Glossary
(All Words Given Below, Unless Otherwise Specified, Are Hebrew.)
Chanukah Feast of Dedication, or Feast of Lights, commemorating the victory of Judas Maccabeus.
CHASSIDÎM See Chossid.
Cheder Private religious school.
Chossid (pl. Chassidîm). Briefly, a mystic. See the article Hassidîm, in the Jewish Encyclopedia, V.
Dayan Assistant to the rabbi of a town.
Dreier (Ger.). A small coin.
Esrog (pl. Esrogîm). The “fruit of the tree Hadar,” used with the Lulav on the Feast of Tabernacles. See Lev. xxiii. 40.
Feldscher (Ger.). Assistant army surgeon; the successor to the celebrated Röfeh of twenty or thirty years ago.
Gehenna The nether world; hell.
Gemoreh The Rabbinical discussion and elaboration of the Mishnah. See Talmud.
Gevir (pl. Gevirîm). Influential rich man.
Groschen (Ger.). A small coin.
Gulden (Ger.). A florin.
GÜTER YÜD (Ger., “Good Jew”). Chassidic wonder-worker. See Rebbe.
Havdoleh Division; the ceremony ushering out the Sabbath or a holiday.
Hekdesh Free hospital.
Kabbalah A mystical religious philosophy, much studied by the Chassidîm.
Kaddish Sanctification; a doxology. Specifically, the doxology recited by a child in memory of its parents during the first eleven months after their death, and thereafter on every anniversary of the day of their death.
Kedushah Sanctification; an important part of the public service in the synagogue.
Kissush Sanctification; the ceremony ushering in the Sabbath or a holiday.
KLÄUS (Ger.). House of study; lit., hermitage.
Kohol The community; transferred to the heads of the community.
Kopek (Russian). Small Russian coin, the hundredth part of a ruble.
Kosher Ritually permitted.
LÀMED-WÒFNIK. One of the thirty-six hidden saints, whose merits are said to sustain the world. Làmed is thirty; wòf is six; and nik is a Slavic termination expressing “of the kind.”
LEHAVDÎL Lit. “to distinguish.” Elliptical for “to distinguish between the holy and the secular.” It is equivalent to “excuse the comparison”; “with due distinction”; “pardon me for mentioning the two things in the same breath”; etc.
Lulav (pl. Lulavîm). The festal wreath used with the Esrog on the Feast of Tabernacles. See Lev. xxiii. 40.
Maariv The evening service.
Maskil An enlightened one; an “intellectual.”
Minchah The afternoon service.
Minyan A company of ten men, the minimum for a public service.
Mishnah A code of laws. See Talmud.
Mishnayes Plural of Mishnah; specifically, the volumes containing the Mishnah.
Misnagid (pl. Misnagdîm). One opposed to the mystical teaching of the Chassidîm.
Mohel The one who performs the rite of circumcision.
Parnosseh Means of livelihood; sustenance.
Rabbi Teacher of the Law; the religious guide and arbiter of a community; also teacher, as at a Cheder.
Reb Mr.
Rebbe The acknowledged leader of the Chassidîm, usually a wonder-worker; called also “Güter Yüd.” and Tsaddik.
Rebbitzin Wife of a rabbi.
RÖFEH Jewish physician.
Ruble (Russian). Russian coin worth about half a dollar.
Sechser (Ger.). A small coin.
Shochet Ritual slaughterer.
Shofar Ram’s horn, used on New Year’s Day, etc. See Lev. xxiii. 24.
Shool (Ger., Schul’). Synagogue.
Simchas Torah. The Festival of Rejoicing in the Law, the ninth day of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Sliches Penitential prayers. Applied to the week, more or less, before the New Year, when these prayers are recited at the synagogue.
STÜBELE (Ger.). Chassidic meeting-house.
Taki (Russian). Really.
Tallis Prayer-scarf.
Talmud The traditional lore of the Jews, reduced to writing about 500 of the present era. It consists of the Mishnah and the Gemoreh.
Talmud Torah. Free communal school.
Tefillin Phylacteries.
Tikerin Assistant at the women’s bath.
Torah The Jewish Law in general, and the Pentateuch in particular.
