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Mincha
Mincha (, ; sometimes spelled Minchah, Minhah, Mincho or Minchuh) is the afternoon prayer service in Judaism. Etymology The name ''Mincha'', meaning "gift" or "offering", is derived from the meal offering that accompanied each sacrifice offered in the Temple (Beit HaMikdash). Origin The Hebrew noun ''minḥah'' () is used 211 times in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible, with the first uses referring to vegetable and animal offerings brought by Cain and Abel to God. Most other uses refer to a gift offering, made of grain, which could be offered at any time in the day. However, occasionally the Bible uses "mincha" to specifically refer to the afternoon Temple sacrifice. Rabbis in the Talmud debate whether the daily prayers have their origin in the behavior of the biblical Patriarchs, or in the Temple sacrifices. According to the first opinion, the Mincha prayer was originated by Isaac, who "went out to converse in the field", with God. According to the second opinion, the ...
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Amidah
The ''Amidah'' (, ''Tefilat HaAmidah'', 'The Standing Prayer'), also called the ''Shemoneh Esreh'' ( 'eighteen'), is the central prayer of Jewish liturgy. Observant Jews recite the ''Amidah'' during each of the three services prayed on weekdays: Morning (''Shacharit''), afternoon ('' Mincha''), and evening ('' Ma'ariv''). On Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh ("Beginning of the Month"), and Jewish festivals, a fourth ''Amidah'' ('' Mussaf'') is recited after the morning Torah reading. Once annually, a fifth ''Amidah'' ('' Ne'ilah'') is recited around sunset on Yom Kippur. Due to the importance of the ''Amidah'', in rabbinic literature, it is simply called "''hatefila''" (, "the prayer"). According to legend, the prayer was composed by the "Men of the Great Assembly" (''Anshei Knesset HaGedolah''; –332 BCE). However, the fact that the prayer contains, next to Biblical Hebrew, many mishnaic terms, leads to the conclusion that it was composed and compiled during the mishnaic period ...
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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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Maariv
''Maariv'' or ''Maʿariv'' (, ), also known as ''Arvit'', or ''Arbit'' (, ), is a Jewish prayer service held in the evening or at night. It consists primarily of the evening '' Shema'' and ''Amidah''. The service will often begin with two verses from Psalms, followed by the communal recitation of '' Barechu''. The three paragraphs of the ''Shema'' are then said, both preceded and followed by two blessings; sometimes, a fifth blessing is added at the end. The hazzan (cantor) then recites a half-''Kaddish''. Everyone says the ''Amidah'' quietly, and, unlike at the other services, the hazzan does not repeat it. The hazzan recites the full ''Kaddish'', '' Aleinu'' is recited, and the mourners' ''Kaddish'' ends the service; some groups recite another Psalm before or after ''Aleinu''. Other components occasionally added include the counting of the Omer (between Passover and Shavuot) and, in many communities, Psalm 27 (between the first of Elul and the end of Sukkot). ''Maariv'' i ...
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Avinu Malkeinu
Avinu Malkeinu (; "Our Father, Our King") is a Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ... prayer recited during Jewish services during the Ten Days of Repentance, from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur inclusive. Since the 17th century, most Eastern Ashkenazim, Ashkenazic communities recite it also on all Ta'anit, fast days; in the Sephardim, Sephardic and Western Ashkenazic tradition (as well as a very few Eastern Ashkenazic communities) it is recited only during the Ten Days of Repentance. Joseph H. Hertz (died 1946), chief rabbi of the British Empire, described it as "the oldest and most moving of all the litanies of the Jewish Year". It makes use of two sobriquets for God that appear separately in the Bible; "Our Father" (Isaiah 63:16) and "Our King" (Isaiah 33:2 ...
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Ashrei
Ashrei () is a prayer that is recited at least three times daily in Jewish prayers, twice during Shacharit (morning service) and once during Mincha (afternoon service). The prayer is composed primarily of Psalm 145 in its entirety, with Psalm 84:5 and Psalm 144:15 appended to the beginning and Psalm 115:18 to the end. The first two verses added both begin with the Hebrew word , which means 'happy is he who...', 'praiseworthy', or 'fortunate'. This gives the prayer its name. The Talmud does not refer to the psalm by the (current) title of Ashrei, but rather as the opening words, ''Tehillah l'David''. Times of recitation Ashrei is recited three times daily during the full course of Jewish prayers, in accordance with the Talmudic statement that one who recites Ashrei three times daily is guaranteed a place in the World to Come. Talmud Bavli, Tractate Berachot 4b:16 For this reason, not only is Ashrei recited these three times, but many of its verses occur throughout liturgy ...
