Subject: Hebraic Roots Glossary - Part 2
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 22:54:37 +0000
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
From: JOHANVR <johanvr@srvnac3.nac.ac.za>
Subject: Comprehensive Glossary of Hebraic Terms - Part 2
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Reply-to: JOHANVR@NAC.AC.ZA
Expository Glossary
of Terms Used in
Messianic Teaching (Part 2)
Copyright February 1998
Expository Glossary of Terms used in Messianic Teaching
Order this Glossary from:
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Preface
This Expository Glossary of Terms used in Messianic Teaching was
developed for a Messianic study group that has been meeting in the
Helderberg area of South Africa since mid-1995. We plan to publish
three studies on the Messiah, entitled:
King Messiah
The Coming of King Messiah
The Festivals of King Messiah.
The Expository Glossary of Terms used in Messianic Teaching explains
unfamiliar terms that talmidim (students) will encounter in their
studies.
Students are requested to notify us (in writing) of all difficult
terms used in the three monographs listed above, which have been left
out, ore are not adequately explained, in the Glossary.
Key
Entries followed by the symbol [G] are Greek terms.
Entries followed by the symbol [L] are Latin terms.
Entries followed by the symbol [A] are Aramaic terms.
Almost all other foreign-language entries are Hebrew.
(Part 2)
Babylonian Jewry
Babylonian Jewry constituted an extremely important Diaspora
community. What makes this community so important not only for
Judaism, is the editing of the Babylonian Talmud. With the exception
of the Tanakh, no other work has had such a profound impact upon
Jewish life. To this day, the Babylonian Talmud is a widely studied
text in the yeshivot, (schools of advanced Torah study), and no other
source conveys the richness and uniqueness of classical rabbinic
culture as the Talmud does.
The modern day Iraqi Jewish community, (most of which made aliyah to
Israel in 1950-1952 in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah), are the
contemporary representatives of a community whose history stems back
more than 2500 years. Their roots lie in the Biblical period, when
the ancient Israelites reached the Tigris and Euphrates river regions
as a consequence of two imperial conquests. With the death of King
Solomon (c. 922 B.C.E.), the united Israelite monarchy split up as a
result of tribal jealousies and power struggles. The 10 northern
tribes became known as Israel, while the two remaining southern tribes
formed the kingdom of Judah. Around 722 B.C.E., the northern kingdom
was conquered by the Assyrians. The Assyrians settled northern Israel
with various peoples from their empire, who intermingled with the
remaining Israelites, ultimately forming the group known to this day
as the Samaritans. More importantly for our story, however, the
Assyrians exiled much of the population of the 10 northern tribes, and
these tribes were settled in various regions in Assyria. We know very
little about what happened to these tribal populations. The Tanakh
hardly speaks of the Israelite exiles, and contemporary Assyrian
records are sparse. It appears that the general policy of forced
"Assyrianization" followed by the imperial administration led the
majority of the Israelites to assimilate into the ranks of the local
population, just as other ethnic peoples conquered by the Assyrians
had done. Here lies the origin of the well known "Ten Lost Tribes of
Israel". To this day, various tribal and national populations claim
to trace their ancestry from one of these tribes, (though most of
these claims are quite suspect on a historical level). At any rate,
the ancient Israelite tribes did not succeed in maintaining their
separate national and tribal identities in Assyria. But the results
of the conquest of Judah by the Babylonians were quite different. The
Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar had succeeded the Assyrians as the
dominant "superpower" of the Ancient Near East. In 586 B.C.E., the
Babylonian armies sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Beit Hamikdash,
the holy Temple. Most of the Judeans were exiled to Babylon, just as
their Israelite brethren had been exiled to Assyria some 140 years
before them. But now the pattern of assimilation does not repeat
itself! The Judean exiles were resettled by the banks of the Chebar
River, an irrigation canal near the city of Nippur. Most of the
exiles worked in agriculture, while others worked as skilled craftsmen
and builders. The genealogical lists in Ezra 2:1-70 suggest that the
extended family units maintained their sense of identity, as did the
Kohanim and the Levites. The community appears to have taken to heart
Jeremiah's practical advice (in Jeremiah 29), "Build houses and live
in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit..."-an example of their
willingness to adjust. But the Biblical record makes eminently clear
that the adjustment to Babylonian realities was tempered by a profound
sense of loss. This was a community in exile. The words of Psalm 137
evoke the pain and emotional upheaval of the exiles:
By the waters of Babylon, there we sat, sat and wept, as we remembered
Zion. There on the poplars we hung up our lyres, for our captors asked
us there for songs, our tormentors for amusement, 'Sing us one of the
songs of Zion'. How can we sing a song of the Lord on alien soil?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, let my tongue
stick to my palate, if I cease to think of you, if I do not keep
Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour.
