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Baruch Hashem L'Olam (Maariv)
Baruch HaShem Le'Olam (Hebrew: , 'Blessed is HaShem Forever') is a compilation of 18 verses from the Tanakh recited by some Jewish communities during the weekday ma'ariv service, between the '' Shema'' and the ''Amidah''. Its name is from the first three words of the first verse. The first four verses are recited by all Orthodox Jewish communities during the '' Pesukei dezimra'' section of Shacharit. History The prayer was compiled during post-talmudic times when Jews faced various threats when saying Maariv in the evening. Commentators describe these threats in overlapping ways: * Synagogues could not be built in some residential areas. * Avudraham said that in the Geonic period Jews were afraid to stay out late enough to pray Maariv. * Jews normally returned from working their fields to the city in the late afternoon. Whatever particular reasons applied, to avoid being harassed or potentially killed, Jews held services in the city's surrounding fields, where many of them ...
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Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until after 200 CE and as the Sacred language, liturgical language of Judaism (since the Second Temple period) and Samaritanism. The language was Revival of the Hebrew language, revived as a spoken language in the 19th century, and is the only successful large-scale example of Language revitalization, linguistic revival. It is the only Canaanite language, as well as one of only two Northwest Semitic languages, with the other being Aramaic, still spoken today. The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, Paleo-Hebrew date back to the 10th century BCE. Nearly all of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew, with much of its present form in the dialect that scholars believe flourish ...
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Feldheim Publishers
Feldheim Publishers (or Feldheim) is an American Orthodox Jewish publisher of Torah books and literature. Its extensive catalog of titles includes books on Jewish law, Torah, Talmud, Jewish lifestyle, Shabbat and Jewish holidays, Jewish history, biography, and kosher cookbooks. It also publishes children's books. The company's headquarters is located in New York, with publishing and sales divisions in Jerusalem. Its president is Yitzchak Feldheim. History Feldheim Publishers was founded in 1939 by Philipp Feldheim, a Viennese Jew who escaped Nazi Austria that year. He made his home in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, NYC where he was a founder of the Vienner Kehilla there. Later he moved to Washington Heights, New York near Congregation Khal Adath Jeshurun founded by Rabbi Dr. Joseph Breuer (1882–1980). Feldheim opened a small bookshop on the Lower East Side, and witnessing customer demand for Jewish literature, decided to go into Jewish publishing under the name ...
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Italian Nusach
The Italian Nusach is the ancient prayer rite ('' nusach'') of the long-standing Italian Jewish (''Italkim'') community on the Italian Peninsula, used by Jews who are not of Ashkenazi or Sephardic origin. History The Italian nusach has been considered an offspring of the ancient Land of Israel minhag and it has similarities with the nusach of the Romaniote Jews of Greece and the Balkans. However, the documents discovered in Cairo Geniza reveal that the influence of ''Minhag Eretz Israel'' on ''Benè Romì'' is less extensive than believed. Communities where the Italian rite is practiced Italian Jews have their own unique prayer rite that is neither Sephardic nusach, Nusach Ashkenaz, nor Nusach Sefard, and to a certain extent is not subject to Kabbalistic influence. In Italy, there were also communities of Spanish origin who prayed in the Sephardic rite and communities of German origin who prayed in the Western Ashkenazic rite, which were mainly in northern Italy. The Italia ...
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Chabad
Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (; ; ), is a dynasty in Hasidic Judaism. Belonging to the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) branch of Orthodox Judaism, it is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, as well as one of the largest Jewish religious organizations. Unlike most Haredi groups, which are self-segregating, Chabad mainly operates in the wider world and caters to nonobservant Jews. Founded in 1775 by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745–1812) in the city of Liozno in the Russian Empire, the name "Chabad" () is an acronym formed from the three Hebrew words— Chokmah, Binah, Da'at— for the first three sefirot of the kabbalistic Tree of Life after Keter: , "Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge"—which represent the intellectual and kabbalistic underpinnings of the movement. The name Lubavitch derives from the town in which the now-dominant line of leaders resided from 1813 to 1915. Other, non-Lubavitch scions of Chabad either disappear ...
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Nusach Sefard
Nusach Sefard, Nusach Sepharad, or Nusach Sfard, is the name for various forms of the Jewish '' siddurim'' designed to reconcile Ashkenazi customs with the kabbalistic customs of Isaac Luria (more commonly known as the Arizal). To this end, it has incorporated the wording of Nusach Edot ha-Mizrach or Nusach Hasfaradim, the prayer book of Sephardi Jews, into certain prayers. Nusach Sefard is used nearly universally by Hasidim, as well as by some other Ashkenazi Jews (especially Dati leumi Jews), but has not gained significant acceptance by Sephardi Jews. Some Hasidic dynasties use their own version of the Nusach Sefard ''siddur'', sometimes with a notable divergence between different versions. Prayers and customs Some versions are nearly identical to Nusach Ashkenaz, while others come far closer to Nusach Hasfaradim or Nusach Edot ha-Mizrach: most versions fall somewhere in between. All versions attempt to incorporate the customs of the Arizal, with greater or lesser success ...
