by Mark Horn
hevruta: the act of studying Jewish sacred texts in pairs or in a small group.
HinJu: A Jewish person who also observes Hindu practices.
Hod: The eighth Sephira. Humility, Gratitude.
hoda’ah: Gratitude, thankfulness.
Imma Ila’ah: The Higher Mother. This refers to the Sephira of Binah.
Itaruta Dile’eyla: Arousal from above. Itaruta Diletata: Arousal from below. JuBu: Jewish Buddhist.
Kabbalah: The body of Jewish esoteric teachings, both written (the Sefer Yetzirah, the Sefer Bahir, the Zohar, etc.) and oral. From the verb to receive, it is the “received tradition.”
karōshi: Japanese, meaning “death by overwork.”
kavvanah: From the Hebrew for “direction,” it is usually used to mean conscious intention in prayer or prayerful action.
Keter: Crown. The first Sephira.
ketubah: A Jewish ritual wedding contract
keyn yehi ratzon: Hebrew for “may it be Your will.”
kineahora: An exclamation to ward off the evil eye.
kli, klipot (plural): Shells, husks. The remains of the structure that held the first Sephirot, which broke because they were too rigid. Hidden in these shells are broken-off parts of the Divine light, to be restored by human acts of Tikkun Olam.
Lamed-Vavnik: One of thirty-six hidden saints, or righteous people, that Jewish folklore says exist in every generation.
Lubavitch: Most often refers to the Chabad sect of Hasidism, which was founded in the village of Lubavitch. (At the time, it was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, though now it sits within the Russian border.)
Ma’aseh Merkavah: The name of a Jewish mystical text, possibly from the early medieval period, that teaches how to ascend to the heavens through meditations on the sacred names of the Divine. Literally, “the work of the chariot.”
Magen David: The shield of David. It refers to the six-pointed star that has become a common symbol for the Jewish religion.
Major Arcana: The twenty-two cards of the tarot deck that correspond to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
mazel tov: Used to say “good luck” or “congratulations.” It comes from the Hebrew, literally meaning “under a good constellation.”
middot: Virtues.
midrash: A style of biblical exegesis or interpretation. Often used to describe literary interpretations of biblical stories in the Jewish tradition that fill in the gaps in these stories.
Minor Arcana: The fifty-six suit cards of the tarot deck.
Mishkan: The Tabernacle, the portable shrine that was built and then carried by the Israelites during their forty years in the wilderness. It was where the Ark of the Covenant was kept.
Mishnah: From the Hebrew for “repetition,” it is the first written collection of rabbinic decisions, from the third century CE, and is the first section of the Talmud.
Mitzrayim: The Hebrew name for Egypt. It means “the narrow straits” or “the narrow place.”
mono no aware: The Japanese aesthetic based on the Buddhist teaching of the transience of all things. It means “beautiful sadness of things.”
nefesh: One of the four kinds of souls.
nes: Miracle.
Netzach: The seventh Sephira. Endurance, Victory.
niggun, niggunim (plural): Wordless melodies sung as meditative chants to open the heart and activate the yearning of the soul for the Divine.
olam: World or universe. It can also refer to a period of time, such as an eon. Because of this ambiguity, it is sometimes translated as the Einsteinian phrase “space-time” or “time and space.”
omer: An ancient Israelite measure for dry goods such as grain. The exact measure is in dispute, but it was probably somewhere between 5.5 and 6.5 pounds.
Or Ein Sof: The light of the Infinite One. Another name for the Divine.
Pachad: Another name for the fifth Sephira, Gevurah. It means “fear.”
Pali: The language of the Buddha.
Pardes: An acronym for the four levels of the exegesis or interpretation of the Torah: Peshat, the exoteric, or literal meaning; Remez, the allegorical meaning; Derash, the meaning derived from analogous stories or situations; Sod, the esoteric, or hidden meaning. The word pardes means “orchard” or “garden” in Hebrew, and it is related to the English word paradise.
Parsha: The weekly Torah section chanted aloud in the synagogue on Shabbat and during morning services on Mondays and Thursdays. There are fifty-four weekly readings over the course of the year.
