Test 1

Religion 123 with Boyarin at University of Chapel Hill

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By: Stephanie Flores
Created: 2011-09-28
Size: 100 flashcards
Views: 4

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Account of Creation

An esoteric tradition of explaining the biblical creation story. The Mishnash forbids teaching this publicly

Account of the chariot Chariot mysticism

An esoteric tradition of explaining Ezekiel's vision of a chariot composed of angelic beings. The Mishnah forbade public dissemination of this mystical discipline.

Aggadah (engl adj: aggadic)

component of the oral tradition not concerned with technical study of religious law. It consists largely of homiletical expositions of the Bible

Agudat Israel

An association representing the interests of traditionalist Orthodox ("haredi") groups

Agunah

An "anchored woman"; one who is unable to remarry because she cannot obtain a divorce from her first husband, or because his death cannot be satisfactorily established.

Amidah

"The standing (prayer)" another name for the Eighteen Benedictions, which is recited while standing

Amora

A rabbi from the third to fifth centuries, whose views are cited in the Talmud or contemporary rabbinic works

Aninut

The initial and most intense stage of grieving, from the moment of the death until the burial

Apocalypse

A popular genre of ancient Jewish literature, especially during the Roman era, in which the hero, usually a figure from the Bible, receives a graphically symbolic vision of a catastrophic future when God will overthrow the forces of evil and institute his kingdom on earth.

Apocrypha

Works that were included in the Greek corpus of Jewish scriptures, but not in the Hebrew Bible

Aramaic

A Semitic language similar to Hebrew that was spoken by jews from the Second Temple era, especially in the Galilee and Babylonia.

Aravah

Willow, one of the "four species" that is carried during the rituals on the feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot)

Ashkenaz

The Hebrew name for Germany, used to refer to Jewish communities that originated in central Europe, or to the Jews of Christian Europe in general

Asiyyah

Hebrew: "action" -- the last of the four worlds according to kabbalistic teaching, the one that converges with the physical world

Attributes of action

In the thought of Maimonides, these are descriptions of God that are to be understood metaphorically, as analogous to the frame of mind that would have produced a certain result if a similar effect has been produced by a human being

Avot/Pirkei Avot

A tractate in the Mishnah consisting of adages and other non-halakhic traditions. It opens by describing the sequence of transmitting the Torah from Moses via the "fathers of the world" until their own time

Azilut

Hebrew: "emanation" -- the highest of the four planes of reality according to the Kabbalah

Ba'al Shem

"Master of the name" -- a practitioner of magic and healing by means of the kabbalistic manipulation of the names of God

Bad urge

In rabbinic homilies, the aspect of the human personality that seduces people to sin. It is equated with the sexual urge, and therefore is essential for human survival.

Bahir

The earliest known document containing the teachings of the Kabbalah, the symbolism of the ten sefirot. It first appeared in the 12th century in Provence, and takes the form of a pseudepigraphic rabbinic midrashic exposition whose main protagonist is Rabbi Nehunya ben ha-Kanah.

Bar Kokhba, Simeon

Leader of a failed Jewish revolt against Rome between 132 and 135 CE. Rabbi Akiva and others believed he was the messiah

Bar mitzvah

"Subject to the commandments" -- A Jewish male who has reached the age when he is legally responsible under Jewish religious law; equated with the attainment of puberty, which is assumed to have occurred by the age of 13 years and one day

Beit keneset/be kenishta

"House of assembly," the Hebrew and Aramaic terms for synagogue

Beit Ya'akov

A network of Orthodox schools for girls founded by Sara Schnirer in 1917

Berakhah

A blessing, a liturgical formula beginning "Blessed are you, God�"

Beri'ah

Hebrew: "creation" -- the second of the four planes of reality according to the Kabbalah; the realm of the highest angels

Berit milah

"The covenant of circumcision" the ritual circumcision performed on Jewish males, usually on the eighth day of their lives, or as part of a religious conversion procedure

Bi'ur

A commentary and German translation of the Bible (in Hebrew letters) by Moses Mendelssohn

Bimah

The elevated platform of a synagogue, used principally for the reading of th Torah

B'nei Akiva

The youth movement of the Mizrachi religious Zionist movement

Breaking of the Vessels

In the kabbalistic teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria, the myth that explains the origins of evil in the universe, caused when the vessels created by God to receive the divine light were unable to contain it and shattered, leaving a mixture of holy sparks and evil shards

Cairo Genizah

A repository for discarded documents in a synagogue in Fustat (Cairo), Eqypt that preserved hundreds of thousands of texts from the early medieval era, and is a key resource for the study of Jewish society, literature and religion