Above and beyond the sense of loss, one senses here a profound
determination to keep the national memory alive, to keep Jerusalem
alive in the recesses of the heart.
In 538 B.C.E., the Jewish people received their golden opportunity to
return to Jerusalem, in order to rebuild the holy city and its Temple.
The Persian Empire had vanquished the Babylonians, and the emperor
Cyrus issued a royal edict allowing Babylonian Jews to return to their
homeland, rebuild the Beit Hamikdash, and live in Jerusalem (under
Persian rule). According to the book of Ezra, 42,360 Jews returned to
Eretz Yisrael in the days and months following the publishing of this
edict. According to historians, approximately 10% of the Babylonian
Jewish community returned to the Land during this period, known as
Shivat Zion (the Return to Zion). Do you find this to be at all
surprising?! Wouldn't one expect a mass movement of Jews to
spontaneously rise up and embrace this wonderful opportunity? Well,
it appears that also in ancient times the gap between Ideal and
Reality was as large as it often seems to be today! Judah in general,
and Jerusalem in particular lay in shambles. Hostile local peoples
awaited the Judeans upon their return to the land. And it appears
that many of the Babylonian exiles had become quite comfortable in
Babylon...
The Beit Hamikdash was, in fact, rebuilt, (though it took some 20
years to accomplish), and Jewish life began to reestablish itself in
Eretz Yisrael. But it is significant that about 90 years after Cyrus's
edict, fundamental religious reforms are instituted under the
leadership of two Babylonian Jews, Ezra and Nehemiah, who are summoned
to Jerusalem with the approval and backing of the Persian emperor
himself! Ezra's claim to leadership was a strong one, for he was not
only a kohen, but also a sofer, or scribe. The scribes were the
experts in Torah law, (in retrospect we view them today as the
spiritual ancestors of the Pharisees and the rabbis). Ezra was
particularly distraught by the rampant intermarriage that had taken
place between Jewish men and local pagan women, and he led an effort
to forbid such intermarriage and force the men to divorce their
gentile spouses. Nehemiah served as a Persian court official, who is
summoned to Judea to serve as the Persian rulers as governor of the
region. Under the leadership of these two strong figures, a national
assembly is called in Jerusalem on Rosh Hashana in 445 B.C.E., during
which Ezra reads the entire Torah to the people, who tearfully accept
the Torah as their Divinely ordained "constitution"! (Nehemiah 8:10 is
apparently the scriptural basis for the long established custom of
eating apples and honey on Rosh HaShanah)! What's important about all
of this for us is that Ezra's status as a scribe shows us that Torah
study apparently flourished in Babylonia, and the fact that the
emperor gives Ezra the authority to impose reforms based on Torah law
points to the official recognition of Torah as the legal basis for
Jewish communal autonomy throughout the Babylonian dominions.
Nehemiah's high position in the Persian court also testifies to the
high standing of the Jewish community in Persian Babylonia.
The "golden age" of Babylonian Jewry was the period of the editing of
the Talmud and the subsequent period of the great geonim, which of
course took place long after Biblical times. The Babylonian community
had a strong sense of pride and purity of lineage, which was rooted in
the community's ancient past. The very use of the term "Babylonia" in
regard to the Jewish community of the Tigris and Euphrates region is
of significance, since the Babylonian Empire had long since been
conquered by the Persians and had vanished from the political scene.
