Bema
A bema is an elevated platform used as an orator's podium. The term can refer to the raised area in a sanctuary. In Jewish synagogues, where it is used for Torah reading during services, the term used is bima or bimah. Ancient Greece The Ancient Greek ''bēma'' () means both 'platform' and 'step', being derived from '' bainein'' (, 'to go'). The original use of the bema in Athens was as a tribunal from which orators addressed the citizens as well as the courts of law, for instance, in the Pnyx. In Greek law courts the two parties to a dispute presented their arguments each from separate bemas. By metonymy, bema was also a place of judgement, being the extension of the raised seat of the judge, as described in the New Testament, in and , and further, as the seat of the Roman emperor, in , and of God, in , when speaking in judgment. Judaism Etymology The post-Biblical Hebrew ''bima'' (), 'platform' or 'pulpit', is almost certainly derived from the Ancient Greek word fo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Torah Reading
Torah reading (; ') is a Jewish religious tradition that involves the public reading of a set of passages from a Torah scroll. The term often refers to the entire ceremony of removing the scroll (or scrolls) from the Torah ark, chanting the appropriate excerpt with special cantillation (trope), and returning the scroll(s) to the ark. It is also commonly called "laining" (''lein'' is also spelt ''lain'', ''leyn'', ''layn''; from the Yiddish לייענען (), which means "to read"). Regular public reading of the Torah was introduced by Ezra the Scribe after the return of the Judean exiles from the Babylonian captivity ( BCE), as described in the Book of Nehemiah. In the modern era, Orthodox Jews practice Torah reading according to a set procedure almost unchanged since the Talmudic era. Since the 19th century CE, Reform and Conservative Judaism have made adaptations to the practice of Torah reading, but the basic pattern of Torah reading has usually remained the same: As a pa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lectern
A lectern is a standing reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of support. To facilitate eye contact and improve posture when facing an audience, lecterns may have adjustable height and slant. People reading from a lectern, called lectors, generally do so while standing. The word has its origins in the medieval Latin term ''lectrum'', related to ''legere'' which means 'to read'. In pre-modern usage, the word ''lectern'' was used to refer specifically to the "reading desk or stand ... from which the Scripture lessons (''lectiones'') ... are chanted or read." One 1905 dictionary states that "the term is properly applied only to the class mentioned [church book stands] as independent of the pulpit." By the 1920s, however, the term was being used in a broader sense; for example, in reference to a memorial se ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shavuot
(, from ), or (, in some Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi usage), is a Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday, one of the biblically ordained Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan; in the 21st century, it may fall anywhere between May 15 and June 14 on the Gregorian calendar. Shavuot marked the wheat harvest in the Land of Israel in the Hebrew Bible according to Ki Tissa#Sixth reading—Exodus 34:10–26, Exodus 34:22. Rabbinic tradition teaches that the date also marks the revelation of the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai (Bible), Mount Sinai, which, according to the tradition of Orthodox Judaism, occurred at this date in 1312BCE. or in 1313 BCE. The word means 'weeks' in Hebrew and marks the conclusion of the Counting of the Omer. Its date is directly linked to that of Passover; the Torah mandates the seven-week Counting of the Omer, beginning on the second day of Passover, to be immediately followed ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Minbar
A minbar (; sometimes romanized as ''mimber'') is a pulpit in a mosque where the imam (leader of prayers) stands to deliver sermons (, ''khutbah''). It is also used in other similar contexts, such as in a Hussainiya where the speaker sits and lectures the congregation. Etymology The word is a derivative of the Arabic root ''n-b-r'' ("to raise, elevate"); the Arabic plural is ''manābir'' (). Function and form The minbar is symbolically the seat of the imam who leads prayers in the mosque and delivers sermons. In the early years of Islam, this seat was reserved for the Islamic prophet Muhammad and later for the caliphs who followed him, each of whom was officially the imam of the whole Muslim community. It eventually became standard for all Friday mosques and was used by the local imam, but it retained its significance as a symbol of authority. While minbars are roughly similar to church pulpits, they have a function and position more similar to that of a church lectern ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Church Architecture
Church architecture refers to the architecture of Christian buildings, such as Church (building), churches, chapels, convents, and seminaries. It has evolved over the two thousand years of the Christian religion, partly by innovation and partly by borrowing other architectural styles as well as responding to changing beliefs, practices and local traditions. From the Early Christianity to the present, the most significant objects of transformation for Christian architecture and design were the great churches of Byzantium, the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque abbey churches, Gothic architecture, Gothic cathedrals and Renaissance architecture, Renaissance basilicas with its emphasis on harmony. These large, often ornate and architecturally prestigious buildings were dominant features of the towns and countryside in which they stood. However, far more numerous were the parish churches in Christendom, the focus of Christian devotion in every town and village. While a few are counted ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pnyx
The Pnyx (; ; , ''Pnyka'') is a hill or hillside in central Athens, the capital of Greece. Beginning as early as 507 BC (Fifth-century Athens), the Athenians gathered on the Pnyx to host their popular assemblies, thus making the hill one of the earliest and most important sites in the creation of democracy. The Pnyx is located less than west of the Acropolis and about 2 km south-west of the Syntagma Square in the centre of Athens. The "mainly natural hollow" was first used from before 500 BC to perhaps 404 BC, when the arrangement was changed by adding a retaining wall below the speakers' platform, with the space between filled with earth. The Pnyx was probably the prototype for the Greek theatre auditorium, with the late form perhaps reflecting changes in theatre design. Historical significance The Pnyx was used for popular assemblies in Athens as early as 507 BC, when the reforms of Cleisthenes transferred political power to the citizenry. It was then outside the city prope ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lection
A lection, also called the lesson, is a reading from scripture in liturgy. In many Christian denominations, the readings of the day are appointed in the lectionary. History The custom of reading the books of Moses in the synagogues on Sabbath is a very ancient one. Since the prophetic books were written after the books of Moses, readings from them began later, and were common at the time of Jesus. This element in synagogue worship was taken over with others into the Christian divine service, as may be gathered from passages in the gospels such as St Luke 4:16–20 and 16:29. During early Christianity, readings began to be made from the writings of the Apostles and evangelists as the New Testament canon developed. Mention of this is found within the New Testament itself, for example in Colossians 4:16 and in First Thessalonians 5:27. The oldest manuscripts of the Gospels have marginal marks, and sometimes actual interpolations, which can only be accounted for as indic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Haftara
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 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Scripture
Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and laws, ethical conduct, spiritual aspirations, and admonitions for fostering a religious community. Within each religion, these texts are revered as authoritative sources of guidance, wisdom, and divine revelation. They are often regarded as sacred or holy, representing the core teachings and principles that their followers strive to uphold. Etymology and nomenclature According to Peter Beal, the term ''scripture'' – derived from (Latin) – meant "writings anuscriptsin general" prior to the medieval era, and was then "reserved to denote the texts of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible". Beyond Christianity, according to the ''Oxford World Encyclopedia'', the term ''scripture'' has referred to a text accepted to contain the "sacr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gorskii 03982u
Gorsky (), Gorskaya (feminine; Горская), or Gorskoye (neuter; Горское) may refer to: Places *Gorsky (rural locality) (''Gorskaya'', ''Gorskoye''), name of several rural localities in Russia *Gorskaya railway station, a locality and train station in Sestroretsk, St. Petersburg, Russia *Gorskoye (Hirske), the Russian name for a city in Luhansk, Ukraine Other uses *Gorsky (surname) *Good luck, Mr. Gorsky, an urban legend about the Apollo 11 Moon landing See also *Górski, Polish surname {{Disambiguation ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |