Halakhah
The legal component of the Jewish oral tradition. Literally: "walking" (i.e., the way in which one must go).
Midrash
The segment of the rabbinic oral tradition that interprets or expounds the Bible. Literally: "searching out." The term "midrash" can be used to designate the interpretations of Biblical texts, sermons based on readings from the Bible, or compilations of traditions that follow the order of a Biblical text.
Shema'
Hebrew for "hear," the opening words of Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear O Israel, thy Lord our God is one Lord." According to Jewish tradition, three passages from the Torah must be recited each day in the morning and evening. These are:
  1. Deuteronomy 6:4-9
  2. Deuteronomy 11:13-21
  3. Numbers 15:37-41.
Together, and surrounded by a framework of blessings, they make up the Shema'.
Tanna (plural: Tanna'im)
From the Aramaic word meaning "reciter" or "repeater," Tanna is the term used to designate the Jewish sages whose teachings are recorded up the Mishnah and its contemporary works, from the middle of the 1st century until about 220 C.E..
The word was probably originally applied to the individuals who were responsible for memorizing and reciting the oral traditions in the academies of later generations, and was subsequently extended to the teachers who were actually being quoted.
A Reconstruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem
The Second Temple
The Holy Temple
From Biblical times, the centre of Jewish worship was in the Temple of Jerusalem, the only place in which the sacrificial cult was allowed to be conducted, administered by the hereditary priesthood. Strict rules of purity and defilement restricted access to the Temple, adding to its sanctity.
The first Temple, erected by King Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar. The second Temple was constructed by the returning Jewish exiles under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, and later renovated by King Herod. It was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E., putting an end to sacrificial worship among the Jews.
Decalogue
From the Greek for "ten words /declarations"--identical to the "Ten Commandments," referring to the contents of the public revelation at Mount Sinai described in the Bible (Exodus 20:1-14).
Amora (plural: Amora'im)
The term used to designate the rabbis of the fourth to the fifth centuries whose views are cited in the Talmud. The word means "speaker" and originally referred to the officials in the academies whose job was to speak aloud the words of the rabbi before the public, but it came to denote the rabbis themselves.
Terumah
A segment of all produce must be set aside for the Priests (Kohanim ). This is often translated into English as "heave-offering" (the Hebrew word comes from a root meaning to lift up). Though the proportion of the produce required is not defined in the Torah, the Rabbis declared that one fiftieth is a proper amount for an average man. The priest may eat of the terumah only when he is in a state of ritual purity. If he was made impure, he can in most cases, purify himself in the following manner:
(Leviticus 22:6-8) "...The soul that touches any such [see verse 5 above] shall be unclean until the evening, and shall not eat of the holy things, unless he bathe his flesh in water. And when the sun is down, he shall be clean, and afterwards he may eat of the holy things because it is his bread..."
Baraita
From the Aramaic "external": An external mishnah, as distinct from "our Mishnah, the authoritative collection by Rabbi Judah the Prince. The term thus refers to any Tannaitic teaching that was not included in the Mishnah.
Many collections of baraitas exist, such as the Tosefta or various midrashic works on the Torah. Many others are cited individually in the Talmud.
Ga'on (plural: Ge'onim)
The name given to the heads of the chief Talmudic academies during the Islamic era (8th-13th centuries), especially in Babylonia. The title, which translates literally as "pride," may derive from the name of the "Ge'on Ya'aqov" (Pride of Jacob) academy. Although we now know that the heads of the Jerusalem academy during this period were also designated "Ge'onim," the term is normally used to refer to the Babylonian institution.

Under the patronage of the powerful Sunni Muslim Caliphs centered in Baghdad, the heads of the ancient Babylonian academies of Sura and Pumbedita (whose institutions were now relocated to Baghdad) were able to impose the authority of the Babylonian Talmud over most Jewish communities on both sides of the Mediterranean. Several of the Ge'onim were prolific authors of compendia on Jewish law, and all were active in composing responsa, interpreting Jewish questions of religious law to the far-flung Jewish communities.