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Fasting In Judaism
A ta'anit or taynis (Biblical Hebrew ''taʿaniṯ'' or צוֹם ''ṣom'') is a fast in Judaism in which one abstains from all food and drink, including water. Purposes A Jewish fast may have one or more purposes, including: * Atonement for sins: Fasting is not considered the primary means of acquiring atonement; rather, sincere regret for and rectification of wrongdoing is key. Nevertheless, fasting is conducive to atonement, for it tends to precipitate contrition. Therefore, the Bible requires fasting on Yom Kippur. Because, according to the Hebrew Bible, hardship and calamitous circumstances can occur as a result of sin, fasting is often undertaken by the community or by individuals to achieve atonement and avert catastrophe. Most of the Talmud's Tractate ''Ta'anit'' ("Fast ) is dedicated to the protocol involved in declaring and observing fast days. * Commemorative mourning: Most communal fast days that are set permanently in the Jewish calendar serve this purpose. These fa ...
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Yeshiva Lunchroom
A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish education, Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The studying is usually done through daily ''Shiur (Torah), shiurim'' (lectures or classes) as well as in study pairs called ''chavrusas'' (Aramaic language, Aramaic for 'friendship' or 'companionship'). ''Chavrusa''-style learning is one of the unique features of the yeshiva. In the United States and Israel, different levels of yeshiva education have different names. In the U.S., elementary-school students enroll in a ''cheder'', post-Bar and Bat Mitzvah, bar mitzvah-age students learn in a ''mesivta'', and undergraduate-level students learn in a ''beit midrash'' or ''yeshiva gedola'' (). In Israel, elementary-school students enroll in a Talmud Torah or ''cheder'', post-bar mitzvah-age students learn in a ''yeshiva ketana'' (), and ...
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Tzidkatcha
''Tzidkatcha'' (צדקתך, "Your righteousness") is a prayer consisting of group of three verses that is recited during the afternoon prayer on ''Shabbat''. It is said in memory of three righteous individuals who died on ''Shabbat'': Joseph, Moses and King David. It is recited at this prayer in particular because these individuals died in the afternoon. Prayer content and meaning The three verses are: Psalms 119:142, 71:19 and 36:7. They are recited in this order by the Ashkenazic rite and Italian rite, while Sephardi tradition, Nusach Sefard, Yemenite Jews, Nusach Romania, Nusach Provence and Nusach Catalonia recite them in the opposite order, as they appear in Psalms. The ''Bach'' asserts that Moses did not die in the afternoon of ''Shabbat'' but of Friday; however, he wasn't buried until ''Shabbat'' afternoon. Some say that the recital of this is to recall just judgement because it is immediately after ''Shabbat'' that sinners return to Gehinom. The recitation of t ...
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Tachanun
''Tachanun'' or ''Taḥanun'' ( "Supplication"), also called ''nefilat apayim'' ( "falling on the face"), is part of Judaism's morning (''Shacharit'') and afternoon (''Mincha'') prayer services; it follows the recitation of the ''Amidah'', the central part of the daily Jewish prayer services. It is also recited at the end of the '' Selichot'' service. It is omitted on Shabbat, Jewish holidays, and a list of other celebratory occasions (e.g., in the presence of a groom in the week following his marriage). Most traditions recite a longer prayer on Mondays and Thursdays. Format There is a short format of Tachanun and a long format. The long format is reserved for Monday and Thursday mornings, during which the Torah is read in the synagogue. The short format, recited on other weekday mornings and afternoons, consists of three (in some communities, two) short paragraphs. In Nusach Sefard—followed by most Hasidic Jews, who may or may not be Sephardic Jews—and most Sephardic rite ...
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Jewish Holidays
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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Relative Hour
Relative hour (Hebrew singular: / ; plural: / ), sometimes called halachic hour, temporal hour, seasonal hour and variable hour, is a term used in rabbinic Jewish law that assigns 12 hours to each day and 12 hours to each night, all throughout the year. A relative hour has no fixed length in absolute time, but changes with the length of daylight each day - depending on summer (when the days are long and the nights are short), and in winter (when the days are short and the nights are long). Even so, in all seasons a day is always divided into 12 hours, and a night is always divided into 12 hours, which invariably makes for a longer hour or a shorter hour. At Mediterranean latitude, one hour can be about 45 minutes at the winter solstice, and 75 minutes at summer solstice. All of the hours mentioned by the Sages in either the Mishnah or Talmud, or in other rabbinic writings, refer strictly to relative hours. Another feature of this ancient practice is that, unlike the standard ...
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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 ...
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