Encyclopedia Of Judaism (Encyclopedia of World Religions)

641 Pages·2005·29.32 MB·English

by  Sara E. Karesh

Encyclopedia of World Religions
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Encyclopedia of
Judaism
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Sara E. Karesh and Mitchell M. Hurvitz
J. Gordon Melton, Series Editor
Encyclopedia of Judaism
Copyright © 2006 by Sara E. Karesh and Mitchell M. Hurvitz
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Karesh, Sara E.
Encyclopedia of Judaism / Sara E. Karesh and Mitchell M. Hurvitz.
p. cm. — (Encyclopedia of world religions)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8160-5457-6
1. Judaism—Encyclopedias. I. Hurvitz, Mitchell M. II. Title. III. Series.
BM50.K37 2005
296′.03—dc22 2004026537
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contents
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About the Editor vi
List of Illustrations vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Transliteration xii
Introduction: Judaism xiii
Chronology xxiii
ENTRIES A TO Z 1
Bibliography 576
Index 583
about the editor
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Series editor J. Gordon Melton is the director of has written or edited more than three dozen books
the Institute for the Study of American Religion in and anthologies as well as numerous papers and
Santa Barbara, California. He holds an M.Div. articles for scholarly journals. He is the series edi-
from the Garrett Theological Seminary and a tor for Religious Information Systems, which sup-
Ph.D. from Northwestern University. Melton is plies data and information in religious studies and
the author of American Religions: An Illustrated related fields. Melton is a member of the American
History, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, Academy of Religion, the Society for the Scientific
Religious Leaders of America, and several compre- Study of Religion, the American Society of Church
hensive works on Islamic culture, African-Ameri- History, the Communal Studies Association, and
can religion, cults, and alternative religions. He the Society for the Study of Metaphysical Religion.
vi
list of illustrations
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Hannah Arendt 29 Freed hostages at the Entebbe Boy selling Ma’arivnews-
Representation of the Ark of airport 141 paper 302
the Covenant 33 David Ben-Gurion 158 Marx Brothers 313
Auschwitz 36 Anne Frank 161 Masada 314
Ehud Barak 44 Betty Friedan 164 Golda Meir 319
Bat mitzvah boy reading Ruth Bader Ginsburg 177 Menorah near the
Torah 45 Samuel Gompers 181 Knesset 322
Menachem Begin 48 Rebecca Gratz 183 Mezuzah 326
Ben Yehudah Street 53 Great Synagogue, Arthur Miller 328
Irving Berlin 54 Jerusalem 185 Mount Sinai 342
Membership certificate for the Guggenheim Museum 187 Old City of Jerusalem 364
B’nai B’rith 62 Reading the Passover Priestly blessing 405
Louis Brandeis 66 Haggadah 193 Purim costume 409
Berlin Chapel, Brandeis Hamsa 198 Yitzhak Rabin 413
University 67 Hebrew Union College 202 Reform synagogue, London,
Marc Chagall 82 Hebrew University 203 England 421
Hanukkiyah 84 Theodor Herzl 208 Philip Roth 434
Synagogue in Hong Kong, Israel Defense Forces 238 Anwar Sadat 443
China 86 Israeli flag 239 Jonas Salk 447
Dead Sea Scrolls 109 Kapparah ritual 266 Solomon Schechter 451
Decalogue 110 Kibbutznik 271 Passover seder table 457
President Herzog, Denmark 112 Children on a kibbutz 272 Sephardic synagogue, Los
Dreidel 122 Henry Kissinger 274 Angeles, California 462
Ezer Weizman 128 Knesset 276 Shekel bills 470
Albert Einstein 134 Yitzhak Shamir at the Kotel Shofar 475
Ellis Island 136 (Western Wall) 279 Star of David 495
Street sign in London, Lower East Side, New Gloria Steinem 498
England 139 York 299 Sukkot 502
vii
K viii Encyclopedia of Judaism
Synagogue in Nashville, Torah scroll 522 Chaim Weizmann 550
Tennessee 506 Funeral procession after the Tri- Elie Wiesel 552
Henrietta Szold 508 angle Fire in New York 525 Isaac Mayer Wise 554
Boy studying Talmud 511 Leon Trotsky 527 Yellow Star 561
Praying with tallitand Harry Truman 528 Studying at a yeshiva 562
tefillin 513 Survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto
Praying during Tisha B’Av 520 and concentration camps 548
preface
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The Encyclopedia of World Religions series has in India across southern Asia and then through
been designed to provide comprehensive coverage Tibet and China to Korea and Japan. Each time it
of six major global religious traditions—Buddhism, crossed a language barrier, something was lost,
Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Roman Catholicism, but something seemed equally to be gained, and
and Protestant Christianity. The volumes have been an array of forms of Buddhism emerged. In Japan
constructed in an A-to-Z format to provide a handy alone, Buddhism exists in hundreds of different
guide to the major terms, concepts, people, events, sect groupings. Protestantism, the newest of the
and organizations that have, in each case, trans- six traditions, began with at least four different
formed the religion from its usually modest begin- and competing forms of the religious life and has
nings to the global force that it has become. since splintered into thousands of denominations.
Each of these religions began as the faith of a At the beginning of the 19th century, the six
relatively small group of closely related ethnic religious traditions selected for coverage in this
peoples. Each has, in the modern world, become a series were largely confined to a relatively small
global community, and, with one notable excep- part of the world. Since that time, the world has
tion, each has transcended its beginning to changed dramatically, with each of the traditions
become an international multiethnic community. moving from its geographical center to become a
Judaism, of course, largely defines itself by its global tradition. While the traditional religions of
common heritage and ancestry and has an alter- many countries retain the allegiance of a majority
native but equally fascinating story. Surviving of the population, they do so in the presence of
long after most similar cultures from the ancient the other traditions as growing minorities. Other
past have turned to dust, Judaism has, within the countries—China being a prominent example—
last century, regathered its scattered people into a have no religious majority, only a number of
homeland while simultaneously watching a new minorities that must periodically interface with
diaspora carry Jews into most of the contempo- one another.
rary world’s countries. The religiously pluralistic world created by
Each of the major traditions has also, in the the global diffusion of the world’s religions has
modern world, become amazingly diverse. Bud- made knowledge of religions, especially reli-
dhism, for example, spread from its original home gions practiced by one’s neighbors, a vital
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