By still referring to the Jews there as "Babylonian Jewry", the sense
of historical continuity with the early Babylonian exiles was
affirmed. Moreover, if Moses was to go down in Jewish history as the
Lawgiver, it was nonetheless the Babylonian Jew Ezra who ensured the
formal acceptance and application of Torah Law by the Jewish people.
It appears that from a very early age, Babylonia began to view itself
as closely approaching the spiritual level of Eretz Yisrael itself!
In fact, as we shall soon see, in the Talmudic period some Babylonian
scholars would even go so far as to assert Babylonia's superiority
over Eretz Yisrael. This was based partially upon the supposed
superiority of Babylonian lineage. According to their tradition, the
Babylonians had refrained from intermarrying with foreign slaves and
proselytes whose conversion was suspect. It is with this in mind that
we may understand the rather shocking statement written in the
Babylonian Talmud (Kiddushin 71a):
All countries are dough [a mixture of pure and impure lineage]
compared to the Land of Israel, and the land of Israel is dough
compared to Babylonia.
Let's move forward now to the period of the Second Temple, the
Mishnah, and the Talmud, and trace the historical developments from
the perspective of the Babylonian community.
The Second Beit Hamikdash which had been completed by the returning
Babylonian exiles in 516B.C.E. was a small and unassuming structure.
During the period of Roman rule over Israel, King Herod (who ruled the
land under Roman patronage from 37-4B.C.E.), embarked upon a massive
project of expanding and renovating the Temple structure. The result
was extremely impressive; the Beit Hamikdash truly ranked as one of
the most amazing engineering achievements of the ancient world. Just
as the Temple dominated the "skyline" of ancient Jerusalem, so did
Eretz Yisrael dominate Jewish life during this time. For not only the
Temple cult, but also the Sanhedrin, the great law court, were located
in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, and Jews from all over the land as
well as from the countries of the Diaspora would flock to the holy
city for the Three Pilgrimage Festivals (Shalosh Regalim), of
Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. Many great Babylonian scholars such as
Hillel, made aliyah to Israel or visited the Land in order to study
Torah there. During this time there was much contact between these
two great centers of Jewish life, but the spiritual superiority of
Eretz Yisrael remained unquestioned. It was from Jerusalem, for
example, that the proclamation of the New Month would be made, (based
on the sighting of the New Moon), and from there the word was sent by
signals of fire to the various Jewish communities throughout the Land,
and from there through the neighboring regions all the way to
Babylonia! The Babylonian community also viewed the rulings of the
Sanhedrin as binding. And while the destruction of the Temple in 70
C.E. by the Romans during the Great Revolt was a painful blow, the
Sanhedrin reestablished itself in the town of Yavneh, and Jewish
spiritual life continued to flourish in Eretz Yisrael.
The tide began to turn in the second half of the 2nd Century C.E.,
when a large influx of Torah scholars reached Babylonia from Eretz
Yisrael. This was a direct development of the devastation and decline
following the failure of another Jewish revolt against Rome in 132-135
C.E., known as the Bar Kochba revolt. Hundreds of thousands of Jews
lost their lives in this struggle, Jewish economic life was
devastated, Yavneh was destroyed, Jews were forbidden from entering
the holy city of Jerusalem (except for once a year on Tisha b'Av, when
they were allowed to mourn the loss of their Temple), and the
Sanhedrin began a series of travels through various Jewish communities
in the Galilee. The Galilee had never been the center of Jewish
scholarship in Israel, and while the Torah shb'al peh, (the Oral
Tradition) continued to develop, culminating in the editing of the
Mishnah in 200 C.E. by Rabbi Judah the Prince, many scholars
nonetheless preferred to leave Israel for the greener pastures of the
Torah academies of Babylonia. Economic factors certainly contributed
as well to the movement to Babylonia.
The turning point came with the return to Babylonia in 219 C.E. of a
rabbi named Abba Aricha, who became known as Rav. Rav had spent a
long period studying in Eretz Yisrael, and brought with him a thorough
knowledge of the Mishnah which had recently been completed there.
