ChesedChesed (חֶסֶד, also Romanized: Ḥeseḏ) is a Hebrew word that means 'kindness or love between people', specifically of the devotional piety of people towards God as well as of love or mercy of God towards humanity. It is frequently used in Psalms in the latter sense, where it is traditionally translated as "loving kindness" in English translations. In Jewish theology it is likewise used of God's love for the Children of Israel, and in Jewish ethics it is used for love or charity between people.
God in JudaismGod in Judaism has been conceived in a variety of ways. Traditionally, Judaism holds that Yahweh, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the national god of the Israelites, delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and gave them the Law of Moses at Mount Sinai as described in the Torah. Jews traditionally believe in a monotheistic conception of God (God is only one), which is both transcendent (wholly independent of, and removed from, the material universe) and immanent (involved in the material universe).
ShasuThe Shasu (from Egyptian šꜣsw, probably pronounced Shaswe) were Semitic-speaking pastoral nomads in the Southern Levant from the late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age or the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt. They were tent dwellers, organized in clans ruled by a tribal chieftain and were described as brigands active from the Jezreel Valley to Ashkelon and the Sinai. Some of them also worked as mercenaries for Asiatic and Egyptian armies. Some scholars link the Israelites and YHWH with the Shasu.
Great AssemblyAccording to Jewish tradition the Great Assembly (כְּנֶסֶת הַגְּדוֹלָה, also translated as Great Synagogue or Synod) was an assembly of 120 scribes, sages, and prophets, which existed from the early Second Temple period (around 516 BCE) to the early Hellenistic period (which began with Alexander's conquests of 333–332 BCE), roughly coinciding with the Persian hegemony over the nation of Israel.
Elephantine papyri and ostracaThe Elephantine Papyri and Ostraca consist of thousands of documents from the Egyptian border fortresses of Elephantine and Aswan, which yielded hundreds of papyri and ostraca in hieratic and demotic Egyptian, Aramaic, Koine Greek, Latin and Coptic, spanning a period of 100 years in the 5th to 4th centuries BCE. The documents include letters and legal contracts from family and other archives, and are thus an invaluable source of knowledge for scholars of varied disciplines such as epistolography, law, society, religion, language and onomastics.
Priestly BlessingThe Priestly Blessing or priestly benediction, (ברכת כהנים; translit. birkat kohanim), also known in rabbinic literature as raising of the hands (Hebrew nesiat kapayim) or rising to the platform (Hebrew aliyah ledukhan) or dukhanen (Yiddish from the Hebrew word dukhan – platform – because the blessing is given from a raised rostrum) or duchanning, is a Hebrew prayer recited by Kohanim (the Hebrew Priests, descendants of Aaron). The text of the blessing is found in Numbers .
HallelujahHallelujah (ˌhæləˈluːjə ; hallū-Yāh, Modern halləlū-Yah) is an interjection from the Hebrew language, used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, and four times in the Christian Book of Revelation. The phrase is used in Judaism as part of the Hallel prayers, and in Christian prayer, where since the earliest times it is used in various ways in liturgies, especially those of the Catholic Church, the Lutheran Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Church, the three of which use the Latin form alleluia which is based on the alternative Greek transliteration.
Sefer YetzirahSefer Yetzirah (סֵפֶר יְצִירָה Sēp̄er Yəṣīrā, Book of Formation, or Book of Creation) is the title of a book on Jewish mysticism, although some early commentators, such as the Kuzari, treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory as opposed to Kabbalah. The word Yetzirah is more literally translated as "Formation"; the word Briah is used for "Creation". The book is traditionally ascribed to the patriarch Abraham, although others attribute its writing to Rabbi Akiva.
Yehud MedinataYehud, also known as Yehud Medinata or Yehud Medinta, was an autonomous administrative province of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. It was one of several such provinces in Palestine, with the others being Moab, Ammon, Gilead, Samaria, Ashdod and Idumea, constituting the fifth Persian satrapy of Eber-Nari. Located in Judea, it continued to exist for two centuries before it was incorporated into the Hellenistic empires following the Wars of Alexander the Great.
JehovahJehovah (dʒɪˈhoʊvə) is a Latinization of the Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. The Tetragrammaton יהוה is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God's name in Christianity. The consensus among scholars is that the historical vocalization of the Tetragrammaton at the time of the redaction of the Torah (6th century BCE) is most likely Yahweh.
