Midterm 2 Flashcards
Abraham Geiger
a German rabbi and scholar, considered the founding father of Reform Judaism. Emphasizing its constant development along history and universalist traits, Geiger sought to reformulate received forms and design what he regarded as a religion compliant with modern times
Martin Luther
was a German professor of theology, composer, priest, monk and a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation
Napoleon
a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars
Anan Ben David
widely considered to be a major founder of the Karaite movement of Judaism. His followers were called Ananites and, like modern Karaites, do not believe the Rabbinic Jewish oral law (such as the Mishnah) to be authoritative
Mordechai Kaplan
a rabbi, essayist and Jewish educator and the co-founder of Reconstructionist Judaism along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein
Saadiah Geon
was a prominent rabbi, Jewish philosopher, and exegete of the Geonic period who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate. The first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Arabic, he is considered the founder of Judeo-Arabic literature
Baal Shem Tov
was a Jewish mystical rabbi. He is considered to be the founder of Hasidic Judaism
Moses Isserles
was an eminent Polish Ashkenazic rabbi, talmudist, and posek
Samson R. Hirsch
was a German rabbi best known as the intellectual founder of the Torah im Derech Eretz school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism
Baruch Spinoza
radical figure of modern jewish thought that was expelled from the sephardi community in Amsterdam in the 17th century.
Moses Maiomonides
was a medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. In his time, he was also a preeminent astronomer and physician. “Author of Guide of the Perplexed”
Shabbettai Tzvi
was a Sephardic ordained Rabbi, though of Romaniote origin and kabbalist, active throughout the Ottoman Empire, who claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. He was the founder of the Sabbatean movement
Golda Meir
was an Israeli teacher, kibbutznik, stateswoman and politician and the fourth elected Prime Minister of Israel
Moses Mendelsohn
a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the Haskalah, the ‘Jewish enlightenment’ of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is indebted
Simon of Trent
was a boy from the city of Trent, Prince-Bishopric of Trent, whose disappearance and murder was blamed on the leaders of the city’s Jewish community, based on his dead body allegedly being found in the cellar of a Jewish family’s house
Issac Luria
was a foremost rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Syria. He is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah,[4] his teachings being referred to as Lurianic Kabbalah
Moshe Ben Maimon
Moses Maimonides
Solomon Schechter
was a Moldavian-born American rabbi, academic scholar and educator, most famous for his roles as founder and President of the United Synagogue of America, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and architect of American Conservative Judaism
Israel ben Eliezer
Baal Shem Tov
Moshe ben Nachman
was a leading medieval Jewish scholar, Sephardic rabbi, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator. He was raised, studied, and lived for most of his life in Girona, Catalonia. He is also considered to be an important figure in the re-establishment of the Jewish community in Jerusalem following its decimation at the hands of the Crusaders in 1099
Theodore Herzl
was an Austro-Hungarian journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was one of the fathers of modern political Zionism. Herzl formed the World Zionist Organization and promoted Jewish migration to Palestine in an effort to form a Jewish state
Joseph Caro
was author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the Shulchan Aruch, which is still authoritative for all Jews pertaining to their respective communities
Muhammad
the prophet of Islam
William of Norwich
English boy whose death was, at the time, attributed to the Jewish community of Norwich. It is the first known medieval accusation against Jews of ritual murder
M. Mendel Schneerson
a Russian Empire-born American Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and the last Lubavitcher Rebbe. He is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century
Zacharia Frankel
a Bohemian-German rabbi and a historian who studied the historical development of Judaism. The founder and the most eminent member of the school of historqical Judaism, which advocates freedom of research, while upholding the authority of traditional Jewish belief and practice. This school of thought was the intellectual progenitor of Conservative Judaism
Nachmanides
Moshe ben Nachman
Ashkenazim
are a Jewish diaspora population who coalesced as a distinct community in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium
Karaites
a Jewish religious movement characterized by the recognition of the Tanakh alone as its supreme authority in Halakha (Jewish religious law) and theology
Reconstructionism
a modern Jewish movement that views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization and is based on the conceptions developed by Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983). The movement originated as a semi-organized stream within Conservative Judaism and developed from the late 1920s to 1940s, before it seceded in 1955[1] and established a rabbinical college in 1967
Chabad Lubavitch