Tossafot An important commentary on the Talmud, composed chiefly by Franco-German authorities.
Tsaddik Lit. “righteous man”; specifically, a Rebbe, a wonder-worker, a “Güter Yüd.”
The Lord Baltimore Press
BALTIMORE, MD., U. S. A.
Changes made in the text
(not of the etext transcriber):
staid longer=>stayed longer
Footnotes
1 A Bible commentator of the sixteenth century.
2 Conveyance opportunely going the same way.
3 Shatnez, mixture of wool and linen, forbidden in the Pentateuch.
4 From the Talmudical treatise on damages.
5 College.
6 Five good marks, the highest number given in the Russian schools.
7 The correct name of the town.
8 The tenth of Tishri. New Year is Tishri 1.
9 Holy day. Hebrew.
10 In desperate cases of illness, people vow to supply the synagogue with candles equal to the length of certain parts of the cemetery.
11 Small lumps of dough dropped into the soup while it is cooking.
12 Servituty. These are of different kinds.
13 Bride-maidens—girls of marriageable age.
14 Thick chicken soup with balls of flour.
15 Father.
16 Of the bridegroom in Shool to the Reading of the Law.
17 The Friday nearest December 21.
18 Diminutive of Tate = Father.
19 No unbaptized Jew may become an official in the courts in Russia.
20 For the soul of the dead, to wash and dry itself.
21 A verst is.663 of a mile.
22 A Lithuanian mile = 5.56 English miles.
23 A Jew taken from his home as a child, under Nicholas I, estranged from his family and his faith, and made to serve in the army.
24 Jewish name for the typical Russian.
25 Addressing them in Polish instead of Russian.
26 “When you are a hundred and twenty years old”—the ideal age for the Jew, the age reached by Moses.
27 Get up! Russian.
28 Three men necessary for a certain form of grace.
29 Pièkalik—built on to the stove.
30 Little souls fly, little souls fly!
31 “You also have a soul?” Polish.
32 Because he was suspected of not keeping the dietary laws.
33 Our little Talmud student would not be familiar with much of the Prophets’ writings beyond what is contained in the prayer-book. The study of the Prophets savored rather of free-thinking.
34 A tiny bit of wood tied up and thrown away with the nails. The superstitions behind this practice are not confined to the Jews.
35 Which had been invested with wonder-working powers.
36 “Fine meal,” as in Gen. xviii. 3; used also figuratively.
37 Head-dress with broad ribbon to hide the hair of a married woman.
38 A celebrated Hebrew novel by Mapu.
39 Eve of the Day of Atonement.
40 Pious offerings dropped into the collecting-box of “Meïr Baal-Ness,” to be found in every orthodox Jewish house. The money is for the poor Jews in Palestine.
41 Free meals given to poor students at the tables of different householders.
42 Instead of bringing him up to the study of the Law.
43 The man in the moon is sometimes identified with Joshua in Jewish legend.
44 According to the Talmudical legend.
45 Little Jew.
46 Adapted from the twelfth principle of the Jewish faith, relating to the Messiah.
47 Sabbath dish prepared the day before, and kept in a heated oven overnight.
48 Bontzye “mum.”
49 Men of great learning in the Law.
50 By which the law is made applicable to an elderly woman.
51 Grandsons. A celebrated Rebbe would have “sons” and “grandsons” among his adherents. The former would remain, the latter would come and go in companies and more or less respectable conveyances.
52 Owing to the emigration of the younger men to America in the “bad times.”
53 “Chapter of Song,” a Midrash, found in some editions of the prayer-book.
54 “Töre is die beste S’chöre.” From a Yiddish cradle-song.
55 Hebrew blessing before eating bread.
56 According to the Talmudic legend like Moses and other saints.
57 Rúach, Hebrew for wind and spirit both.
58 Who stand for colonization in Argentina and Palestine, respectively.
59 God.
60 They have understood that the writer’s mission is connected with the matter of Jewish recruits.
61 Unfit for military service.
62 “Bride”-grace, girlish charm.
63 A Hebrew newspaper
64 Followers of the Rebbes of Radzin and Belz, respectively.
65 To his prayer-scarf. See Num. xv. 38.
66 Followers of the Rebbes of Radzin and Belz, respectively.
67 The plaintiff must take action in the place of domicile of the defendant.
68 Belz being in Austrian Poland. There were two famous Rebbes of Belz in the last century; the second died in 1894. It has been asserted that thirty thousand Jews followed him to his grave.