Canaan

The name for the land of Israel prior to its conquest by Joshua

Canaanites

The peoples who inhabited the land of Israel prior to its conquest by Israelites

Central Conference of American Rabbis

The association of rabbis affiliated with the American reform movement

Chair of Elijah

A chair that is customaily set aside for the biblical prophet Elijah at circumcision ceremonies

Children of darkness

Those who do not follow God's ways, according to the teachings of the Qumran documents

Children of light

Those who faithfully follow God's true law, according to the teachings of the Qumran documents

Columbus Platform

A policy statement issued by American Reform Judaism in 1937, expressing more traditional positions on certain issues

Committee on Law and Standards

The body of Conservative Judaism that makes policy decisions on mayor questions of Jewish religious law

Conservative movement

The American incarnation of Positive-Historical Judaism, espousing an approach that tries to accommodate modern values within the structures of traditional Jewish law

Conversos

Jews who converted to Christianity under compulsion during the time of the Spanish Inquisition

Council of Torah Sages

An assembly of rabbis who have supreme authority over decisions of the Agudat Israel movement

Covenant

In jewish belief, a mutual agreement that defines the relationship between God and the people of Israel. Hebrew: Berit

Daniel

A book included in the Ketuvim section of the Bible, purporting to tell the story of the eponymous hero, a Jew who lived during the Babylonian exile and was able to interpret apocalyptic visions of the future.

Day of Atonement

Annual holy day designate by the Torah for forgiveness and atonement of sins. It falls on the tenth day of the seventh month, Tishri, and is observed through fasting and prayer

Dead Sea scrolls

A library of ancient Jewish texts written during the Second Temple era discovered in caves near Khirbet Qumran in the Judean desert

Derash

Interpretations that follow the methods of rabbinic midrash

Devekut

"Cleaving" - the Hasidic ideal of maintaining uninterrupted consciousness of God, especially during prayer

Diaspora

The Jewish communitieis scattered outside the land of Israel

Divided Monarchy

In biblical history, the era during which Israel was divided into two states: the northern ten tribes of Israel, and the southern kindom of Judah

Doenmeh

A sect of adherents of Shabbetai Zevi, they accepted Islam while secretly maintaining their faith in Shabbetai Zevi's eventual reappearance

Eighteen Benedictions

The central prayer of the rabbinic liturgy, whose original structure consisted of a sequence of eighteen blessings (berakhot) of praise, petition and thanksgiving. The current version contains nineteen blessings

Ein-Sof

Hebrew: "The Infinite" - in the Kabbalah, the most exalted level of the godhead, entirely beyond the grasp of human understanding

Emancipation

The extending of citizenship and civil rights to Jews in modern societies

Enlightenment

The movement calling for adapting Jewish culture and religion so as to facilitate participation in modern society

Epicurean

In rabinic terminology, the most common designation for a heretic, presumably referring to the Greek philosopher Epicurus who denied God's active involvement with the created world

Erez Yisra'el

Hebrew: "the land of Israel" - the historic Jewish homeland

Erusin

Hebrew: "betrothal" - a formal stage in Jewish marriage process, in which the couple are legally bound to one another but do not yet live together

Essenes

A Second Temple Jewish movement that removed itself from Jerusalem and inhabited separate communities where they observed their distinctive standards of piety and purity. Most scholars identify them as the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran

Etrog

A citron; the "fruit of a goodly tree" that is included among the "four species" used in the rituals of the feast of Tabernacles

Exodus

The second book of the Torah, describing the enslavement of the Hebrews in Egypt, their miraculous liberation (exodum) by God, and the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai

Ez Hayyim

The kabbalistic compendium by Rabbi Hayyim Vital containing his version of the teachins of Rabbi Isaac Luria

Ezra-Nehemiah

A book in the Ketuvim section of the Hebrew Bible (now usually divided into two books) that describes the return of the Jews to Jerusalem following the Babylonian exile

Fifteenth of Shevat

A date in the winter used for measuring the ages of fruit trees for purposes of various agricultural regulations. Mainly among the kabbalists and Zionists it has taken on the status of a holiday celebrating the land of Israel and its producs

Four species

Plants that are carried in ritual processions on the feast of Tabernacles as commanded in the Torah. Rabbinic tradition identifies the species as: datepalm frond (lulav); citron (etrog); myrtle branches (hadas); willow branches (aravah)

Gaon (pl: Geonim)

From a Hebrew word meaning "pride"; the title given to the heads of talmudic academies, especially in Babylonia, after the talmudic era

Galilee

The northern district of the land of Israel. It became the center of Jewish religious and communal life in the second century CE following the decline of Judea

Garden of Eden

The paradise in which the first man and woman were placed until they were banished for their disobedience. In traditional Jewish thought, the term is used to designate the abode of the righteous in the afterlife. Hebrew: "Gan Eden"

Gehinnom

A notorious and cursed site of heathen child sacrafice in biblical times, it later became identified with the place where sinners suffer torments in the afterlife.

