Only Yesterday (79 page)
hot, dry desert wind that creates a dusty, intense heatwave.
Hanukkah Dreidl A kind of spinning top used in a children’s game on Hanukkah.
Ha-Or Ben-Yehuda’s Hebrew daily, published in Jerusalem, 1910–1915.
Ha-Po’el Ha-Tsa’ir
(“The Young Worker”)
The non-Marxist Socialist Zionist party in Ottoman Palestine, as well as the name of the most influential Labor Zionist and literary weekly journal of the Second
Aliyah,
1907– 1970.
HASHEM The Name, referring to the ineffable Name of the Lord.
HaShiloah
Central Hebrew literary and cultural journal, founded by Ahad Ha-Am, in Russia in 1896.
Hasid Follower of one of the dynasties of Hasidism, an emotional, even ecsta-tic form of Jewish worship.
Hatam Sofer Moses Sofer (1762–1839), leader of Orthodox Jewry and Rabbi of Pressburg (Bratislava), where he founded his famous Orthodox Yeshiva engaged in the struggle against the Re-form movement.
Ha-Tsvi
Ben-Yehuda’s Hebrew newspaper, founded as a weekly in Jerusalem in 1884, and published as a daily after 1908; later renamed
Ha-Or.
Havatselet
Hebrew newspaper first published in Jerusalem in 1863–1864, and resumed publication in 1870 and con-tinued until the outbreak of World War
The paper was the organ of the Hasidim, who were the minority in the Ashkenazi community in Jerusalem, and eventually became a loyal supporter of the Distribution.
Heder Jewish religious primary school. Helperin, Michael (1860–1919) Socialist Zionist in Russia, settled in Rishon
LeTsion in 1886.
Herzeliya Gymnasium The first He-brew high school, founded in Jaffa in 1906, moved to Tel Aviv in 1909.
Herzl, Theodor (1860–1904) Ideologue
of political Zionism and founder of the World Zionist Organization.
Hilfsverein, Relief Organization of Ger-man Jewry (Hebrew:
Ezra
) Founded in 1901 to improve the social and political conditions of Eastern European and Oriental Jews; established Ger-man-speaking schools for Jews in Palestine.
Holy ARI, “the Sacred Lion” Initials of Isaac Ben Solomon Luria (1534–1572), the founder of the Lurianic Kabalah in Safed, Galilee, under Ottoman rule.
Horodna Houses (or Grodno) A town in Jewish Lithuania.
Hoshana Raba A name for the seventh and last day of the Sukkoth festival.
Humash The Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses.
Hungarian Houses Housing for Hungarian Jews in Jerusalem.
Hurbah (literally: ruin) The name given to the synagogue of Rabbi Yehuda Hasid in the Old City of Jerusalem, which fell into ruin in the early nineteenth century, when Jews from Eastern Europe were forbidden to settle in Jerusalem.
ICA Jewish Colonization Association, founded by Baron Maurice de Hirsch in 1891, philanthropic association to as-sist Jews around the world and foster agricultural settlements. From 1896, provided active support to settlements in Palestine.
Issar ( Judah ben Nehemiah of Brisk;
d. 1876) Lithuanian rabbi who immigrated to the Land of Israel at the end of his life, and died there.
Jaffa Gate One of the main entrances to the Old City of Jerusalem.
Jewish National Fund Founded in December 1901 at the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel, with the goal of redeem-ing land for Jewish development in Eretz Israel.
Kabbalah The traditional term for the esoteric teachings of Jewish mysticism.
Kaddish The memorial prayer for the dead.
Kalba Savoua Ben Kalba Savoua, a wealthy man in Jerusalem in the first century ce, who provided food for the inhabitants during the Roman siege.
Kapores
Kapparot,
the sacrifice of a fowl on Yom Kippur to atone for human sins.
Karaites A Jewish fundamentalist sect that emerged at the beginning of the eighth century and rejected the talmudic-rabbinic tradition.
Karlin Study House Of the Hasidic sect of the followers of the Rebbe of Karlin in Lithuania.
Kaymakam Turkish governor of a city or region.
Kedusha The third blessing of the Amidah, recited by pious Jews every morning.
Kfar Lifta Arab village on the western outskirts of Jerusalem.
Kfar Saba Town in central Israel, in the southern Sharon, settled in 1896.
Kiddush Prayer recited over a cup of wine in the home or synagogue to con-secrate the Sabbath or festival.
Kinneret Agricultural settlement at the Sea of Galilee, founded in 1909.
Kippa (yarmulke) Skullcap always worn by pious Jewish men.
Kiryat Yearim City of the Hivites, part of the Gibeonite confederation (see Joshua 9:17).
Kishinev (Pogrom) Kishinev is the capital of Moldavia, known in the Jewish world for a major pogrom that took place there in 1903.