Rather than attach himself to one of the established academies, Rav
went to the city of Sura, which boasted a large Jewish population but
had no major center for Torah study. The Sura academy attracted
scholars from all over Babylonia, and it soon became a spiritual
center for the entire community. A little later on, another large
academy was established by a scholar named Samuel, in the town of
Nehardea. A particularly well known ruling of Samuel's had major
implications for Jewish life in the Diaspora. In regard to the laws
of the non-Jewish ruling authority, Samuel stated categorically, "dina
d'malchuta dina", "the law of the land is law". This was not meant to
apply where ceremonial matters were concerned, nor did it apply
concerning matters within the province of the Jewish community alone.
But civil laws must be obeyed, otherwise the very foundation for
Jewish existence as a minority in host societies would be undermined.
The two academies established by Rav and Samuel quickly became the
focus of Jewish religious life in Babylonia, with some communities
accepting Sura's Halakhic rulings, while others followed those of
Nehardea. (The Nehardea academy was reestablished in the town of
Pumbedita in the year 259, after Nehardea was sacked by the
Palmyrans). The discussions concerning the interpretation of the
Mishnah which take place over the years in these two great yeshivot,
will became the basis for the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud
around the year 500.
It is in documents dating from the second century that we also begin
to find references to the Resh Galuta, the Exilarch. The Exilarch was
an officially recognized royal official, who served as the head of the
Jewish community. He stemmed from the house of David, thus providing a
clear connection to the longlost days of Jewish sovereignty and
independence. The Exilarchate was a powerful institution, combing
legislative, executive, and even judicial functions. Some of the
exilarchs, such as Mar Ukva, were highly regarded Torah scholars,
others had little Halakhic background and expertise. As the power of
the scholars of Sura and Pumbedita increased, so did the potential for
conflict with the exilarch, particularly if an exilarch ignorant of
the intricacies of Torah law got too involved in judicial matters.
But by and large, the office of the exilarch carried with it great
prestige in the Babylonian Jewish community. Try to imagine the
coronation ceremony of a new exilarch. We are in a large synagogue in
Baghdad. It is Shabbat, and a procession has set out from the home of
one of the VIP's of the Jewish community. They proceed towards the
synagogue, where the congregation awaits them excitedly. A choir is
concealed in a wooden tower, the exilarch enters the synagogue and
conceals himself in the same wooden tower. When the service for the
reading of the Torah begins, the Exilarch emerges from his hiding
place in the middle of the tower...
"And when they see him, all the people rise to their feet until he
takes his seat on the tower...and the head of the Sura yeshiva emerges
behind him and takes his seat on the tower after making a deep
obeisance before him, which he returns. And after that the head of
the Pumbedita yeshiva comes forth and also bows before him and takes
his seat on his left. And meanwhile all the people stand erect until
the three of them are settled in their places."
The Exilarch served as a majestic figure for Babylonian Jewry. He
served an important psychological function. He was the closest we had
to a king, and he was in fact "royal' in many ways; his Davidic
lineage, his royal robes, the grandeur of his court, etc. One
exilarch, in fact, even served as an actual Jewish king for a brief
period! Towards the end of the 5th Century C.E., a period of
religious intolerance and persecution spread through the Parthian
Empire. The great academies were closed, and some teachers were
executed. At this time, the Exilarch, Mar Zutra, led a revolt which
succeeded in creating a small independent Jewish kingdom in Babylonia
which held out for seven years, until he was defeated and publicly
executed. Most of the time, however, the Exilarch was content to
remain in his communal role, with its symbolic trappings of royal
authority. The symbolic or "psychological" importance of the Exilarch
as a royal figure for a subjected people became particularly important
for Babylonian Jewry after the Muslim conquest of the Parthian Empire.
For now Jews were living as a tolerated, but second-class people,
under the shadows of a powerful and triumphant religion, Islam, which
was monotheistic and bore important similarities to Judaism. But the
importance of the Exilarch was certainly not confined to the symbolic
grandeur of his position. For the exilarchs often used their access
to the corridors of power to intercede for the Jewish community with
the authorities.