Genesis Rabbah

A work of aggadic midrash on the book of Genesis

Genizah

A repository for discarded sacred texts, which according to Jewish law may not be actively destroyed

German pietism Hasidut Ashkenaz

Hebrew: "Hasidut Ashkenaz"; an influential mystical and moralistic ideology that arose in the Rhineland in the 12th and 13th centuries

Get

A jewish bill of divorce

Gezerah shavah

A method of midrashic exegesis in which analogies are drawn based on the appearance of a similar expression in two biblical passages

Ghetto

A neighborhood in which Jews were forced to live. The term was probably taken from the restricted Jewish quarter of Venice, established in 1516, that was situated near a foundry (Ghetto)

Gilgul

Reincarnation or metempsychosis into a different body in the next life, according to the doctrines of the Kabbalah

Gog and Magog, war of:

A catastrophic war described in the book of Ezekiel in his vision of the end of days. This war became a standard component of Jewish eschatology

Golah or galut

Exile, the state of removal from the homeland as punishment for sins

Golden Age of Spanish Jewry

A blossoming of Jewish culture and religious creativity in Spain, especially during the 11th century

Good urge

In rabbinic homilies, the aspect of the human personality that tends towards virtue and obedience to God

Great Revolt

The failed uprising against Rome in 66-73 CE that culminated in the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70

Guide of the Perplexed

The philosophical masterpiece by Moses Maimonides in which he attempted to reconcile traditional Jewish beliefs with Aristotelian science and philosophy

Gush Emunim

Hebrew: "bloc of th faithful" - an Israeli religious and political movement that is concerned with maintaining Jewish settlement in territories acquiried in the 1967 Six-Day War

Hadas

Hebrew: "myrtle" - one of the "four species" carried in processions on the feast of Tabernacles

Haggadah

Hebrew: "telling" - the liturgy for the traditional Passover night meal (seder) in which the liberation of the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery is recounted. The reciting of the haggadah is seen as the fulfillment of the precept "And you shall tell your son on that day."

Hagiographa

Greek for "holy writings" - see "Ketuvim"

Halakhah

The component of the Jewish oral tradition that deals with matters of law

Hallah

A portion of dough that must be set aside and given to a priest according to Torah law. In colloquial usage, it has come to designate an ornamental loaf of bread eaten on the Sabbath or festivals

Hanukkah

The "feast of Dedication" commemorating the purification of the Jerusalem Temple after it had been used for pagan worship during Antiochus IV's persecutions. The holiday lasts eight days in the winter and is celebrated by lighting lamps every night

Haredi

Hebrew for "those who tremble" - a term used to describe the most conservative type of traditionalist Jews in terms of their dress, observance, devotion to full-time religious study and insulation from the modern world

Hasid

From a Hebrew word meaning "pious," the term has been applied to several Jewish pietistic ideologies through history, particularly to the movement established by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov in the 18th century that advocated a popular mystical devotion based on serving God in joy

Haskalah

The Hebrew name for the "Enlightenment"

Hasmoneans

The priestly family who led a successful revolt against the Hellenistic persecutions of Antiochus IV, and subsequently established themselves as the political and priestly leders of Judea

Havdalah

Hebrew for "separation" - a ceremony marking the conclusion of the Sabbath or festivals

Havurah

Hebrew for "fellowship" -- a name used for various Jewish communal groupings through history, including the Havurat Shalom, and American movement of small, non-institutional communities and prayer groups that were prominent in the 60s and 70s

Hebrew

The Semitic language in which most of the Jewish Bible is composed, as is most subsequent Jewish religious literature. A revived, modernized version of Hebrew is the spoken language in the state of Israel

Hebrew Bible

The sacred scriptures of the Jews, traditionally believed to have originated in divine revelation or inspiration. In old Jewish sources it is referred to as Miqra ("that which is read aloud"). According to the conventional classification, the Hebrew Bible is divided intor three sections: Torah, Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Hagiographa), comprising twenty-four books

Heder

Hebrew for "room" - used to designate the traditional European Jewish elementary schools that were often criticized for their primitive pedagogy

Heikhalot

Hebrew for "palaces"; a genre of Hebrew mystical literature involving the ascent through multiple levels of palaces that are guarded by angels.

About this deck

By: Stephanie Flores
Created: 2011-09-28
Size: 100 flashcards
Views: 4

About StudyBlue

“Simply amazing. The flash cards are smooth, there are many different types of studying tools, and there is a great search engine. I praise you on the awesomeness.”
Dennis