Key Words Flashcards
What are the Abrahamic faiths?
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all traced back to Abraham.
What is the Akedah?
The binding of Isaac.
What is anti-Semitism?
Hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people.
What is brit milah?
Circumcision, the removal of a baby boy’s foreskin at 8 days of age, Jews do this because God told Abraham to do this as a sign of the covenant.
What is Canaan?
An ancient region between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean, corresponding roughly to Israel: the land that was promised to Abraham’s descendants.
What does conservative Judaism mean?
Jews who preserve Jewish rituals and traditions, but are more flexible in interpreting Jewish laws than Orthodox Jews (sometimes called central orthodox).
What is the Covenant?
An agreement between God and the people, first established with Abraham and later with Moses.
What is culture?
All the ways of life including arts, beliefs, and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation.
What is diaspora?
Spread of people from their original homeland/ the dispersion of the Jewish people beyond Israel.
What is ethnicity?
Belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition.
What is exodus?
A mass departure of people, often used to refer to the escape of Jewish slaves from Egypt as told in the Torah.
What is Israel?
Means ‘God preserves’, name given to Jacob by God and today is the name of the Jewish state in the Middle East.
What does kosher mean?
Satisfying the requirements of Jewish law.
What are mitzvot?
Jewish laws. There are 613 mitzvot in the Torah and they guide Jews on how to live a good life.
What is orthodox Judaism?
Jews who believe in maintaining traditional beliefs and practices and laws given by God.
What are the Patriarchs?
Meaning ‘fathers’, refers to three generations of foundational figures in the Book of Genesis and Jewish tradition: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
What is Pesach?
Passover, a Jewish festival that remembers the story of the Exodus.
What is race?
Group of humans categorized on the basis of inherited characteristics (such as colour of skin); note - there is some disagreement about this concept.
What are reform and liberal Judaism?
Types of Jews who believe that Judaism can change and modernize, less focused on tradition.
What does sacrifice mean?
Giving up something important for something greater.
What is a secular Jew?
A non-religious Jew.
What is Shabbat?
Day of rest for Jews (Sabbath), begins at sunset on Friday evening.
What is the Tanakh?
The main Jewish scripture that includes the Torah.
What is the Torah?
The most important holy text for Jews (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy & Numbers), believed by Orthodox Jews to be written by Moses.
