Parish churchA parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, often allowing its premises to be used for non-religious community events. The church building reflects this status, and there is considerable variety in the size and style of parish churches. Many villages in Europe have churches that date back to the Middle Ages, but all periods of architecture are represented.
Pesukei dezimraPesukei dezimra (פְּסוּקֵי דְּזִמְרָא pǝsûqê ḏǝzimrāʾ "Verses of praise"; Rabbinic Hebrew: פַּסוּקֵי הַזְּמִירוֹת pasûqê hazzǝmîrôṯ "Verses of songs), or zemirot as they are called in the Spanish and Portuguese tradition, are a group of prayers that may be recited during Shacharit (the morning set of prayers in Judaism). They consist of various blessings, psalms, and sequences of other Biblical verses. Historically, reciting pesukei dezimra in morning prayer was a practice of only the especially pious.
Orlando di LassoOrlando di Lasso (various other names; probably 1532 – 14 June 1594) was a composer of the late Renaissance. The chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school, Lassus stands with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Tomás Luis de Victoria as the leading composers of the later Renaissance. Immensely prolific, his music varies considerably in style and genres, which gave him unprecedented popularity throughout Europe.
Lawrence SchiffmanLawrence Harvey Schiffman (born 1948) is a professor at New York University (as of 2014); he was formerly Vice-Provost of Undergraduate Education at Yeshiva University and Professor of Jewish Studies (from early 2011 to 2014). He had previously been Chair of New York University's Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and served as the Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor in Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University (NYU).
Psalm 1Psalm 1 is the first psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in the English King James Version: "Blessed is the man", and forming "an appropriate prologue" to the whole collection according to Alexander Kirkpatrick. The Book of Psalms is part of the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christian Old Testament. In Latin, this psalm is known as "Beatus vir" or "Beatus vir, qui non abiit". The psalm is a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican liturgies in addition to Protestant psalmody.
BenedictionA benediction (Latin: bene, well + dicere, to speak) is a short invocation for divine help, blessing and guidance, usually at the end of worship service. It can also refer to a specific Christian religious service including the exposition of the eucharistic host in the monstrance and the blessing of the people with it. From the earliest church, Christians adopted ceremonial benedictions into their liturgical worship, particularly at the end of a service. Such benedictions have been regularly practiced both in the Christian East and West.
Tahrif(تحريف, ) is an Arabic-language term used by some Muslims to refer to the alterations that are believed to have been made to the previous revelations of God—specifically those that make up the Tawrat (or Torah), the Zabur (or Psalms) and the Injil (or Gospel). It is also used to refer to what Muslims consider to be the corrupted Jewish and Christian interpretations of the previous revelations of God, known as “Tahrif al-Mana”. This position does not hold that the previous revelations of God were altered in text.
SoferA sofer, sopher, sofer SeTaM, or sofer ST"M (סופר סת״ם, "scribe"; plural of is , סופרים) is a Jewish scribe who can transcribe Sifrei Kodesh (holy scrolls), tefillin (phylacteries), mezuzot (ST"M, סת״ם, is an abbreviation of these three terms) and other religious writings. By simple definition, soferim are copyists, but their religious role in Judaism is much more.
TypikonA typikon (or typicon, typica; Τυπικόν , "that of the prescribed form"; Slavonic: Типикон, сиесть Устав - Tipikon or Ustav) is a liturgical book which contains instructions about the order of the Byzantine Rite office and variable hymns of the Divine Liturgy. The ancient and medieval cathedral rite of Constantinople, called the "asmatikē akolouthia" ("sung services"), is not well preserved and the earliest surviving manuscript dates from the middle of the eighth century.
AcrosticAn acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the first letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the French acrostiche from post-classical Latin acrostichis, from Koine Greek ἀκροστιχίς, from Ancient Greek ἄκρος "highest, topmost" and στίχος "verse". As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval.
