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Weekly Torah Portion
The weekly Torah portion refers to a lectionary custom in Judaism in which a portion of the Torah (or Pentateuch) is read during Jewish prayer services on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. The full name, ''Parashat HaShavua'' (), is popularly abbreviated to ''parashah'' (also ''parshah'' or parsha), and is also known as a Seder (Bible), Sidra or Sedra . The ''parashah'' is a section of the Torah used in Jewish liturgy during a particular week. There are 54 parshas, or ''parashiyot'' in Hebrew, and the full cycle is read over the course of one Biblical year. Content and number Each Torah portion consists of two to six chapters to be read during the week. There are 54 weekly portions or ''parashot''. Torah reading mostly follows an annual cycle beginning and ending on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, with the divisions corresponding to the lunisolar calendar, lunisolar Hebrew calendar, which contains up to 55 weeks, the exact number varying between leap years and regular years. ...
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Noach
Noach (, ) is the second weekly Torah portion (, ''parashah'') in the annual Judaism, Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Book of Genesis, Genesis 6:9–11:32. The parashah tells the stories of the Genesis flood narrative, Flood and Noah's Ark, of Noah's subsequent Alcohol intoxication, drunkenness and Curse, cursing of Canaan (Biblical figure), Canaan, and of the Tower of Babel. The parashah has the most Chapters and verses of the Bible, verses of any weekly Torah portion in the Book of Genesis (but not the most letters or words). It is made up of 6,907 Hebrew letters, 1,861 Hebrew words, 153 verses, and 230 lines in a Torah Scroll (, ''Sefer Torah''). (In the Book of Genesis, Parashat Miketz has the most letters, Parashat Vayeira has the most words, and Parashat Vayishlach has an equal number of verses as Parashat Noach.) Jews read it on the second Shabbat, Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in October or early November. Readings In traditional Sabbath Torah rea ...
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Triennial Cycle
The Triennial cycle of Torah reading may refer to either * The historical practice in ancient Israel by which the entire Torah was read in serial fashion over a three-year period, or * The practice adopted by many Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Renewal congregations starting in the 19th and 20th Century, in which the traditional weekly Torah portions are divided into thirds, and in which one third of each weekly "''parashah''" of the annual system is read during the appropriate week of the calendar. Background: Torah reading The introduction of public reading of the Torah by Ezra the Scribe after the return of the Jewish people from the Babylonian Captivity is described in Nehemiahbr>Chapter 8 Prior to Ezra, the ''mitzvah'' of Torah reading was based on the Biblical commandment of Hakhel, by which once every 7 years the entire people was to be gathered to hear Deuteronomy read to them. Traditionally, the Hakhel reading was performed by the King. Under Ezra, Torah re ...
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Synagogue
A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, choir performances, and children's plays. They often also have rooms for study, social halls, administrative and charitable offices, classrooms for religious and Hebrew studies, and many places to sit and congregate. They often display commemorative, historic, or modern artwork alongside items of Jewish historical significance or history about the synagogue itself. Synagogues are buildings used for Jewish prayer, study, assembly, and reading of the Torah. The Torah (Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses) is traditionally read in its entirety over a period of a year in weekly portions during services, or in some synagogues on a triennial cycle. However, the edifice of a synagogue as such is not essential for hol ...
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Book Of Nehemiah
The Book of Nehemiah in the Hebrew Bible largely takes the form of a first-person memoir by Nehemiah, a Hebrew prophet and high official at the Persian court, concerning the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile and the dedication of the city and its people to God's laws (Torah). Since the 16th century, Nehemiah has generally been treated as a separate book within the Bible. Before then, it had been combined with the Book of Ezra; but in Latin Christian Bibles from the 13th century onwards, the Vulgate's Book of Ezra was divided into two texts called the First and Second Books of Ezra, respectively. This separation became canonised with the first printed Bibles in Hebrew and Latin. Mid-16th century Reformed Protestant Bible translations produced in Geneva, such as the Geneva Bible, were the first to introduce the title "Book of Nehemiah" for the text formerly called the "Second Book of Ezra". The historicity of Nehemiah, his objectives, and the "Nehemia ...
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Babylonian Captivity
The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile was the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were forcibly relocated to Babylonia by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The deportations occurred in multiple waves: After the Siege of Jerusalem (597 BC), siege of Jerusalem in 597 BCE, around 7,000 individuals were deported to Mesopotamia. Further deportations followed the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple in 587 BCE. Although the dates, numbers of deportations, and numbers of deportees vary in the several biblical accounts, the following is a general outline of what occurred. 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 602 BCE, Jehoiakim refused to pay further tribute, which led in 598/597 BCE to Siege of Jerusalem (597 BC), another siege of the city by Nebuchadnezzar II and culminated in the dea ...
