Even though It’s helpful to know how to read Hebrew, if you don’t, there is a way around it, transliteration. No more guilt (even though it’s a part of being Jewish) for not being a fluent Hebrew reader, Do you want to know more than 150 Hebrew words? here is your Fundamental Jewish-Ness dictionary. 5 words a day can take you a long way! Yeshar Koach, Strength to you. Enjoy.
Abba = Daddy
Adon Olam = Master of the World
Adamah = Earth
Adonai = My master, God
Ahavah = Love
Havanah = Understanding
Afikoman = The middle matzah on a Seder plate. During the Passover evening meal (Seder), hidden and the kids in attendance go to look for it, the one who finds it gets a gift
Alav hashalom = Rest in peace
Aliyah = The act of being called to the Torah to say the blessing over the Torah before and after it is read.
Amidah = Standing up. It’s the main prayer of each prayer service. The silent prayer in which we praise God, request our needs and express gratitude.
Avodah = Work, duty
Avraham Avinu = Our Father Abraham
Baruch Hashem = Thank God
Am Yisrael chai = The Jewish people will live
Aron hakodesh = The Holy ark containing the Torah scrolls
Avinu Malkenu = Our Father, Our King. Hebrew prayer of confession sung during the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services
Balagan = chaos, mess and confusion
Bar mitzvah =Son of the commandments. This coming-of-age ceremony is held when a Jewish boy or girl reaches 13 years of age
Bat mitzvah = Daughter of the commandments. This coming-of-age ceremony is held when a Jewish orthodox girl reaches 12 years of age
Bar’chu = The call to pray
Beit K’neset = Synagogue
Bimah = A stage in a synagogue from which services are conducted
Brit = The ritual circumcision performed when an infant boy is 8 days old, entering him into the covenant between God and Abraham.
Bubbe = Yiddish for grandmother.
Bli Eyin Hara = Without the evil eye
Bli Neder = Without a vow, I promise without a vow
Bracha = A blessing
Brachot = Blessings
Chag Sameach = Happy holiday
Challah = Braided bread typically served on Shabbat
Chanukah = The 8 night festival of light, commemorating the miracle of one day’s worth of oil burning for 8 days
Chatunah = Wedding
Chazzan = Cantor
Chesed = Kindness
Chodesh Tov = Good month
Chol HaMoed = The intermediate days between the 1st. and last two days of Pesach and Sukkos
Chametz = Leavened bread, bagels, crackers, risen wheat, we don’t eat on Pesach
Chumash = 5 books of the Torah / Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy
Chuppah = Wedding canopy
Chutzpah = Nerve positively / negative
Chai = Life
Chametz = Non kosher food on Passover
Charoset = Mixture of wine, apples, nuts and cinnamon eaten at Passover. The texture is symbolic of the mortar used by Hebrew slaves in their building for Pharaoh.
Chaver = A friend
Chavurah Jewish study, worship and socializing group
Erev = Evening
Erev Tov = Good evening
Ezrat Nashim = Women’s section in an Orthodox synagogue
Etz Chayim = Tree of life
Gelt = Money
Get = Jewish divorce document
Gmar Chasima Tovah = may you be inscribed for good, said between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
G’milut chasadim = Acts of loving kindness
Daven = Pray
Derech eretz = manners
Divrey Torah = words of Torah
Drasha = Sermon
Haggadah = Passover book
Hakafah = Walking with the Torah scroll through the sanctuary
Halachah = Jewish law
Hashem =”The name” the name of God
Imma = Mom
Kaballah = Jewish mysticism
Kaddish = Mourner’s prayer in memory of the deceased.
Kallah = Fiancée, female
Kapara – Atonement
kavanna = Intention
Kever = Gravesite
K’tubah = Jewish wedding contract
Kiddush = Ceremonial blessing recited over wine
Kiddush Hashem = Sanctifying the name of God through action
Kinderlach = Kids
Kittel = White robe a wear under the chuppah, Rosh Hashana, Pesach and are buried in.
Kippah = Skull cap
Kosher = clean, pure refers to food that has been ritually prepared or blessed so it can be eaten by religious Jews
Kol Ishah = A woman’s voice
Kol Nidrei = Service held on Yom Kippur eve
Kotel = The Western Wall, Wailing Wall, this structure in Old Jerusalem is all that remains of a wall that surrounded the Second Temple, destroyed in 70 CE.
Machzor = High Holiday prayer book
Magen David = Star of David
Matzah = Unleavened bread eaten during the holiday of Passover
Mashiach = Redeemer
Morah = A teacher
Mechitzah = Curtain / partial wall in the sanctuary of an Orthodox synagogue separating men and women during worship services
Meshugah = Crazy
Megillah = Scroll of Esther
Mezuzah = A parchment on which are written verses from the Torah, inserted into a case and attached to the door posts of Jewish homes.
Mikvah = Ritual bath
Minhagim = Customs
Minyan = Orthodox and Conservative synagogues require 1O males, above the age of 13, to recite certain prayers
Mi Shebeirach = Prayer for healing
Mishpachah = Family
Mitzvah = commandment, a good deed
Mohel = A Rabbi who performs circumcisions
Mussaf = A special prayer we say on Shabbat and holidays
Nachat = Pride parents get when their kid is doing well
Neshama = Soul, spirit
Parnasah = Income
Parshah = The weekly Torah portion, read every Shabbat completing one cycle each year.
Pasuk = Sentence
Pirkey Avot = Ethics of Our Fathers
Purim = Celebrating the time when our enemies were plotting to annihilate us
Pesach = Passover, a week-long holiday celebrating the Israelites’ Exodus from Egpyt, celebrated in the spring time
Tehillim = Book of psalms
Rav = Rabbi
Refuah Shlemah = Complete recovery
Rosh Hashana = Head of the year. The beginning of the year
Saba = Grandpa
Savta = Grandma
Seder = Order. The Passover order of the meal during which the story of the Exodus is told
Shabbat = Saturday ( we welcome the Shabbat on Friday evening )
Shacharit = Dawn, morning service
Shavuot = Weeks, celebrating the giving of the Torah upon Mount Sinai
Shalom = Hi, Peace, Goodbye
Shanah = A year
Shanah Tovah = A good year, Rosh Hashsanah greeting
Shema = Hear, claiming the oneness of God, this is Judaism’s most defining prayer
Shivah = The seven day mourning period
Shofar = Ram’s horn blown during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services.
Shomer Shabbat = observe the Shabbat laws, resting, not working
Shul = Synagogue
Siddur = Prayer book
Simcha = Happiness
Simchat Torah = Holiday that celebrates conclusion of the yearly cycle of reading the Torah
Sukkah = Temporary shelter constructed during the harvest festival of Sukkot
Talmud = The written collection of Jewish oral tradition.
Tallit = Prayer shawl
Tanach = Acronym for
*Torah = The Five Books of Moses
*Neviim = Prophets
*K’tuvim = Holy Writings all of which constitute the three parts of the Bible
Tareif = Not kosher
T’fillin = A set of black leather boxes containing parchment scrolls inscribed with verses from the Torah
Tikkun olam = Repair of the world
Todah = Thank you
Tzitzit = Attached to a four-cornered garment, fringes Orthodox men wear.
Tzedekah = Charity
Ulpan = An intensive learning course of the Hebrew language
Yad Hashem = The hand of God
Yeshivah = Sitting, and learning Torah
Yeshar Koach = Strength to you
Yom Tov = Good day