Glossary
Words this reference keeps in Hebrew, because translating them would lose what they mean.
- Tanna (pl. Tannaim)
- A sage of the Mishnah, from Hillel to Rabbi Yehuda haNasi (c. 3700–3978 AM). Their teaching is the Mishnah itself.
- Amora (pl. Amoraim)
- A sage of the Talmud, after the Mishnah was sealed and until the Talmud was closed (c. 3979–4260 AM).
- Savora (pl. Savoraim)
- A sage of the generations just after the Talmud, who did not add to it but settled its wording (c. 4260–4349 AM).
- Gaon (pl. Geonim)
- Head of the Babylonian academies of Sura and Pumbedita, whose answers were binding across the dispersion (c. 4349–4798 AM).
- Rishon (pl. Rishonim)
- “The first ones”: the authorities from the close of the geonic age to the expulsion from Spain (c. 4799–5250 AM).
- Acharon (pl. Acharonim)
- “The later ones”: authorities from the sixteenth century to our own day.
- Nasi
- The Patriarch — head of the Jews of the Land of Israel, recognised by Rome; the office descended from Hillel and ended about 4185 AM.
- Resh Galuta
- Head of the Exile — the temporal head of Babylonian Jewry, tracing his house to David.
- Semichah
- Ordination passed hand to hand from Moses onward; it required the Land of Israel and lapsed around 4120–4185 AM.
- Halakhah
- Jewish law — what one is required to do. From a root meaning “to walk”: the way one goes.
- Aggadah
- Everything in rabbinic literature that is not law: story, parable, history, ethics, theology.
- Mishnah
- The six orders of Oral Torah set down by Rabbi Yehuda haNasi about 3948 AM — the foundation of the Talmud.
- Gemara
- The discussion of the Mishnah in the academies; Mishnah and Gemara together are the Talmud.
- Baraita
- A tannaitic teaching left outside the Mishnah but cited in the Talmud as authoritative.
- Tosefta
- A companion compilation to the Mishnah, following its order and adding to it.
- Midrash
- Interpretation that draws law or story out of the words of Scripture.
- Responsum (she’elah u-teshuvah)
- A written question of law sent to an authority, and his written answer. The chief legal literature of the exile.
- Beit din
- A rabbinical court, of three judges or more.
- Sanhedrin
- The high court of seventy-one in Jerusalem; it fixed the calendar and judged the gravest matters.
- Yeshiva
- A house of Torah study; in Babylonia, an academy under a Gaon.
- Kollel
- A yeshiva for married men, supported so that they may study for years. As an ordinary stage of life it is an American innovation of Rabbi Aharon Kotler (5703 AM).
- Anusim
- Jews forced to convert, who kept their Judaism in secret. The Hebrew term is preferred here to “Marranos”, which began as an insult.
- Dhimmi
- The protected status of Jews and Christians under Muslim rule: faith, courts and property kept, in exchange for a poll tax and a second rank.
- Geniza
- A store for worn-out sacred writings, which may not be destroyed. The Cairo Geniza preserved a thousand years of documents.
- Masorah
- The apparatus that fixes the text of the Bible: vowels, cantillation and counts of every letter, completed at Tiberias about 4690 AM.
- Piyyut
- Liturgical poetry, inserted into the fixed prayers on festivals.
- Halukah
- Support sent from the diaspora to the scholars of the Land of Israel.
- Yahrzeit
- The anniversary of a death by the Hebrew calendar.
- AM (Anno Mundi)
- Year from the Creation of the world by the count of Seder Olam Rabbah. AM = CE + 3760.
- Seder Olam Rabbah
- The second-century chronology of Rabbi Yose ben Halafta, on whose count every date in this reference rests.