Let's return to the great yeshivot now in order to trace the
development of the Talmud. The yeshiva was a bit different than most
schools you might be used to. There were no formal entrance
requirements, nor were there were formal classes per se! The Rosh
Yeshiva, the head of the academy would begin the discussion by quoting
a particular passage from the Mishnah. He would then add other
relevant statements made by various Tannaim (sages of the period up to
the editing of the Mishnah), and Amoraim (sages since the period of
the Mishnah), and attempts would be made by the scholars to apply the
law or point of discussion to particular situations. Discussions were
free flowing and associative in nature, often leading to issues far
removed from the starting point. For example, if the words of a
particular Tanna were brought concerning the legal matter being
discussed, many times the scholars would seize the opportunity to
recite other rulings or statements made by the same Tanna, which of
course would steer the conversation to a totally different direction!
By the 5th Century, it became clear that it was impossible to retain
all of the important discussions which had taken place, and that if
they were not edited and written down, they would be lost to future
generations. Rav Ashi, the head of the academy at Sura, took it upon
himself to edit the vast body of material. The process took about 80
years, continuing on after Rav Ashi's death. The result was the
Babylonian Talmud, organized as a commentary on the Mishnah, including
the Mishnah itself, and the Gemara, the interpretations of Babylonian
amoraim as well as other amoraim from Eretz Yisrael. It is written
partially in Hebrew, but primarily in Aramaic, a Semitic language
similar to Hebrew which had for hundreds of years been the lingua
franca of the Ancient Near East. The Talmud includes both halakhah
(Jewish Law) as well as aggadah (legend). But if you're looking for a
systematic introduction to Jewish thought and practice, boy have you
gone to the wrong place!! The same type of associative thinking
mentioned earlier in regard to the learning in the academies reflects
itself in the Talmud, which is designed to accurately render the
debates and free flowing discussions which characterized those
academies. As a result of the complicated legal reasoning, the
frequent changes in subject, the difficulties in understanding Aramaic
terminology, and the total lack of any punctuation marks, Talmud study
is very challenging! To add to the fun, hundreds of different
amoraim are quoted in the Talmud, and often amoraim who lived in
totally different periods are described as if they are debating with
each other! Yet there is no problem here, because as the Jewish
tradition says, "There is no early days or later days in the world of
Torah...". It is no coincidence that Talmud forms the crux of the
curriculum in yeshivot to this day, and that it is also a required
subject for young aspiring Israeli law students!
The creativity of the Babylonian Jewish community continued long after
the editing of the Talmud was completed. In the period of the geonim
(lit. masters" or "wise ones", the term refers to the leaders of Sura
and Pumbedita after the completion of the Talmud), we no longer hear
of hundreds of distinguished sages, but the geonim themselves are
great Torah scholars whose impact upon Judaism in their day and also
in subsequent generations was profound! During this time, Jews from
all over the world would send difficult Halakhic questions to the
geonim, who would send back their responses. The literature which
resulted is known as the Responsa. Though the geonim and the great
Babylonian academies no longer exist, Responsa literature is still
being written to this very day. It is the primary means of adapting
and applying Jewish Law to everchanging societal and technological
realities. But back to Babylonia! In the year 857, a letter was sent
from a small Jewish community in Spain to the newly appointed Rav
Amram Gaon, head of the yeshiva of Sura. The question in the letter
concerned the proper order of the prayers. Rav Amram sent back a
detailed answer, including the siddur (lit. "order") of the prayers to
be said for regular days, Shabbat, and on the holidays. What we're
talking about here, folks, is the creation of the first siddur, that
is, the Jewish prayer book, which was first written down in a
comprehensive and organized manner as a Responsum to this Spanish
community!
The golden Age of Babylonian Jewry lasted until about the year 1000.
The major factors contributing to the decline of the community were
external, that is, economic decline and political fragmentalization of
the Islamic Empire led many Jews to search for a more hospitable
environment to live. But the Babylonian Jewish community continued to
exist even into the 20th Century. With the aliyah to Israel of almost
the entire Iraqi Jewish community in the early 1950s, the saga of this
vibrant Diaspora community came to an end.