is an Orthodox Jewish, Hasidic movement. Chabad is today one of the world’s best known Hasidic movements and is well known for its outreach. It is the largest Hasidic group and Jewish religious organization in the world
Masorti
self-appellation of traditional, not strictly observant Jews in Israel, who mostly identify with Orthodox Judaism. Conservative Judaism, often named “Masorti” (“traditional”) outside North America
Reform
a form of Judaism, initiated in Germany by the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729–86), that has reformed or abandoned aspects of Orthodox Jewish worship and ritual in an attempt to adapt to modern changes in social, political, and cultural life
Conservative
a major Jewish denomination, which views Jewish Law, or Halakha, as both binding and subject to historical development. The movement considers its approach to Law as the authentic and most appropriate continuation of halakhic discourse, maintaining both fealty to received forms and flexibility in their interpretation
Mitnagdim
is a Hebrew word meaning “opponents”. The term “Misnagdim” commonly refers to opponents of Hasidism
Sephardim
a Jew descended from the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th century, immediately prior to the issuance of the Alhambra Decree of 1492 by order of the Catholic Monarchs in Spain, and the decree of 1496 in Portugal by order of King Manuel I
Haredi
a broad spectrum of groups within Orthodox Judaism, all characterized by a distancing from post modern secular culture. Its members are often referred to as strictly Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox in English
Orthodox
the approach to religious Judaism which subscribes to a tradition of mass revelation and adheres to the interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Tannaim and Amoraim
Hasidic
a sub-group within Ultra-Orthodox (“Haredi”) Judaism and is noted for its religious conservatism and social seclusion
Radhanites
medieval Jewish merchants
613 Mitzvot
613 commandments, the number of mitzvot in the Torah
Haskelah
Jewish Enlightenment was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with certain influence on those in the West and Muslim lands
Sephirot
meaning emanations, are the 10 attributes/emanations in Kabbalah, through which Ein Sof (The Infinite) reveals Himself and continuously creates both the physical realm and the chain of higher metaphysical realms
Aliya
the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to the Land of Israel
Kabballah
Jewish tradition of mystical interpretation of the Bible, first transmitted orally and using esoteric methods
Shabbateanism
a messianic movement of unprecedented duration and scope—was centred on the charismatic personality of Shabbetai Zevi
Bar Mitzvah
Coming of Age of a 13 year old Jewish boy
Bat Mitzvah
Coming of Age of a 12 year old Jewish girl
Kibbutz
a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture
Kotel
Wailing wall in Jerusalem
Tallit
a fringed garment traditionally worn by religious Jews. The tallit has special twined and knotted fringes known as tzitzit attached to its four corners. The cloth part is known as the “beged” (lit. garment) and is usually made from wool or cotton, although silk is sometimes used for a tallit gadol
Blood Libel
an accusation that Jewish people used the blood of Christians in religious rituals, especially in the preparation of Passover bread, that was perpetrated throughout the Middle Ages and (sporadically) until the early 20th century
Ladino
Judeo-spanish
Tefillin/Phylacteries
a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah
Tikkun Olam
A jewish concept defined by acts of kindness performed to perfect or repair the world. The phrase is found in the Mishnah, a body of classical rabbinic teachings. It is often used when discussing issues of social policy, insuring a safeguard to those who may be at a disadvantage
Minyan
a quorum of ten men (or in some synagogues, men and women) over the age of 13 required for traditional Jewish public worship
World Zionist Organization
Zionism aims at establishing for the Jewish people a legally assured home in Palestine
Emanation
a theory describing the origin of the material universe from a transcendent first principle. According to this theory, the universe, which is multiple, is generated from the One, which is unitary, through the medium of a hierarchy of immaterial substances
En Sof
in Kabballah, God prior to his self-manifestation in the production of any spiritual realm
Ghetto
originated from the name of the Jewish quarter in Venice, Italy. Venetian authorities compelled the city’s Jews to live in the quarter
People of the Book
an Islamic term referring to Jews, Christians, and Sabians and sometimes applied to members of other religions such as Zoroastrians.[1] It is also used in Judaism to refer to the Jewish people and by members of some Christian denominations to refer to themselves
Positive Historical
Form of Judaism that accepts scientific and archeological research into the roots of Judaism. Developed by Rabbi Frankel in Budapest
Sanhedrin
an assembly of twenty-three to seventy-one men appointed in every city in the Land of Israel
Yiddish
a language used by Jews in central and eastern Europe before the Holocaust. It was originally a German dialect with words from Hebrew and several modern languages and is today spoken mainly in the US, Israel, and Russia
Zionism
a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. It was established as a political organization in 1897 under Theodor Herzl, and was later led by Chaim Weizmann
