Originally published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 14 (1972), pp. 74-5. Rabbinic Views. The rabbis are eloquent in describing the significance of repentance. It is one of the things created before the world itself (Pes. 54a); it reaches to the very Throne of Glory (Yoma 86a); it prolongs a man’s life and brings on the Redemption (Yoma…...

Originally published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 13 (1972), pp. 198-9. In Post-Talmudic Jewish Thought. The medieval Jewish thinkers discuss peace under the two headings of world peace and of the avoidance of internal strife and contention in the Jewish community. Jews in the Middle Ages had no voice in international affairs. World peace in the here…...

Originally published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 13 (1972), pp. 163-9. PASSOVER (Heb. פֶּסַח, Pesah), a spring festival, beginning on the 15th day of Nisan, lasting seven days in Israel and eight in the Diaspora. It commemorates the Exodus from Egypt. The first and seventh days (the first two and last two in the Diaspora) are yom…...

Originally published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 10 (1972), pp. 383-97. JUDAISM, the religion, philosophy, and way of life of the Jews. DEFINITION The term Judaism is first found among the Greek-speaking Jews of the first century C.E. (Judaismes, see II Macc. 2: 21; 8: 1; 14: 38; Gal. 1: 13-14). Its Hebrew equivalent, Yahadut, found only…...

Originally published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 12 (1972), pp. 393-5; 399-402. RABBINIC VIEW A marked ambivalence is to be observed in the Jewish tradition with regard to the personality of Moses. On the one hand, Moses is the greatest of all the Jewish teachers, a powerfully numinous figure, the man with whom God speaks “face…...

Originally published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 12 (1972), pp. 268-9. MONTEFIORE, CLAUDE JOSEPH GOLDSMID (1858-1938), theologian and leader of Liberal Judaism in England. Montefiore was a great-nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore and a grandson of Isaac Lyon Goldsmid. He studied at Balliol College, Oxford, where he came under the influence of the master of Balliol,…...

Originally published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 11 (1972), pp. 402-4. REFORM Dissatisfaction began to be felt with the traditional liturgy and the need to make it more relevant to the new conditions obtained after the Emancipation, especially in Western Europe, from the beginning of the 19th century. As a result there was a proliferation of…...

Originally published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 11 (1972), pp. 1415-16. In Modern Jewish Thought. Classical Reform in the last century reinterpreted the doctrine of the Messiah in two ways. First, it substituted the belief in a messianic age for the belief in a personal Messiah. Secondly, the messianic hope was severed from its traditional associations…...

Originally published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 8 (1972), pp. 366-72. HERMENEUTICS, the science of biblical interpretation. The rabbis saw the Pentateuch as a unified, divinely communicated text, consistent in all its parts. It was consequently possible to uncover deeper meanings and to provide for a fuller application of its laws by adopting certain principles of…...

Originally published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 7 (1972), pp. 1156-7; 1161-6.  DEFINITION The word “halakhah” (from the root halakh, “to go”), the legal side of Judaism (as distinct from aggadah, the name given to the non-legal material, particularly of the rabbinic literature) embraces personal, social, national, and international relationships, and all the other practices and…...

Originally published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 7 (1972), pp. 1403-7. Creator and Universe. While it is true that many of the basic ideas of Hasidism are grounded in earlier Jewish sources, the Hasidim did produce much that was new if only by emphasis. With few exceptions, hasidic ideas are not presented systematically in the hasidic…...

Originally published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 7 (1972), p. 1167. HALAKHAH LE-MOSHE MI-SINAI (Heb. הֲלָכָה לְמשֶׁה מִסִּינַי; “a law given to Moses at Sinai”). As part of the Oral Law, a number of laws, possessing biblical authority but neither stated in Scripture nor derived by hermeneutical principles, are stated in rabbinic literature to be “laws given…...

Originally published in the Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 2 (1972), pp. 480-4. AKEDAH (‘Aqedah; Heb. עקדה, lit. “binding (of Isaac)”), the Pentateuchal narrative (Gen. 22: 1-19) describing God’s command to Abraham to offer Isaac, the son of his old age, as a sacrifice. Obedient to the command, Abraham takes Isaac to the place of sacrifice and binds…...