Badeken
Traditional formal veiling of the bride by the groom before the
wedding ceremony.
Baptism
See: Immersion.
Barak
Lightning. See Lappidoth.
Bar-Anash [A]
See: Son of Man.
Barchu
Call upon the congregation to bless the Almighty.
Barech
Grace.the part of the Seder when the grace after the meal is recited.
Bar Kochba
Leader of a Jewish revolt (132-135) against the Roman Empire. This
revolt was cruelly put down by emperor Hadrian.
Bar Mitzvah
Literally: son of the commandment; ceremony marking a youngster's
reaching the age of religious majority, traditionally thirteen for
boys and twelve for girls; in many congregations, thirteen for girls
as well. The young man of woman is considered old enough to be
responsible for performing the commandments of the Torah. Bar Mitzvah
is a ritual of acceptance by the community.
Baruch Dayan Ha'emet
A blessing of acceptance of the Almighty's judgments.
Baruch Hu Uvaruch Shemo
A phrase of blessing of the Almighty's Name upon hearing it uttered.
Basar
To be fresh, cheerful); to announce glad news. To preach, publish,
show forth, bear, bring, carry, tell glad tidings, good news. (The
word "gospel" is a contracted form of the old English term "good
spell" which means "good news.")
Batey Midrashot
Houses of Study.
Bat Kol
An "echo" of the voice of Elohim.
Batlanim
Scholarly Jewish teachers who, in ancient days, were either
independently wealthy or on some type of financial support to enable
him to provide the congregation with accurate and scholarly teachings
and answers to difficult questions. The Pharisee and member of the
Sanhedrin, Nicodemus, whose Hebrew name was Nakdimon ben-Gurion, was a
Batlan.
Bat Mitzvah
Literally: Daughter of the commandment; ceremony marking a girl's
reaching the age of being responsible for her own sins, traditionally
thirteen.
Bat-Sheva
The woman whom King David seduced and later married. Literal meaning:
"Daughter of the Oath."
ba'Yamim ha-hu
"In those days." A phrase that signifies that something will come to
pass in the time that Messiah would come.
baYom ha-hu
"In thát day." A phrase that signifies that something will happen in
the Day of UYUW. The sages identified several phrases which tells us
that a passage will have its final fulfilment in the time when King
Messiah would come. Some of these phrases are summarised in Table G.
below:
Table G.
Table of some phrases which signify that the events in a passage will
have its final consummation at the time when King Messiah will come.
HebrewEnglishBaYom ha-huIn thát day (i.e. Yom YHWH)ba'Yamim ha-huIn
those daysThe days are comingSing to YHWH a new song
Bechor
Birthright. Ephrayim is the tribe of bechor (birthright), whereas
Yahudah is the tribe of the shevet (ruling staff)-see 1Chronicles
5:1-2.
Bedikat Chametz
The search for, and cleansing & casting out of the leaven, which was
performed just before Pesach. Yahushua cleaned out his Father's House
from leaven (greedy dealers) before He became our Passover Lamb.
Behemah
Plural: Behemot.
Beast. General term for animals. As a simple plural, behemot means
beasts; as a plural of intensity, it signifies a large beast, similar
to the liv'yatan.
Beinoni
Plural: Beinonim.
People of median (intermediate) piety. The sinners. In Hebrew
thought, mankind consists of 3 classes: the Tzadekim (righteous), the
Beinoni (sinners, intermediates) and the Rashim (the perversely wrong;
the wicked).
Beit
House. The Temple in Yerushalayim.
Beit Din
"House of Judgement." Jewish court employing religious and Talmudic
law. Rabbinical court.
Beit HaMikdash
House that is set-apart; synagogue.The Temple in Yerushalayim.
Beit HaShoevah
House of the Water-pouring. A joyous ceremony of water libation held
during Sukkot. The sages taught that those who have never observed
the joy of the House of the Water-pouring, have never seen joy.
Order this Glossary from:
Johann van Rooyen
PO Box 5276
HELDERBERG
7135
SOUTH AFRICA
E-Mail: JOHANVR@NAC.AC.ZA
End of Part 2
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