Kislev Jewish month, corresponding to November-December.
Kook (Abraham Isaac; 1865–1935) Rabbinical authority and thinker, first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of modern Israel.
Krokhmal, Nahman (1785–1840) Philosopher, historian, one of the founders of the “Science of Judaism,” and a leader of the Haskalah movement in Eastern Europe.
Kugel Noodle pudding.
Lag b’Omer The thirty-third day of the counting of the
Omer,
the period between Passover and Shavuot.
Land of Israel (Eretz-Israel) A reference to the land of Israel before modern statehood.
Landau, Ezekiel ben Judah (1713–1793) Halakhic authority known by the name of his book,
The Famous of Yehuda
(
nodah bi-yehuda
).
Language Committee Committee to promote the Hebrew language, first founded by Eliezer ben Yehuda in Jerusalem in the 1880s. Now: the Academy of the Hebrew Language.
Latrun Crossroads in the southern Ay-alon Valley in Israel, where the Judean Hills and the coastal plain intersect.
Lemberg Lvov, the capital of eastern Galicia.
Lida Yeshiva Lithuanian Yeshiva in Palestine that originated in the city of Lida.
Lovers of Zion (Hovevey Tsion) Followers of the Hibbat Tsion movement founded in the early 1880s, a generation before Herzl’s political Zionism.
Ludvipol, Abraham (1865–1921) Hebrew journalist, settled in Palestine in 1907. Lunz, Abraham Moses (1854–1918) Immigrated to Jerusalem in 1869. Author, publisher, and enlightenment figure who published his famous
Yearbook for the Diffusion of an Accurate Knowledge of Ancient and Modern Palestine.
Between 1895 and 1915, he published an-nual literary almanacs, called
Luakh Eretz Israel
(“Calendar of the Land of Israel”).
Mahanayim A settlement founded by Orthodox Jews from Galicia in 1898, was soon abandoned, and attempts to revive it failed until a kibbutz was established there in 1933.
MaHaRSHA Rabbi Shmuel Eidels, fa-mous seventeenth-century Talmudist. Makhpelah The burial cave in Hebron bought by the Patriarch Abraham from
Ephron the Hittite (Genesis 23).
Mamila Street in Jerusalem.
Mapu, Abraham (1808–1867) Born in Kovno, Lithuania, famous for his novel
Ahavat Tsion
(“The Love of Zion”), published in Vilna in 1853.
Masie, Aaron Meir (1858–1930) Physi-cian specializing in ophthalmology. Settled in Rishon LeTsion in 1888, and then in Jerusalem in 1900. Author of a comprehensive dictionary of He-brew terms for medicine and natural sciences.
Maskil Adherent of the Haskalah, the Hebrew enlightenment, generally ap-plied to persons who acquired a secular education and culture.
Matzo Unleavened bread, eaten during the week of Passover.
May-Salvation-Arise An Aramaic prayer, read every Sabbath after the Torah reading. It includes a blessing for the Rabbis and their pupils and a blessing for the whole congregation.
Meah Shearim Neighborhood of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem.
Melaveh Malkah The festive meal
to accompany the Queen Sabbath on her departure at the end of the Sabbath.
Mendele Mokher Sfarim (Seforim; literally: “The Bookseller”) Pseudonym of Shalom Yakov Abramovitch 1835– 1917), nicknamed the Grandfather of Yiddish literature; founder of modern Yiddish and Hebrew prose and the “synthetic style” of Hebrew, including words from all historical layers of the language.
Meron Town in the Galilee near Safed, site of the tomb of Simeon bar Yokhay, where thousands of pilgrims assemble on Lag b’Omer.
Midnight Vigil Reading of Psalms and lamentations on the Destruction of the Temple, which Hasidim wake up at midnight to recite.
Mikveh Israel Jewish agricultural school east of Jaffa, established in 1870, by the Alliance Universelle Israélite.
Minyan A group of ten adult men re-quired for Jewish public prayer.
Mishkenot Sha’ananim (“Dwellings of the Peaceful”) First neighborhood outside the Old City walls in Jerusalem, established and built by Moses Montefiore in 1858.
Mishnah Collection of oral laws com-piled by Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi in the second century, which forms the basis of the Talmud.
Montefiore, Moses (1784–1885) Grew up in England and was involved in the rebuilding of Palestine.
Motza Jewish settlement west of Jerusalem.
Mount of Olives Cemetery Ancient Jewish cemetery outside the Old City of Jerusalem.
Mughrabi A Jew from North Africa. Musar Movement Movement for the education of the individual toward
strict, ethical religious behavior. Arose in the mid-nineteenth century among the Mitnagdim in Lithuania.
Najara, Israel (1555?–1625?) Hebrew poet in Ottoman Empire, lived in Damascus and Safed.
