Library: Judaism by Credo Reference: General Information

Denominations

Hasidim (or Chassidim)
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Term used by the rabbis to describe those Jews who maintained the highest standard of religious observance and moral action.
Orthodox Judaism: Topic Page
Orthodox Judaism is distinguished by its attachment to the written Torah (the Jewish Bible or Tanakh) and the Oral Torah, a tradition explaining what the written Scriptures mean.
Reform Judaism: Topic Page
Liberal Jewish movement. Reform communities vary, but tend to question the authority of the Talmud (Jewish laws).
Conservative Judaism
From The New Encyclopedia of Judaism
Religious movement of the post-Emancipation era which developed from the position adopted by the “positive-historical” school of Zacharias Frankel, head of the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau (1854–75).

Geographic Divisions

Ashkenazim
Form The New Encyclopedia of Judaism
Jews tracing their descent from ancestors who settled throughout northwestern Europe in the early Middle Ages.
Sephardim: Topic Page
One of the two major geographic divisions of the Jewish people, consisting of those Jews whose forebears in the Middle Ages resided in the Iberian Peninsula.
Falashas: Topic Page
Jews of Ethiopia who refer to themselves as Beta Israel (House of Israel). Long isolated from mainstream Judaism, they practice a form of the religion based on the Jewish Scriptures and certain apocryphal books; they also adhere to certain traditions that correspond to some of those found in the Midrash and Talmud.

Ancient Sects

Essenes: Topic Page
Members of a small Jewish religious order, originating in the 2d cent. B.C.
Pharisees
From The New Encyclopedia of Judaism
The spiritual leaders of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel during the greater part of the Second Temple period.
Sadducees
From The New Encyclopedia of Judaism
A political and religious grouping in Erets Israel during the latter half of the Second Temple period (from the second century BCE to the first century CE).

Observances & Holidays

Bar and Bat mitzvah
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
One of the purposes of Jewish education is learning to perform the mitzvot (commandments). This means following the commandments, duties, and obligations required by the Jewish tradition.
Hanukkah: Topic Page
Hanukkah commemorates the successful rebellion of the Jews against the Syrians in the Maccabean War of 162 B.C.E., but the military associations of this festival are played down.
Passover: Topic Page
An annual Jewish festival held 15-22 Nisan (in March or April), commemorating the deliverance of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt.
Rosh Hashanah: Topic Page
the Jewish festival of New Year, celebrated on the first and sometimes second of the month Tishri, which falls in September or October, at which, during the New Year’s service, a ram’s horn is blown as a call to repentance and spiritual renewal.
Sabbath: Topic Page
The seventh day of the week, commanded by God in the Old Testament as a sacred day of rest after his creation of the world; in Judaism, from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday; in Christianity, Sunday (or, in some sects, Saturday). Keeping the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments.
Seder: Topic Page
Ceremonial meal that begins the Jewish festival of Pesach (Passover), which celebrates the Exodus.
Shavuot
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
In Judaism, a festival celebrated on the 50th day after Pesach (Passover) in commemoration of the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, and the end of the grain harvest.
Simhat Torah
From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
This Jewish holiday, which follows Sukkot, celebrates the annual completion of the public reading of the Torah, or the first five books of the Bible, and the beginning of a new reading cycle.
Sukkot: Topic Page
The Festival of Sukkot, or Booths, is a 7-day holiday period that begins on the 15th day of the month of Tishri, only 5 days after the conclusion of the 10 Days of Awe that begin with Rosh Hashanah and culminate with Yom Kippur.
Yom Kippur: Topic Page
Jewish high holy day, or ‘day of awe’, held on the tenth day of Tishri (September-October), the first month of the Jewish year. It is a day of fasting, penitence, and cleansing from sin, ending the ten days of penitence that follow Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

