glossary xix
masorah [H] Lit. ‘tradition’. Notes and signs in texts of the Hebrew
Bible indicating variants, pronunciation and cantillation.
Masorti [H] Lit. ‘traditional’. Name sometimes ascribed to Conserv-
ative Judaism.
matsah (pl. matsot) [H] Unleavened bread eaten on Pesach.
Mekilta [A] Commentary on the book of Exodus.
menorah (pl. menorot) [H] Seven- branched candelabrum.
midrash (pl. midrashim) [H] Exegesis of scripture.
mikveh (pl. mikvaot) [H]. Lit. ‘gathering’. A ritual bath.
min (pl. minim) [H] Lit. ‘kind’ or ‘species’. Heretic.
Mishnah [H] Collection of rabbinic legal opinions collated in the
early third century ce.
mitnagdim [H] Lit. ‘opponents’. Opponents of Hasidism in the eight-
eenth and nineteenth centuries.
mitzvah (pl. mitzvot) [H] Lit. ‘command’. A duty understood to be
religiously required.
Musar [H] Lit. ‘ethics’. Ethical renewal movement which started in
eastern Europe in the nineteenth century.
nasi [H] Lit. ‘prince’. Title given to figures in authority, in particular
the Jewish patriarch in Palestine in the third and fourth centuries ce.
omer [H] Lit. ‘sheaf’. 1. A sheaf of wheat waved by the priest in the temple;
- the period of counting the days between Pesach and Shavuot.
perushim [H] Lit. ‘separatists’. Term used in rabbinic texts to refer to
Pharisees.
Pesach Passover [H] 1. Spring festival which commemorates the exo-
dus of Israel from Egypt; 2. the lamb sacrificed on the eve of the
festival in Temple times.
pilpul [H] Casuistic argumentation in the study of the Talmud.
piyyut (pl. piyyutim) [H] Poem used in synagogue liturgy.
Purim [H] Early spring festival celebrating the salvation of Persian
Jews as described in the biblical book of Esther.
Rosh haShanah [H] The New Year festival.
Seder [H] Lit. ‘order’. Liturgy and banquet on the first evening of
Pesach, commemorating the exodus of Israel from Egypt.
sefira (pl. sefirot) [H] Lit. ‘enumeration’. In kabbalah, an emanation
of the Divine.
Shavuot [H] Festival of Pentecost.
Shekhinah [H] Divine Presence.
Shema [H] Lit. ‘hear’. Declaration of the Unity of God which intro-
duces three biblical paragraphs which are recited twice daily.