Narghila A Middle Eastern tobacco pipe whose smoke is filtered through water.
Ne’ila The closing prayer of Yom Kippur.
Nes Tsiona A Zionist settlement near Rehovoth.
Neve Tsedek Neighborhood between Jaffa and Tel Aviv.
Nissan The first month of the ancient Hebrew calendar or the seventh month in the accepted current calendar, roughly in April.
Odessa Committee (short for: Society for the Support of Jewish Farmers and Ar-tisans in Syria and Palestine) Legal framework of Hovevey Tsion (“The Lovers of Zion”), founded in Odessa in 1890.
Old City The area of Jerusalem within the seventeenth-century walls, com—
prising Christian, Moslem, Armenian, and Jewish quarters.
Oliphant, Laurence (1829–1888) English writer, traveler, and Christian mystic, who supported the return of the Jews to the Land of Israel.
Oppenheimer, Franz (1864–1943) Ger-man sociologist and economist, initiated the cooperative agricultural settlements in the Land of Israel.
Our Bard The Hebrew national poet, Bialik (allusion to the poem “To the Bird”).
Our Father Our King Avinu Malkenu, prayer.
Outside the Land Diaspora, according to the binary opposition: the Land of Israel / Outside the Land.
Ovadia of Bartanura (Bertinoro; popularly called Bartinura) Italian Rabbi of the fi and sixteenth centuries, canonical commentator of the Mishnah.
Peretz, Isaac Leyb (1852–1915) Classical Yiddish fiction writer.
Petach Tikva Literally: Opening of Hope. The first new agricultural settlement near Tel Aviv, founded by obser-vant Jews from Jerusalem in 1878. In 1883, BILU immigrants renewed the settlement.
PICA Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (1924–1957), established by Baron Edmond de Rothschild for the development of Jewish settlements in Palestine. Agnon mistakenly refers to ICA by its later name.
Pidyon Ha-Ben Redemption of the first-born son (see Numbers 18:16–17).
Pineles, Hirsh Mendel (1806–1870) Galician scholar and writer, lived in Brody.
Plevne City in northern Bulgaria; site of battles between the Russian and Turkish armies in 1877.
Poaley Tsion
The Marxist Labor Zionist party, originated in the 1890s in Russia and established as World Union of Poa-ley Tsion in 1907. Mainspring of the Israeli Labor Movement.
Prayer shawl (Tallis) Worn by Jewish men during prayers.
Przemysl City and fortress in Galicia.
Purim Rattle A noisemaker used to drown out the name of the wicked Haman, during the reading of the Book of Esther at Purim.
Rabbi Benjamin, pseudonym of Yehoshua Radler-Feldmann (1880– 1957) Hebrew journalist born in Galicia. Arrived in Palestine in 1907, worked as a laborer and became secretary of Herzeliya Gymnasium in Tel Aviv. One of the few Galician writers in the Second
Aliyah.
Rabbi Meirle of Peremyshlyany (1780– 1850) Grandson of Rabbi Meir of Peremyshlyany, known as “the First” or “the Great,” founder of a Hassidic dynasty. One of the most outstanding per-sonalities among the Hasidic rebbes of Galicia.
Rabinovitch, Alexander Ziskind (known by his acronym, AZAR, 1854–1945) Hebrew writer, settled in Palestine in 1906.
RaMA (Rabbi Moses Isserlish, 1525–1572) Polish rabbi, one of the great Halakhic authorities.
Ramle Arab city on the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem.
Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, 1040– 1105) Born in Troyes, France; major author of the canonical commentary of the Bible and the Talmud.
Reb Yudel Hasid Hero of Agnon’s novel,
The Bridal Canopy.
Rebbe Dynastic leader of a Hasidic sect.
Rehovoth Settlement in the coastal plain near Jaffa, founded in 1890 by First
Aliyah
immigrants.
Religion of Work A cornerstore of A. D. Gordon’s labor ideology.
Rishon LeTsion “The First in Zion,” a settlement twelve kilometers from Jaffa. Founded in 1882.
Rivlin, Yoshi Yosef Yitzhak (1837–1896), born in Jerusalem, initiated the building of the first Jewish quarters outside the Old City walls, such as Nahalat Shiv’a and Meah Shearim.
Rizhin Rebbe (Israel Ruzhin, 1797–1850) Founder of the Ruzhin or Rizhin dynasty.
Rokakh, Eleazar (1854–1914) Born in Jerusalem, lived in Safed. From 1880 he lived in Romania and Galicia, where he encouraged Jews to settle in Eretz-Israel.
Rosh Hashanah The Jewish New Year in the autumn.
Rothschild, Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (1845–1934) Patron of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel.
Ruppin, Arthur (1876–1943) Economist, sociologist, and “father of the Zionist settlement” in the Land of Israel.