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Nusach Ashkenaz
Nusach Ashkenaz is a style of Jewish liturgy conducted by Ashkenazi Jews. It is primarily a way to order and include prayers, and differs from Nusach Sefard (as used by the Hasidim) and Baladi-rite prayer, and still more from the Sephardic rite proper, in the placement and presence of certain prayers. Subdivisions Nusach Ashkenaz may be subdivided into the German or Western branch - '' Minhag Ashkenaz'' - used in Western and Central Europe, and the Polish/Lithuanian or Eastern branch - '' Minhag Polin'' - used in Central and Eastern Europe, the United States and by some Israeli Ashkenazim, particularly those who identify as Litvaks ("Lithuanian"). In strictness, the term ''Minhag Ashkenaz'' (the Western Ashkenazic rite) applied only to the usages of southern German Jews (in recent centuries defined very roughly as those south and west of the Elbe), most notably the community of Frankfurt am Main.Daniel Goldschimdt, Rosh Hashanah Machzorpage 14 of introduction In the Middle Ag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jewish Liturgy
Jewish prayer (, ; plural ; , plural ; Yinglish: davening from Yiddish 'pray') is the prayer recitation that forms part of the observance of Rabbinic Judaism. These prayers, often with instructions and commentary, are found in the ''Siddur'', the traditional Jewish prayer book. Prayer, as a "service of the heart," is in principle a Torah-based commandment. It is mandatory for Jewish women and men. However, the rabbinic requirement to recite a specific prayer text does differentiate between men and women: Jewish men are obligated to recite three prayers each day within specific time ranges (''zmanim''), while, according to many approaches, women are only required to pray once or twice a day, and may not be required to recite a specific text. Traditionally, three prayer services are recited daily: * Morning prayer: ''Shacharit'' or ''Shaharit'' (, "of the dawn") * Afternoon prayer: ''Mincha'' or ''Minha'' (), named for the flour offering that accompanied sacrifices a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hashkafa
''Hashkafa'' (; plural ''hashkafot'', ''hashkafos'', ''hashkafas'') is the Hebrew term for worldview and guiding philosophy, used almost exclusively within Orthodox Judaism. A ''hashkafa'' is a perspective that Orthodox Jews adopt that defines many aspects of their lives. ''Hashkafa'' thus plays a crucial role in how these interact with the world around them, and influences individual beliefs about secularity, gender roles, and modernity. In that it guides many practical decisions—where to send children to school, what synagogue to attend, and what community to live in—''hashkafa'' works in conjunction with ''halakha'' or Jewish law. ''Hashkafot'' Although there are numerous ''hashkafas'' within Orthodox Judaism—allegorically there are "seventy faces to Torah" (''shivim panim la-Torah'')—they may be grouped broadly as Haredi, Hasidic and Modern Orthodox / Religious Zionist, with different approaches and emphases concerning specific topics. Other ''hashkafas'' inclu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minor Tractate
The minor tractates (, ''masechtot qetanot'') are essays from the Talmudic period or later dealing with topics about which no formal tractate exists in the Mishnah. They may thus be contrasted to the Tosefta, whose tractates parallel those of the Mishnah. Each minor tractate contains all the important material bearing on a single subject. While they are mishnaic in form and are called "tractates," the topics discussed in them are arranged more systematically than in the Mishnah; for they are eminently practical in purpose, being, in a certain sense, the first manuals in which the data scattered through prolix sources have been collected in a brief and comprehensive form. There are about 15 minor tractates. The first eight or so contain much original material; the last seven or so are collections of material scattered throughout the Talmud. Ancient authorities mention especially seven such tractates, which are doubtless the earliest ones. Their name and form suggests that they orig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amram Gaon
Amram bar Sheshna or Amram Gaon ( or ; died 875) was a gaon or head of the Academy of Sura in Lower Mesopotamia in the ninth century. He authored many responsa, but his chief work was liturgical. He was the first to arrange a complete liturgy for the synagogue. His siddur (''Siddur Rav Amram'' or ''Seder Rav Amram''), which took the form of a long responsum to the Jews of al-Andalus, is still extant and was an important influence on most of the current rites in use among Rabbinic Jews. Biography Amram ben Sheshna was a pupil of Natronai ben Hilai, Gaon of Sura, and was exceptionally honored with the title of Gaon within the lifetime of his teacher. Eventually, he broke away from his teacher and started his own seat of learning. Upon Natronai's death, about 857, the full title and dignities of the ''geonate'' were conferred upon Amram, a title which he held for 18 years, until his death. Responsa He is the author of about 120 responsa, most of which were published in Sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geonim
''Geonim'' (; ; also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated Gaonim, singular Gaon) were the presidents of the two great Talmudic Academies in Babylonia, Babylonian Talmudic Academies of Sura Academy , Sura and Pumbedita Academy , Pumbedita, in the Abbasid Caliphate. They were generally accepted as the spiritual leaders of the Jewish community worldwide in the early medieval era, in contrast to the ''Resh Galuta'' (exilarch) who wielded secular authority over the Jews in Islamic lands. ''Geonim'' is the plural of (''Ga'on'') , which means "pride" or "splendor" in Biblical Hebrew and since the 19th century "genius" as in modern Hebrew language, Hebrew. As a title of a Babylonian college president it meant something like "His Excellency". The ''Geonim'' played a prominent and decisive role in the transmission and teaching of Torah and Halakha, Jewish law. They taught Talmud and decided on issues on which no ruling had been rendered during the period of the Talmud. Era The per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Land Of Israel