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Nevi'im
The (; ) is the second major division of the Hebrew Bible (the ''Tanakh''), lying between the () and (). The Nevi'im are divided into two groups. The Former Prophets ( ) consists of the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings; while the Latter Prophets ( ) include the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets. Synopsis The Jewish tradition counts eight books in ''Nevi'im'' out of twenty-four books in the Hebrew Bible. There are four books of the Former Prophets, including Joshua and Judges, and the collected ''Books of Samuel'' and ''Books of Kings'' are each counted as one book. Among the four books of the Latter Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel account for three books, followed by the "Twelve" (: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi), which is counted as a single book. The development of the Hebrew Bible canon placed the Book of Daniel as part of the "Writi ...
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Haftarah
The ''haftara'' or (in Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazic pronunciation) ''haftorah'' (alt. ''haftarah, haphtara'', ) "parting," "taking leave" (plural form: ''haftarot'' or ''haftoros''), is a series of selections from the books of ''Nevi'im'' ("Prophets") of the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh'') that is publicly read in synagogue as part of Judaism, Jewish religious practice. The ''haftara'' reading follows the Torah reading on each Shabbat, Sabbath and on Jewish holidays, Jewish festivals and ta'anit, fast days. Typically, the ''haftara'' is thematically linked to the ''parashah'' (weekly Torah portion) that precedes it. The ''haftara'' is sung in a chant. (Chanting of Biblical texts is known as "ta'amim" in Hebrew, "''trope''" in Yiddish, or "Hebrew cantillation, cantillation" in English.) Related blessings precede and follow the haftara reading. The origin of haftara reading is lost to history, and several theories have been proposed to explain its role in Jewish practice, suggesting ...
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Jewish Holiday
Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' (, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed by Jews throughout the Hebrew calendar.This article focuses on practices of mainstream Rabbinic Judaism. Karaite Judaism#The calendar, Karaite Jews and Samaritans#Samaritanism, Samaritans also observe the biblical festivals, but not in an identical fashion and not always at exactly the same time. They include religious, cultural and national elements, derived from four sources: '' mitzvot'' ("biblical commandments"), rabbinic mandates, the history of Judaism, and the State of Israel. Jewish holidays occur on the same dates every year in the Hebrew calendar, but the dates vary in the Gregorian. This is because the Hebrew calendar is a lunisolar calendar (based on the cycles of both the sun and moon), whereas the Gregorian is a solar calendar. Each holiday can only occur on certain days of the week, four for most, but five for holidays in ...
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Shabbat
Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical stories describing the Genesis creation narrative, creation of the heaven and earth in six days and the redemption from slavery and the Exodus from Egypt. Since the Hebrew calendar, 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 39 Melachot, work activities, often with shomer Shabbat, great rigor, and engaging in restful activities to honor 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 Abraham ...
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Baal Keriah
A baal keriah (), colloquially called the baal korei (, ''baʿal qôrē'' 'master-reader'), is a member of a Judaism, Jewish congregation who reads from the Torah scroll during the service. As there are no niqqud, punctuation, or Hebrew cantillation, cantillation marks (called in Yiddish) in a Sefer Torah, and these are required features of the reading, the baal keriah must memorize them beforehand.Eisenberg, Ronald LJewish Traditions: a JPS Guide, pp. 451-3/ref> Arrangement When the Torah scroll is placed on the Bema, bimah, or reading table, the baal keriah approaches the bimah by the most direct route possible and stands in front of the scroll, a little to the left. If necessary, the scroll is rolled to the portion to be read and then closed and covered with the mantle. To the left side of the scroll stands the gabbai, who calls up congregants to honor them with an aliyah (Torah), aliyah. To the right of the scroll stands the second gabbai, the gabbai sheni. Before each ali ...
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Hebrew Cantillation
Hebrew cantillation, trope, trop, or ''te'amim'' is the manner of chanting ritual readings from the Hebrew Bible in synagogue Jewish services, services. The chants are written and notated in accordance with the special signs or marks printed in the Masoretic Text of the Bible, to complement the letters and Niqqud, vowel points. These marks are known in English as 'accents' (diacritics), 'notes' or trope symbols, and in Hebrew language, Hebrew as () or just (). Some of these signs were also sometimes used in medieval manuscripts of the Mishnah. The musical motifs associated with the signs are known in Hebrew as or (not to be confused with Hasidic Judaism, Hasidic nigun) and in Yiddish as (): the word ''trope'' is sometimes used in Jewish English languages, Jewish English with the same meaning. There are multiple traditions of cantillation. Within each tradition, there are multiple tropes, typically for different books of the Bible and often for different occasions. For ...
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