Hebrew schoolHebrew school is Jewish education focusing on topics of Jewish history, learning the Hebrew language, and finally learning their Torah Portion, in preparation for the ceremony in Judaism of entering adulthood, known as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Hebrew School is usually taught in dedicated classrooms at a Synagogue, under the instruction of a Hebrew teacher (who may or may not be fluent in Hebrew), and often receives support from the cantor for learning the ancient chanting of their Torah portion, and from the rabbi during their ceremony since they must read from a Torah scroll, which has no Hebrew vowels, and very close together text and minimal line spacing; making it very challenging for almost anyone to read from.
Three Pilgrimage FestivalsThe Three Pilgrimage Festivals or Shalosh Regalim (שלוש רגלים), are three major festivals in Judaism—two in spring, Pesach (Passover), 49 days later Shavuot (Weeks or Pentecost), and in autumn Sukkot (Tabernacles, Tents or Booths)—when all ancient Israelites who were able would make a to the Temple in Jerusalem, as commanded by the Torah. In Jerusalem, they would participate in festivities and ritual worship in conjunction with the services of the kohanim ("priests") at the Temple.
Hebrew diacriticsHebrew orthography includes three types of diacritics: Niqqud in Hebrew is the way to indicate vowels, which are omitted in modern orthography, using a set of ancillary glyphs. Since the vowels can be understood from surrounding letters, context can help readers read the correct pronunciations of several letters of the Hebrew alphabet (the rafe sign and other rare glyphs are also listed as part of the niqqud system but are not in common use); geresh and gershayim, two diacritics that are not considered a part of niqqud, each of which has several functions (e.
ShvaShva or, in Biblical Hebrew, shĕwa (שְׁוָא) is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign written as two vertical dots ( ) beneath a letter. It indicates either the phoneme /ə/ (shva na', mobile shva) or the complete absence of a vowel (/Ø/) (shva nach, resting shva). It is transliterated as , , , (apostrophe), or nothing. Note that use of for shva is questionable: transliterating Modern Hebrew shva nach with is misleading, since it is never actually pronounced [ə] – the vowel [ə] does not exist in Modern Hebrew.
Baal keriahA baal keriah (Hebrew: , 'master of the reading'), colloquially called the baal korei (Hebrew: , 'master-reader'), is a member of a Jewish congregation who reads from the Sefer Torah during the service. As there are no niqqud, punctuation, or cantillation marks (called in Yiddish) in a Sefer Torah, and these are required features of the reading, the baal keriah must memorize them beforehand. When the Torah scroll is placed on the bimah, or reading table, the baal keriah approaches the bimah by the most direct route possible and stands in front of the scroll, a little to the left.
