Encyclopedia entries

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…...

Originally published in Mircea Eliade (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion (1987), vol. 14, pp. 131-2. SUKKOT is the Hebrew name for the Jewish autumnal festival, also called the Festival of Booths, or Tabernacles. Sukkot begins on the fifteenth day of the month of Tishri and lasts for seven days, followed by an eighth day called ‘Atseret (possibly…...

Originally published in Mircea Eliade (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion (1987), vol. 13, p. 229. SHAVU’OT, or Pentecost, is the Jewish festival that falls on the sixth day of the month of Sivan (and also on the seventh day, outside Israel). In the Pentateuch (Ex. 34:22, Dt. 16:10) the festival is called Shavu’ot (“weeks”) because it falls…...

Originally published in Mircea Eliade (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion (1987), vol. 13, pp. 189-92. SHABBAT. The Hebrew word shabbat is from a root meaning “to desist” or “to rest,” that is, from work and labor. The Sabbath is the day of rest each week after six days of work. The resemblances to the ancient Babylonian shapattu,…...

Originally published in Mircea Eliade (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion (1987), vol. 12, pp. 473-6. RO’SH HA-SHANAH AND YOM KIPPUR, holy days prominent in the Jewish religious calendar, mark the beginning of the new year and set off the special period traditionally designated for self-scrutiny and repentance. They are referred to as Yamim Nora’im (“days of awe”),…...

Originally published in Mircea Eliade (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion (1987), vol. 12, p. 100. PURIM (“lots”) is a minor Jewish festival (one in which work is not prohibited) that falls on the fourteenth day of Adar. It celebrates the deliverance, as told in the Book of Esther, of the Jews from the designs of Haman, who…...

Originally published in Mircea Eliade (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion (1987), vol. 11, pp. 204-6. PASSOVER is the joyous Jewish festival of freedom that celebrates the Exodus of the Jews from their bondage in Egypt. Beginning on the fifteenth day of the spring month of Nisan, the festival lasts for seven days (eight days for Jews outside…...

Originally published in Mircea Eliade (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion (1987), vol. 6, pp. 193-4. HANUKKAH (“dedication”) is the Jewish winter festival that falls on the twenty-fifth of the month of Kislev and lasts for eight days. It celebrates the victory of the Maccabees over the forces of Antiochus after a three-year battle in the second century…...

Originally published in Mircea Eliade (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion (1987), vol. 6, pp. 11-17. God in Postbiblical Judaism Postbiblical Jewish thought concerning God can be divided into four distinct periods: the rabbinic or Talmudic (from the first century BCE to the sixth century CE), the philosophical or theological (represented chiefly by the medieval thinkers), the qabbalistic…...

Originally published in Mircea Eliade (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion (1987), vol. 1, pp. 509-11. ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. [This entry consists of three articles on the characteristics attributed to the divine being in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. For broad comparative discussion of divinity in the history of religions, see Supreme Beings and Deity. For further discussion of…...

Originally published in Encyclopaedia Judaica, Decennial Book 1973-1982 (1982), pp. 635-6. Hasidic work; full title, Zava’at Ribash ve-Hanhagot Yesharot (“The Testimony of Ribash [Rabbi Israel Ba’al Shem] and Upright Rules of Conduct”), published in Zolkiew in 1793. (Another Zolkiew edition, which may be earlier, is undated.) The title page ambiguously states that the manuscript was in the possession…...

Originally published in Encyclopaedia Judaica, Yearbook 1975-76 (1976), pp. 361-2. Galician hasidic author, descendant of Yom Tov Lippmann Heller, disciple of Jehiel Michel of Zloczow. Though there are numerous hasidic legends about Heller, few authentic biographical details are available. In his youth he ministered to the early hasidic masters Menahem Mendel of Peremyshlany and Dov Ber, the…...

Originally published in Encyclopaedia Judaica, Yearbook 1975-76 (1976), pp. 161-5. Habad (initial letters of Hokhmah, “Wisdom”, Binah, “Understanding”, Da’at, “Knowledge”) is the movement within Hasidism founded by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady (1745-1812); as the name implies, Habad places a greater emphasis on the use of the intellect in the study of the Torah, and especially in…...

Originally published in Tzvi M. Rabinowicz (ed.), The encyclopedia of Hasidism (1996), pp. 520-1. Hasidism has a marked tendency to treat with greater sympathy and understanding than was usual on the part of the older tradition the religious strivings of the unlearned and ignorant Jew. Three main factors are at work in this hasidic reassessment…....