The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definitions of the limits of this territory vary between passages in the Hebrew Bible, with specific mentions in , , and . Nine times elsewhere in the Bible, the settled land is referred as " from Dan to Beersheba", and three times it is referred as "from the entrance of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt" (, and ). These biblical limits for the land differ from the borders of established historical Israelite and later Jewish kingdoms, including the United Kingdom of Israel, the two kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah, the Hasmonean kingdom, and the Herodian kingdom. At their heights, these realms ruled lands with similar but not identical boundaries. Jewish religious belief defines the land as where Jewish religious law prevailed and ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish And Portuguese Jews
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the few centuries following the forced expulsion of unconverted Jews Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, from Spain in 1492 and Expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Portugal, from Portugal in 1497. They should therefore be distinguished both from the descendants of those expelled in 1492 and from the present-day Jews, Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal. The main present-day communities of Spanish and Portuguese Jews exist in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, and several other Jewish communities in the Americas have Spanish and Portuguese Jewish roots though they no longer follow the distinctive customs of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. Historical background Although the 1492 and 1497 expulsions of unconvert ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moses Gaster
Moses Gaster (17 September 1856 – 5 March 1939) was a Romanian, later British scholar, the ''Hakham'' of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation, London, and a Hebrew and Romanian linguist. Moses Gaster was an active Zionist in Romania as well as in England, where in 1899 he helped establish the English Zionist Federation. Biography Life in Romania Gaster was born in Bucharest into a renowned Jewish Austrian family which had settled in Wallachia at the beginning of the 19th century. He was the eldest son of Chevalier Abraham Emanuel Gaster, who was the consul of the Netherlands in Bucharest and the grandson of Asriel Gaster, a prosperous merchant and community leader. His mother, Pnina Judith Rubinstein, came from a rabbinical dynasty which included Rabbi Levi Isaac ben Meir. After having taken a degree in his native city (1874), he proceeded to Leipzig, where he received the degree of PhD in 1878 and then to the Jewish Seminary in Breslau, where he gained th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hakham
''Hakham'' (or ''Chakam(i), Haham(i), Hacham(i), Hach''; ) is a term in Judaism meaning a wise or skillful man; it often refers to someone who is a great Torah scholar. It can also refer to any cultured and learned person: "He who says a wise thing is called a ''Hakham'', even if he be not a Jew." Hence, in Talmudic-Midrashic literature, wise gentiles are commonly called ' ("wise men of the nations of the world"). In Sephardic usage, ''hakham'' is a synonym for " rabbi". In ancient times ''Hakham'' as an official title is found as early as the first Sanhedrin, after the reconstruction of that body, when the Hadrianic religious persecutions had ceased. In addition to the Simeon ben Gamliel, two other scholars stood at the head of the Sanhedrin, namely Nathan the Babylonian as '' Av Beit Din'' and Rabbi Meir as ''hakham''. Another hakham mentioned by name was Simon, the son of Judah ha-Nasi, who after the death of his father officiated as ''hakham'', with his elder brother ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eretz Israel Minhag
The Eretz Israel minhag, (, translit: ''Nusach Eretz Yisrael'' translation: "Rite or Prayer Service of The Land of Israel") as opposed to the Babylonian minhag, refers to the minhag (rite and ritual) of medieval Palestinian Jews concerning the siddur (traditional order and form of the prayers). A complete collection has not been preserved from antiquity, but several passages of it are scattered in both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, in the Midrashim, in the Pesiktot, in minor tractate Soferim, and in some responsa of the Palestinian Gaonate. Some excerpts have been preserved in the Siddur of Saadia Gaon and the Cairo Geniza yielded some important texts, such as the Amidah. One fragment of a Palestinian siddur discovered in the genizah was written in Hebrew with various introductions and explanations in Judeo-Arabic dialects. The Geniza fragments mostly date from the 12th century, and reflect the usages of the Palestinian-rite synagogue in Cairo, which was founded by ref ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leopold Zunz
Leopold Zunz (—''Yom Tov Tzuntz'', —''Lipmann Zunz''; 10 August 1794 – 17 March 1886) was the founder of academic Judaic Studies ('' Wissenschaft des Judentums''), the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual. Nahum Glatzer, Pelger Grego"Zunz, Leopold" ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' (2nd ed., 2007) Zunz's historical investigations and contemporary writings had an important influence on contemporary Judaism. Biography Leopold Zunz was born at Detmold, the son of Talmud scholar Immanuel Menachem Zunz (1759–1802) and Hendel Behrens (1773–1809), the daughter of Dov Beer, an assistant cantor of the Detmold community. The year following his birth his family moved to Hamburg, where, as a young boy, he began learning Hebrew grammar, the Pentateuch, and the Talmud. His father, who was his first teacher, died in July 1802, when Zunz was not quite eight years old.Kaufmann, David (1900).Zunz, Leopold" In: ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie''. Vol. 45, p. 490- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