Sacred Literature

Dead Sea Scrolls: Topic Page
Ancient leather and papyrus scrolls first discovered in 1947 in caves on the NW shore of the Dead Sea.
Deuteronomy: Topic Page
Book of the Bible, literally meaning "second law," last of the five books (the Pentateuch or Torah) ascribed by tradition to Moses. Deuteronomy purports to be the final words of Moses to the people of Israel on the eve of their crossing the Jordan to take possession of Canaan.
Isaiah: Topic Page
Prophetic book of the Bible. It is a collection of prophecies from a 300-year period attributed to Isaiah, who may have been a priest.
Old Testament: Topic Page
Christian name for the Hebrew Bible, which serves as the first division of the Christian Bible (see New Testament).
Pentateuch
From The New Encyclopedia of Judaism
The first five books of the Bible, known in Hebrew as the ḥumash (from the root ḥ-m-sh, meaning “five”) or the Torah. It would appear that the division into these five books had already been made long before the destruction of the Second Temple.
Sefer Torah: Topic Page
In Judaism, elaborately decorated and dressed Torah scroll housed in the ark in every synagogue. The scrolls are handwritten in Hebrew on vellum (calf, lamb, or kid skin) by a scribe who has trained for seven years.
Torah: Topic Page
In Judaism, the first five books of the Tenakh, or Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament).

The Oral Law

Aggadah
From The New Encyclopedia of Judaism
The non-legal elements in classical rabbinic writings. Rabbinic literature is divided into two main parts, called Halakah and Aggadah. The former includes all the legal discussion and decisions; the latter comprises the rest.
Halakhah
From The New Encyclopedia of Judaism
The branch of rabbinic literature which deals with the religious obligations of members of the Jewish faith, both in their interpersonal relationships and in their ritual performances.
Midrash
From The New Encyclopedia of Judaism
Rabbinic commentary on the Bible, clarifying legal points or deriving lessons by literary devices: stories, parables, legends. The word Midrash is also applied to the vast literature to which this gave rise. It derives from a Hebrew root meaning “to inquire, study, investigate,” and (by extension) “to preach.”
Mishna: Topic Page
In Judaism, codified collection of Oral Law—legal interpretations of portions of the biblical books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy and other legal material. Together with the Gemara, or Amoraic commentary on the Mishna, it comprises the Talmud.
Rabbinic Literature
From Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions
The term “rabbinic literature,” also known as the “literature of the sages (of blessed memory)” (sifrut ḥazal), designates a corpus of texts, or rather, corpora of texts, redacted in the first centuries of the common era, containing records of traditions transmitted both orally and in written form by a diverse group of learned men.
Talmud: Topic Page
In Judaism, vast compilation of the Oral Law with rabbinical elucidations, elaborations, and commentaries, in contradistinction to the Scriptures or Written Laws. The Talmud is the accepted authority for Orthodox Jews everywhere.

Jewish Mysticism

Gematria
From The New Encyclopedia of Judaism
A device to reveal a deeper, alternative, or hidden meaning in words or phrases. Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet possesses a numerical value, as does any word if one adds up the value of its letters.
Kabbalah: Topic Page
A Jewish mystical tradition based on an esoteric interpretation of the Old Testament and other texts, or a system which incorporates kabbalistic principles; any secret, occult or mystical doctrine.
Lamed Vav Tsaddikim
From The New Encyclopedia of Judaism
The “36 righteous individuals” who are to be found in each generation according to the Babylonian Talmud, upon whom the Shekinah (Divine Presence) rests, and whose very existence in the world prevents its destruction.
Moses de Leon (c. 1240–1305)
From The New Encyclopedia of Judaism
Principal author of the Zohar and one of the greatest Jewish mystics.
Sefirot or Sephiroth
From The New Encyclopedia of Judaism
Kabbalistic term denoting the ten emanations through which the Godhead manifests itself.
Tree of Life
From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
In the kabbalah, a symbolic structure which links the ten sephiroth and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
Zohar
From The New Encyclopedia of Judaism
The major work of Jewish mysticism; the most influential work of the Kabbalah. The Zohar was written in Castile in the last third of the 13th century and is first quoted in Kabbalistic works after 1291.