Eighteen Benedictions (or: Tefillah)
The basic text of prayer that is recited several times each day. In most cases, the times for the recitation of the Eighteen Benedictions were determined so as to coincide with the mandatory public sacrifices that were offered in the Temple. The current version in fact contains nineteen benedictions, because in the Babylonian rite one of the original blessings has been split into two.
In the Jewish liturgy, a benediction or blessing (Hebrew: Berakhah) is a formula containing the phrase "blessed are you, God [king of the universe]..." The weekday Tefillah consists of three series of benedictions:
  1. The first three, praising God
  2. The middle twelve (or thirteen), consisting of petitions (mostly on behalf of the entire people)
  3. The last three, of thanks to God
. On Sabbaths and festivals, which are supposed to be permeated by feelingd of well-being and fullness, the petitions are omitted, and in stead there are special blessings dealing with the themes of the holy days.
Synagogue
The Greek "synagogé" means a "place of assembly," equivaent to its Hebrew counterpart "beit keneset." The institution apparently originated to satisfy the communal and needs of Jewish communities that could not worship at the Jerusalem Temple. Earliest references describe it primarily as a place for the reading and exposition of the Bible, and for general public meetings. Later it became the principal centre for congregational prayer.
The World to Come
The use of this term in Rabbinic literature is not always consistent. It probably refers to the redeemed world after the coming of the Messiah when, according to traditional Jewish belief, the righteous of previous generations will be restored to their physical bodies and enjoy the rewards for their virtuous lives. Some sources seem to understand the "World to Come" as a spiritual afterlife to which the disembodied soul is admitted after death.
Minhah
Literally: "gift" or "offering"; a term originally denoting a meal-offering, it came to refer to the daily afternoon prayer.
Pelag Ha-Minhah
The mid-point between the recommended time for the recitation of the afternoon service and sunset: approximately an hour and a quarter before sunset.
Ashkenaz (adjective: Ashkenazic)
The Hebrew name applied in medieval times to Germany. The word appears in the Bible as the name of an unidentified (apparently west-Asian) people, but was used with reference to Germany, probably because of its Germanic sound. It came to denote the Jewish communities of Germany and France, and their later offshoots in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. In addition to their specifically religious traditions in Jewish law and liturgical custom, etc., Ashkenazic Jews were distinguished by their use of the Yiddish language, a dialect of German with many Hebrew and Slavic elements that continued to be spoken in Poland and Russia.
Sepharad (adjective: Sepharadic)
The Hebrew name applied to Spain, based on a Biblical usage. In a more general sense, the term is employed to denote all of the Jewish civilization that developed in Arabic-speaking Islamic countries, particularly in North Africa. Following the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal, Sepharadic communities arose in many centres, including Morocco, Turkey, Israel, Italy and Holland. Many Sepharadic Jews preserved their distinctive language, Ladino (or Judeismo), a Jewish dialect of Castilian Spanish.
Aggadah [or: Haggadah; adjective: aggadic]
From a word meaning "to tell," Aggadah denotes all those areas of rabbinic literature that do not deal with the technicalities of religious law; it is thus the opposite of "halakhah."
Though most Aggadah originated in homiletical expositions of the Bible used in synagogue sermons, the category includes many variegated genres; such as anecdotes about rabbis; ethical maxims; biblical exegesis; magical and medical recipes; and more.
Kiddush
Meaning "sanctification," this refers to a ceremony, usually performed before the evening meal [in Judaism, the new day commences at sundown] over a cup of wine, which ceremonially ushers in the Sabbath or a festival.
Havdalah
Meaning "separation," the term refers to the ritual by which the Sabbath or a festival is officially concluded, whether through a declaration inserted in the evening prayer or in a more elaborate ceremony recited over wine (and, on some occasions, over spices and a flame).
Hiddushim [Novellae]
A popular genre of rabbinic literature consisting of critical analysis of specific passages in the Talmud, usually inspired by a difficulty or inconsistency in the text, and leading through a dialectical process to a new interpretation of the Talmudic passage (hence the name "hiddush" from the Hebrew word meaning "new").

Tamid ('continual burnt offering")
According to the Torah (Numbers 28:3-4):
This is the offering made by fire which you shall bring unto the Lord: he-lambs of the first year without blemish, two day by day, for a continual burnt-offering.
The one lamb shalt thou offer in the morning, and the other lamb shalt thou offer at dusk.
The offering of the two lambs was a communal obligation, financed out of a fund to which all Jews would contribute equally. The mandatory prayer services were scheduled so as to coincide with the times when the Tamid was offered, in the morning and at dusk (afternoon).

Vatikin (the pious, conscientious)
The term is employed in the Talmud to indicate a group of people who were scrupulous in reciting their morning Tefillah immediately after the Shema', thereby fulfilling the ideal of "joining redemption" (the theme of the last blessing after the Shema') with prayer (=tefillah). In earlier days this required some manipulation of the normal work schedule, since the earliest permitted time for reciting the Shema' is at dawn, whereas the Tefillah should not be recited until after sunrise, which is somewhat later. In order to juxtapose the two, the Vatikin had to delay their Shema', a practice that was then regarded as remarkable.