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Vilna Gaon
Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, ( ''Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman''), also known as the Vilna Gaon ( ''Der Vilner Goen''; ; or Elijah of Vilna, or by his Hebrew acronym Gr"a ("Gaon Rabbenu Eliyahu": "Our great teacher Elijah"; Sialiec, April 23, 1720Vilnius October 9, 1797), was a Lithuanian Jewish Talmudist, halakhist, kabbalist, and the foremost leader of misnagdic (non- hasidic) Jewry of the past few centuries. He is commonly referred to in Hebrew as ''ha-Gaon mi-Vilna'', "the genius from Vilnius". Through his annotations and emendations of Talmudic and other texts, he became one of the most familiar and influential figures in rabbinic study since the Middle Ages. Although he is chronologically one of the ''Acharonim'', some have considered him one of the ''Rishonim''. Large groups of people, including many ''yeshivas'', uphold the set of Jewish customs and rites ('' minhag''), the "''minhag ha-Gra''", named after him, and which is also considered by many to be the prevailin ...
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Siddur
A siddur ( ''sīddūr'', ; plural siddurim ) is a Jewish prayer book containing a set order of daily prayers. The word comes from the Hebrew root , meaning 'order.' Other terms for prayer books are ''tefillot'' () among Sephardi Jews, ''tefillah'' among German Jews, and ''tiklāl'' () among Yemenite Jews. History The earliest parts of Jewish prayer books are the '' Shema Yisrael'' ("Hear O Israel") (Deuteronomy 6:4 ''et seq'') and the Priestly Blessing ( Numbers 6:24-26), which are in the Torah. A set of eighteen (currently nineteen) blessings called the ''Shemoneh Esreh'' or the ''Amidah'' (Hebrew, "standing rayer), is traditionally ascribed to the Great Assembly in the time of Ezra, at the end of the biblical period. The name ''Shemoneh Esreh'', literally "eighteen", is a historical anachronism, since it now contains nineteen blessings. It was only near the end of the Second Temple period that the eighteen prayers of the weekday Amidah became standardized. Even at ...
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Minyan
In Judaism, a ''minyan'' ( ''mīnyān'' , Literal translation, lit. (noun) ''count, number''; pl. ''mīnyānīm'' ) is the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain Mitzvah, religious obligations. In more traditional streams of Judaism, only men 13 and older may constitute a minyan; the minimum of 10 Jews needed for a meeting has its origin in Abraham's prayer to God in . The minyan also has its origin in judicial structure of ancient Israel as Moses first established it in Exodus 18:25 (i.e., the "rule of the 10s"). This we find reiterated in Cyrus Adler’s and Lewis N. Dembitz’s “Minyan,” ''Jewish Encyclopedia'', stating: "The minimum of ten is evidently a survival in the Synagogue from the much older institution in which ten heads of families made up the smallest political subdivision. In Ex. xviii. Moses, on the advice of Jethro, appoints chiefs of tens, as well as chiefs of fifties, of hundreds, and of thousands. In like manner there were the decurio among th ...
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Nusach (Jewish Custom)
In Judaism, Nusach (, , plural ''nusaḥim'', ) is the exact text of a prayer service; sometimes the English word "rite" is used to refer to the same thing. Nusakh means "formulate" or "wording." Texts used by different communities include Baladi-rite prayer, nusach Ashkenaz, nusach Sefard, nusach edot haMizraḥ, Italian Nusach and the nusach Ari. A textual nusach is distinct from a musical one; the latter refers to a community's musical style or tradition, particularly the chant used for recitative prayers such as the Amidah. Meanings ''Nusach'' primarily means "text" or "version", the correct wording of a religious text or liturgy. Thus, the ''nusach tefillah'' is the text of the prayers, either generally or in a particular community. In common use, ''nusach'' has come to signify the entire liturgical tradition of the community, including the musical rendition. It is one example of '' minhag'', which includes traditions on Jewish customs of all types. Varieties Nus ...
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Simhah Ben Samuel Of Vitry
Simhah ben Samuel of Vitry (; died 1105) was a French Talmudist of the 11th and 12th centuries, pupil of Rashi, and the compiler of ''Machzor Vitry''. He lived in Vitry-le-François. ''Machzor Vitry'' ''Machzor Vitry'' contains decisions and rules concerning religious practise, besides responsa by Rashi and other authorities, both contemporary and earlier. The work is cited as early as the 12th century in Jacob Tam's ''Sefer ha-Yashar'' (No. 620) as having been compiled by Simchah; and the sources from which the compiler took his material—the ''Seder Rav Amram,'' the '' Halachot Gedolot,'' and others—also are mentioned. Isaac ben Samuel, a grandson of Simchah, also refers to ''Machzor Vitry'' compiled by his grandfather. Various additions were afterward made to this machzor, a large proportion of which, designated by the letter (= "tosafot"), are by Isaac ben Dorbolo. The latter often appends his name to such additions; and in one place he says plainly: "These explanati ...
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Halakhic
''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are 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'' or ''Mishneh Torah''. ''Halakha'' is often translated as "Jewish law", although a more literal translation 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, widespread observance of the laws of the Torah is first in evidence beginning in the second century BCE, and some say that the first evidence was even earlier. In the Jewish diaspora, ''halakha'' served many Jewish communitie ...
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