69 For having no passports.
70 Sir, my lord. Polish.
71 And still Jacob did not become like Laban. A Midrash, a rabbinical amplification of the Biblical text.
72 An exclamation corresponding to the Italian che!
73 Not our people!
74 Commotion.
75 Nickname for a Jew, diminutive of Jacob.
76 Anti-Semitism.
77 Prayer of supplication.
78 Kith and kin.
79 A Kabbalistic allusion.
80 Maimonides.
81 The curtain hung in front of the Ark.
82 To their prayer-scarfs.
83 Opponents might deny them burial in a choice place.
85 Peace be upon you! Hebrew.
86 Surname.
87 Special calling-up of a bridegroom to the Reading of the Law.
88 Up to the time when universal conscription was introduced in Russia in 1874, every Jewish community, Kohol, had to furnish a given number of recruits, the Government asking no questions as to how these were obtained.
89 Which exempts him from military service.
90 Who have adopted German = Western ways of life.
91 Gentile.
92 Worn beneath the outer garments.
93 The “Sabbath of the Vision,” preceding the Ninth of Ab (fast in memory of the destruction of the Temple), when the lesson from the prophets is Isaiah I, beginning, “The Vision of Isaiah.” At this period there is much almsgiving.
94 According to the Talmudic legend.
95 The standard code of laws.
96 “Hear, O Israel, etc.” The Chassidîm are not punctilious about observing the prescribed time limits for the recitation of the Shema.
97 Pölen = Poland.
98 “A sach melòches un wenig bròches.”
99 So called from Moses xv. 1, read on the day when—it is not far from the “New Year for trees”—children place food for birds in the windows.
100 Machine for making paper out of rags.
102 Right of a land-owner to keep a distillery—which was frequently let out to a Jew.
103 Boarding with the wife’s parents.
104 Macaroni-seller.
105 The rebukes and threats in Lev. xxvi and Deut. xxviii.
106 Used when speaking of animals.
107 “Beyond the Good”—the powers of darkness. We touch here on Kabbalistic lore relating to the origin of evil.
109 Order of service.
110 Bread made with saffron.
111 Followers of the Kotzk and Belz Rebbes, respectively.
112 The service read in the home on the first (and the second) Passover eve.
113 Passover cakes soaked in broth or other liquid.
114 Rabbinical amplification of the Biblical text.
115 This is an allegory referring to certain aspects of Zionism.
116 “Happy, etc.,” Ps. lxxxiv. 5, three times dally in the prayers.
117 When the weeping female relatives of the sick force their way through the male congregation to the Ark, throw it open, and bedew the scrolls with their tears.
118 Confirmed.
119 A man of influence. Hebrew.
120 The Rebbe’s.
121 Rich man’s wife. Hebrew.
122 Hannah my crown.
123 Chazan, the reader or reciter of the prayers in the synagogue
124 Reciting of prescribed prayers.
125 Lest the meat and milk should not be ritually permitted.
126 Our brothers, the children of Israel.
127 Kind of cloak.
128 Russian term of contempt, in contradistinction to Yevrèi = Hebrew.
129 This was an important article of trade, required for the peasants’ carts, etc.
130 Wedding jester and improvisatore.
131 Croup.
132 He visited, I visited. Hebrew.
133 A kind of cake.
134 Gymnasium, in Russia as in Germany, is a college.
135 Idol. Hebrew.
136 As of those religious precepts which it is not possible to carry out literally.
137 Qualification for eternal bliss.
138 A suburb of Warsaw.
139 Russian officials.
140 As beseemed an orthodox, married Jewess.
141 Allusion to the ceremony performed on the eve of the Day of Atonement, when a cock or hen is twirled round the head, and a prayer is read.
142 The seventh day of Tabernacles.
143 The eighth day of Tabernacles.
144 To the teaching of the Chassidîm.
145 “The great Rabbi Loeb” who lived in the sixteenth century, and who became the central figure of many a legend.
146 No Gentile to be hired for that purpose.