Although in their original context, the Vatikin were distinguished by the lateness of their prayers, later generations used them as proverbial examples of rising early in the morning. This seems to reflects their distance from the realities of ancient Israeli agricultural life, when the workday had to commence before dawn, before it became to hot to work outside.

Kehillah Kedishah [holy congregation]
This term is used to designate Jewish communities and congregations. It comes into common use during the early middle ages, apparently in Israel, and becomes a common way of referring ceremoniously to a community, and of indicating their religious foundations.

Covenant [Hebrew: B'rit]
A central component of Jewish belief is that human beings have entered into mutual agreements with God. Whereas humanity in general is subject to an original covenant that is identified with the obligation to observe the "seven commandments of the children of Noah" (a formulation of fundamental religious and moral requirements), the people of Israel see themselves as participants in a special covenant with God, that originated with the patriarch Abraham. Abraham was promised by God that his descendants would be enslaved in a strange land, and after their liberation they would inherit their homeland. As their obligation under the covenant, the people, assembled at Mount Sinai, were given an extensive system of laws and commandments (the Torah) whose observance would express their upholding of their side of the covenant. The covenant was ratified upon their entry into the Land of Israel with a solemn ceremony at which the people stood between Mount Eyval and Mount Gerizim and accepted upon themselves both the blessings that will come in reward for obeying the law, and the curses that would befall them as punishment for disobedience. The covenant was again confirmed by the returning exiles from Babylonia in the time of Ezra.

Second Temple Era
Beginning in the latter part of the sixth century B.C.E., this important era in Jewish history commences with the return of the exiled Judeans from their captivity in Babylonia, the construction of a new Temple to replace the one that had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and successive eras of Persian, Greek and Roman rule. A brief period of political independence followed the Maccabean uprising against the Greeks in the early second century B.C.E.. The latter part of the era was marked by religious sectarianism. The era came to a close when a failed revolt against the Romans led to a military defeat and the destruction of the Temple in the year 70 C.E.

Poor man
In Talmudic society,the difference between the "householder" and the "poor" usually had to do with whether or not a person possessed their own land. The "poor" would seek out temporary agricultural work, which they could not always be sure of finding.

Priest [Hebrew: Kohen (plural: Kohanim)]
According to the Torah, a hereditary priesthood descended from Aaron (Moses' older brother) has the exclusive responsibility for officiating at the worship in the Temple, mostly through the offering of sacrifices on the altar. Only priests who were in a state of purity were allowed into the Temple. In order to allow them to serve full-time at their sacred tasks, the Torah requires that non-priests set aside specified portions of their produce to be given to the priests. These priestly gifts must be consumed under strict standards of purity. While the Temple stood and the rules of purity were in force, it was customary for the priests to purify themselves by immersion prior to sundown in order to make sure that they were suitably purifed before partaking of their sacred foods.

A Set of Tefillin
Tefillin [often rendered incorrecly as "phylacteries" from the Greek word for a protective amulet]
A Leather Tefillin Case from Qumran
The "tefillin" (from the plural of the Hebrew word for "prayer") consist of two small cubic leather boxes that contain pieces of parchment upon which are inscribed four passages from the Torah that refer to binding God's words as a "frontlet" between one's eyes and as a sign upon one's arms. The tefillin are in fact strapped upon the forehead and on the arm, in literal fulfilment of the respective Biblical commands.

In ancient times, Jews would wear the tefillin throughout the day. Now they are usually worn only during the morning weekday prayers.

Mezuzah
A small rolled parchment affixed to the doorposts in Jewish houses containing the texts of the first two paragraphs of the Shema', in literal fulfilment of the Torah's command that one should inscribe God's words upon the doorposts of one's house.

The Sabbath [Hebrew: Shabbat]
The Torah commands that Jews should refrain from creative work on the seventh day (Saturday) in recognition that God ceased from the work of creation on the seventh day. The Sabbath is also a remembrance of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, in that a mandatory weekly day of rest is the antithesis of enslavenent.
Rabbinic law carefully defined the nature of prohibited work in terms of thirty-nine basic types of activity delineated in the Mishnah. Jews reckon days as beginning at sundown. Hence the Sabbath actually begins on Friday evening and concludes on Saturday night. The Sabbath is extended at its beginning and end, both in order to add to its sanctity and to create a margin of error (since violation of the Sabbath restrictions carries grave penalties).
The incoming of the Sabbath is marked ritually by the "Kiddush" ceremony, and its conclusion by the "Havdalah."