Sassanid Empire
the last imperial dynasty in Persia (Iran) before the rise of Islam, ruled by and named after the Sasanian dynasty from 224 to 651 AD
13 Principles of Faith
compiled and composed by Maimonides
On the Jews and Their Lies
a 65,000-word antisemitic treatise written in 1543 by the German Reformation leader Martin Luther
Balfour Declaration
letter dated 2 November 1917 from the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland
Pittsburgh Platform
a pivotal 1885 document in the history of the American Reform Movement in Judaism that called for Jews to adopt a modern approach to the practice of their faith
Book of the Commandments
the earliest published volume said to contain the revelations of Joseph Smith Jr. Text published in the Book of Commandments is now considered scripture by Latter-day Saints as part of the larger Doctrine and Covenants
Responsa
a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them. In the modern era, the term is used to describe decisions and rulings made by scholars in historic religious law
Guide for the Perplexed
is the main source of the Rambam’s philosophical views, as opposed to his opinions on Jewish law
Shulhan Arukh
the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed (today in Israel) by Yosef Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later. Together with its commentaries, it is the most widely accepted compilation of Jewish law ever written
The Jewish State
a political term used to describe the nation state of Israel. Modern Israel came into existence on 14 May 1948 as the homeland for the Jewish people
Mappa
any medieval European map of the world
Theological-Political Treatise
Written by the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza. one of the most controversial texts of the early modern period. It was a preemptive defense of Spinoza’s later work, Ethics, published posthumously in 1677, for which he anticipated harsh criticism
Mishnah Torah
is a code of Jewish religious law (Halakha) authored by Maimonides
Zohar
the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah
Reconquista
name given to a long series of wars and battles between the Christian Kingdoms and the Muslim Moors for control of the Iberian Peninsula. It lasted for a good portion of the Middle Ages from 718 to 1492
Expulsion from Spain
edict issued on 31 March 1492, by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain (Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon) ordering the expulsion of practicing Jews from the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon and its territories and possessions by 31 July of that year
Disputation of 1263
a formal ordered medieval debate between representatives of Christianity and Judaism regarding whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. It was held at the royal palace of King James I of Aragon in the presence of the King, his court, and many prominent ecclesiastical dignitaries and knights, between Dominican Friar Pablo Christiani, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, and Rabbi Nahmanides (Moshe Ben Nachman), a leading medieval Jewish scholar, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentato
Chmielnicki Massacre 1648-49
a Cossack and Ukrainian peasant uprising between 1648 and 1649 against Polish rule in the Ukraine, wreaking havoc on hundreds of Jewish communities in the process
York Massacre 1190
March 1190, six months after the coronation of King Richard I, the city caught or was set on fire. Under cover of the fire a mob targeted the Jews. The family and friends of the leading Jew called Baruch* were attacked and killed and his wealth looted
Expulsion from England 1290
In 1290, King Edward I issued an edict expelling all Jews from England. The expulsion edict remained in force for the rest of the Middle Ages. The edict was not an isolated incident, but the culmination of over 200 years of increased persecution
Golden Age of Judaism in Islamic Spain
coincided with the Middle Ages in Europe, a period of Muslim rule throughout much of the Iberian Peninsula. During intermittent periods of time, Jews were generally accepted in society and Jewish religious, cultural, and economic life blossomed
Besht
Another name for Baal Shem Tov
Maskilim
an identifier for individuals and ideas of the Haskalah movement, the European Jewish enlightenment between the 1770s and 1880s, who sought to reeducate Jews so that they could fit into modern society; they established schools and published works of cultural importance
Rebbe
a rabbi, especially a religious leader of the Hasidic sect
Exilarch
the leaders of the Diaspora Jewish community in Babylon following the deportation of King Jeconiah and his court into Babylonian exile after the first fall of Jerusalem in 597 BCE and augmented after the further deportations following the destruction of the kingdom of Judah in 587 BCE
Mitnagdim
a Hebrew word meaning “opponents”. The term “Misnagdim” commonly refers to opponents of Hasidism
Tzaddik
is a title in Judaism given to people considered righteous, such as Biblical figures and later spiritual masters
Geonim
the plural of גאון (Gaon’) [ɡaˈʔon], which means “pride” or “splendor” in Biblical Hebrew and since the 19th century “genius” as in modern Hebrew. As a title of a Babylonian college president it meant something like “His Excellency”
RAMBAM
Acronym for Maimonides
Marranos
term used for those Jews living in Iberia who converted or were forced to convert to Christianity yet continued to practice Judaism in secret
RAMBAN
Acronym for Nachmanides
