TzadikTzadik (צַדִּיק ṣaddīq tsaˈdik, "righteous [one]"; also zadik or sadiq; pl. tzadikim tsadiˈkim ṣadīqīm) is a title in Judaism given to people considered righteous, such as biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The root of the word ṣadiq, is ṣ-d-q ( tsedek), which means "justice" or "righteousness". When applied to a righteous woman, the term is inflected as tzadika/tzaddikot. Tzadik is also the root of the word tzedakah ('charity', literally 'righteousness').
ChabadChabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (חב"ד לובביץ; חב״ד ליובוויטש), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic groups and Jewish religious organizations in the world. Unlike most Haredi groups, which are self-segregating, Chabad operates mainly in the wider world and caters to secularized Jews.
Jewish mysticismAcademic study of Jewish mysticism, especially since Gershom Scholem's Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941), draws distinctions between different forms of mysticism which were practiced in different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbalah, which emerged in 12th-century Europe, is the most well known, but it is not the only typological form, nor was it the first form which emerged. Among the previous forms were Merkabah mysticism (c. 100 BCE – 1000 CE), and Ashkenazi Hasidim (early 13th century) around the time of the emergence of Kabbalah.
RebbeA Rebbe (רבי) or Admor (אדמו״ר) is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties. The titles of Rebbe and Admor, which used to be a general honor title even before the beginning of the movement, became, over time, almost exclusively identified with its Tzaddikim. Today, rebbe is used in the following ways: Rabbi, a teacher of Torah – Yeshiva students or cheder (elementary school) students, when talking to their teacher, would address him with the honorific Rebbe, as the Yiddish-German equivalent to the Hebrew word rabbi ( ˈʁabi).
Hasidic JudaismHasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות Ḥăsīdus, χasiˈdus; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contemporary Western Ukraine during the 18th century, and spread rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most affiliates reside in Israel and the United States. Israel Ben Eliezer, the "Baal Shem Tov", is regarded as its founding father, and his disciples developed and disseminated it.
OhrOhr ("Light" אור; plural: Ohros/Ohrot "Lights" אורות) is a central Kabbalistic term in Jewish mysticism. The analogy of physical light is used as a way of describing metaphysical divine emanations. Shefa (שפע "flow" and its derivative, Hashpoah "Influence" השפעה) is sometimes alternatively used in Kabbalah, a term also used in Medieval Jewish philosophy to mean divine influence, while the Kabbalists favour Ohr because its numerical value equals Raz ("mystery").
Merkabah mysticismMerkabah (מֶרְכָּבָה merkāvā, "chariot") or Merkavah mysticism (lit. Chariot mysticism) is a school of early Jewish mysticism, c. 100 BCE – 1000 CE, centered on visions such as those found in the Book of Ezekiel chapter 1, or in the hekhalot literature ("palaces" literature), concerning stories of ascents to the heavenly palaces and the Throne of God. The main corpus of the merkabah literature was composed in the period 200–700 CE, although later references to the Chariot tradition can also be found in the literature of the Chassidei Ashkenaz in the Middle Ages.
GilgulGilgul (also Gilgul neshamot or Gilgulei HaNeshamot; Heb. , Plural: Gilgulim) is a concept of reincarnation or "transmigration of souls" in Kabbalistic esoteric mysticism. In Hebrew, the word gilgul means "cycle" or "wheel" and neshamot is the plural for "souls." Souls are seen to cycle through lives or incarnations, being attached to different human bodies over time. Which body they associate with depends on their particular task in the physical world, spiritual levels of the bodies of predecessors and so on.
MisnagdimMisnagdim (, "Opponents"; Sephardi pronunciation: Mitnagdim; singular misnaged/mitnaged) was a religious movement among the Jews of Eastern Europe which resisted the rise of Hasidism in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Misnagdim were particularly concentrated in Lithuania, where Vilnius served as the bastion of the movement, but anti-Hasidic activity was undertaken by the establishment in many locales.
AtzmusAtzmus/atzmut ( from the Hebrew etzem) is the descriptive term referred to in Kabbalah, and explored in Hasidic thought, for the divine essence. Classical Kabbalah predominantly refers to the Godhead in Judaism with its designated term "Ein Sof" ("No end"-Infinite). Reference to atzmus is usually restricted in Kabbalistic theory to discussion whether "Ein Sof" represents the ultimate divine being in itself, or to God as first cause of creation.
