GLOSSARY
’Arvit—Evening prayers.
Ba’al brit (f. ba’alat brit, pl. ba’alei brit, ba’alot brit)—Figure chosen by parents to hold
infant at circumcision ceremony.
Challah—Bread, the “obligation of challah” requires that the baker break off a piece
of dough and burn it.
Cohen—Person of priestly (Aaronic) descent.
Get—Divorce writ.
Halakhah—Legal practices and observances of Judaism.
H·azan—Cantor.
Isha H·akhama—Lit. wise woman, midwife.
Kahal—Congregation.
Ketubbah—Marriage agreement that protects woman’s monetary rights.
Kiddush haShem—Sanctifying the name of God.
Kindbett (Kindbetterin)/Mah·zor—Book of ritual prayers.
Meyaledet—Midwife.
Mikve—Ritual bath.
Mila—Circumcision.
Minh·a—Afternoon prayers.
Miz·vot H·annah—Three precepts that are considered women’s commandments—
challah, niddah, and lighting Sabbath candles.
Mohel (pl.mohalim, mohalot)—Circumciser.
Niddah—Impurity of menstruation.
Onah—Conjugal obligations of a husband toward his wife.
Piyut (pl. piyutim)—Liturgicpoem.
Rosh haShana—New Year.
Sandek—Synonym of ba’al brit.
Sefer H·asidim—Book of moral advice and instruction written primarily by R. Judah
the Pious in early thirteenth-century Germany.
Sefer Miz·vot (pl.Sifrei Miz·vot)—Halakhic books of a popular genre in the thirteenth
century that enumerate each commandment.
Shah·arit—Morning prayers.
Shekhina—Presence of God in the world, term often used in mystical texts.
Shema—Prayer said twice a day, one of the first prayers children were taught.
Shushvin (pl. shushvinim)—Two shushvinim were chosen, one by the groom’s side
and one by the bride’s side to represent each family before and during the wedding.
Streya—Witches.
Takkanah (pl.takkanot)—Regulations governing the internal life of communities.
Tefillin—Phylacteries.
Tekhine—Prayer.
Wimpel—A cloth diaper taken from the circumcision ceremony and made into a Torah
binder.
Z·iz·it—Ritual garment with fringes.