chełmno, Majdanek, Sobibór, and Treblinka in occupied Poland. Germany implemented the persecution in stages. Following Adolf Hitler's appointment as chancellor on 30 January 1933, the regime built a network of concentration camps in Germany for political opponents and those deemed "undesirable", starting with Dachau on 22 March 1933. After the passing of the Enabling Act on 24 March, which gave Hitler dictatorial plenary powers, the government began isolating Je ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleazar Ben Killir
Eleazar ben Kalir, also known as Eleazar HaKalir, Eleazar ben Killir or Eleazar Kalir (c. 570c. 640) was a Byzantine Jew and a Hebrew poet whose classical liturgical verses, known as ''piyut'', have continued to be sung through the centuries during significant religious services, including those on ''Tisha B'Av'' and on the sabbath after a wedding. He was one of Judaism's earliest and most prolific of the ''paytanim'' (Hebrew liturgical poets). He wrote ''piyutim'' for all the main Jewish festivals, for special Sabbaths, for weekdays of festive character, and for the Jewish fasts, fasts. Many of his hymns have found their way into festive prayers of the Ashkenazi Jews' synagogal rite. Biography Although his poems have had a prominent place in printed ritual and he is known to have lived somewhere in the Near East, documentation regarding details of his life has been lost to history, including the exact year and circumstances of his birth and death. He is said to have been the dis ... [...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] |
Lamentations
The Book of Lamentations ( he, אֵיכָה, , from its incipit meaning "how") is a collection of poetic laments for the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. In the Hebrew Bible it appears in the Ketuvim ("Writings") as one of the Five Megillot (or "Five Scrolls") alongside the Song of Songs, Book of Ruth, Ecclesiastes and the Book of Esther although there is no set order. In the Christian Old Testament it follows the Book of Jeremiah, as the prophet Jeremiah is its traditional author. However, according to modern scholarship, while the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586/7 BCE forms the background to the poems, they were probably not written by Jeremiah. Most likely, each of the book's chapters was written by a different anonymous poet, and they were then joined to form the book. Some motifs of a traditional Mesopotamian "city lament" are evident in this book, such as mourning the desertion of the city by God, its destruction, and the ultimate return of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amidah
The ''Amidah Amuhduh'' ( he, תפילת העמידה, ''Tefilat HaAmidah'', 'The Standing Prayer'), also called the ''Shemoneh Esreh'' ( 'eighteen'), is the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy. Observant Jews recite the ''Amidah'' at each of three daily prayer services in a typical weekday: morning (''Shacharit''), afternoon (''Mincha''), and evening (''Ma'ariv''). On Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, and Jewish festivals, a fourth ''Amidah'' (''Mussaf'') is recited after the morning Torah reading, and once per year a fifth ''Amidah'' (''Ne'ilah'') is recited, around sunset on Yom Kippur. Due to its importance, in rabbinic literature it is simply called ''hatefila'' (, 'the prayer'). According to legend, the prayer was composed by the Rabbis of the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah (c. 515-332 BCE). Accordingly, in Judaism, to recite the ''Amidah'' is a '' mitzvah de-rabbanan''. Although the name ''Shemoneh Esreh'' ("eighteen") refers to the original number of component blessings in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arvit
''Maariv'' or ''Maʿariv'' (, ), also known as ''Arvit'' (, ), is a Jewish prayer service held in the evening or night. It consists primarily of the evening ''Shema'' and ''Amidah''. The service will often begin with two verses from Psalms, followed by the communal recitation of ''Barechu''. The three paragraphs of the ''Shema'' are then said, both preceded and followed by two blessings, although sometimes a fifth blessing is added at the end. The ''hazzan'' (leader) then recites half-''Kaddish''. The ''Amidah'' is said quietly by everyone, and, unlike at the other services, is not repeated by the ''hazzan''. The chazzan recites the full ''Kaddish'', ''Aleinu'' is recited, and the mourners' ''Kaddish'' ends the service; some recite another Psalm or Psalms before or after Aleinu. Other prayers occasionally added include the Counting of the Omer (between Passover and Shavuot) and (in many communities) Psalm 27 (between the first of Elul and the end of Sukkot). ''Maariv'' is gen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psalms
The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived from the Greek translation, (), meaning "instrumental music" and, by extension, "the words accompanying the music". The book is an anthology of individual Hebrew religious hymns, with 150 in the Jewish and Western Christian tradition and more in the Eastern Christian churches. Many are linked to the name of David, but modern mainstream scholarship rejects his authorship, instead attributing the composition of the psalms to various authors writing between the 9th and 5th centuries BC. In the Quran, the Arabic word ‘Zabur’ is used for the Psalms of David in the Hebrew Bible. Structure Benedictions The Book of Psalms is divided into five sections, each closing with a doxology (i.e., a benediction). These divisions were probably intro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judah Halevi
Judah Halevi (also Yehuda Halevi or ha-Levi; he, יהודה הלוי and Judah ben Shmuel Halevi ; ar, يهوذا اللاوي ''Yahuḏa al-Lāwī''; 1075 – 1141) was a Spanish Jewish physician, poet and philosopher. He was born in Spain, either in Toledo or Tudela, in 1075 or 1086, and died shortly after arriving in the Holy Land in 1141, at that point the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Halevi is considered one of the greatest Hebrew poets, celebrated both for his religious and secular poems, many of which appear in present-day liturgy. His greatest philosophical work was the '' Sefer ha-Kuzari''. Biography Convention suggests that Judah ben Shmuel Halevi was born in Toledo, Spain in 1075. He often described himself as coming from Christian territory. Alfonso the Battler conquered Tudela in 1119; Toledo was conquered by Alfonso VI from the Muslims in Halevi's childhood (1086). As a youth, he seems to have gone to Granada, the main centre of Jewish literary and intel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torah
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the same as Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses. It is also known in the Jewish tradition as the Written Torah (, ). If meant for liturgic purposes, it takes the form of a Torah scroll ('' Sefer Torah''). If in bound book form, it is called ''Chumash'', and is usually printed with the rabbinic commentaries (). At times, however, the word ''Torah'' can also be used as a synonym for the whole of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, in which sense it includes not only the first five, but all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible. Finally, Torah can even mean the totality of Jewish teaching, culture, and practice, whether derived from biblical texts or later rabbinic writings. The latter is often known as the Oral Torah. Representing the core of the Jewish spiri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. Population decline, counterurbanisation, the collapse of centralized authority, invasions, and mass migrations of tribes, which had begun in late antiquity, continued into the Early Middle Ages. The large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East—most recently part of the Eastern Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