Pentecost: The Jewish holiday of Shavuot (Hebrew for “weeks”) was called Pentecost (meaning fifty days) in the Septuagint, the Torah as translated into Greek by Hellenized Jewish communities. Celebrated fifty days after the second day of Passover, it was an agricultural holiday that developed into a celebration of revelation—of receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai. Christianity built on this tradition, with it becoming a holiday commemorating the revelation of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles.
Pesach: Hebrew for the Passover holiday.
Peshat: One of the four levels of traditional Jewish biblical exegesis—the literal, direct, surface level of the text.
Pirkei Avot: Hebrew for Chapters of the Fathers, and often translated as Wisdom of the Elders, it is a compilation of ethical teachings and sayings of rabbis of the period from about 200 BCE to 200 CE.
pseudepigrapha: Works that have been falsely attributed to a figure of the past. The Zohar, which was published by Rabbi Moses de León in the thirteenth century, was ascribed to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who lived in the second century CE, though most scholars agree that it was written by Rabbi Moses de León.
Qabalah: The common spelling by occultists of the Western spiritual tradition for studies deriving from Judaic Kabbalah in order to distinguish it from the original Judaic tradition.
rachamim: Hebrew for “compassion.” From rechem meaning “womb.” Another name for the sixth Sephira, Tiferet.
Rambam: Acronym that refers to Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, also known as Maimonides.
Ratzon: Hebrew for “will.” It most often refers to the prime will of the Divine that led to Creation.
Rosh Hashanah: Hebrew for Head of the Year. The new year holiday that starts the ten-day period of the “high holidays,” also known as the “days of awe,” that end with Yom Kippur.
Ruach HaKodesh: The Holy Spirit.
Samsara: Buddhist concept of the cyclical nature of reality, the mundane existence we are born into again and again until we reach Nirvana.
Seder Hishtalshelut: The order of descent of the Sephirot from world to world in a chain of “trees of life” leading from Ein Sof down to the world of manifestation.
Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Formation, one of the earliest Kabbalistic texts in the Jewish tradition, attributed to the patriarch Abraham (see Pseudepigrapha entry), though scholars believe it was written some time between the second century BCE and the sixth century CE.
Sephirot: Hebrew for “emanations.” It refers to the ten attributes of the Divine personality emanating from the Infinite. They serve as channels of energy through which the Infinite becomes known within the finite world. It is etymologically related to the Hebrew words for “counting,” “book,” and “sapphire.”
Shabbat: The seventh day of the week. In Jewish mythology, the final day of Creation, on which God rested from the work of creating the universe.
shalom bayit: Hebrew for “peace in the home.”
Shamayim: Hebrew for “heavens” (plural).
Shavuot: Hebrew for “weeks.” The holiday celebrated seven weeks after Passover. Originally an agricultural holiday celebrated at the Temple in Jerusalem, it developed into a Kabbalistic celebration of the receiving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai fifty days after the Israelites left Egypt.
shedu: A demon. From the Sumerian, and in that language, it referred to a Mesopotamian deity that had the body of a lion or a bull, the wings of an eagle, and the head of a human.
Shekinah: The Indwelling Presence of the Divine in the world—God as immanent. In Jewish mythology, it is expressed also as the feminine presence of YHVH who went into exile with the people after the destruction of the Temple in the first century CE, although because YHVH is One, the Shekinah is not really separate: it’s only our experience of the Shekinah that is separate. It is also a name for the tenth Sephira, Malkut.
shiviti: An illustration made up of words, often from the Psalms, that is used as an object of meditation or contemplation. It means, “I have placed” in Hebrew and comes from Psalms 16:8: “I have placed YHVH always before me.”
Sh’ma: Hebrew for “listen” or “hear.” It is the first word of the proclamation of Divine unity (God as both transcendent and immanent) at the center of Jewish worship services and daily prayers: “Hear O Israel, YHVH is our God, YHVH is One.”
Shulchan Aruch: The most widely accepted compilation of Jewish law, authored by the noted Kabbalist Joseph Karo in the sixteenth century.
sila: From the Sanskrit. The Buddhist path of ethics and moral conduct.
simcha: Joy. An occasion for joy. The attitude with which all Jews are encouraged to live their lives.
Sitra Achra: Hebrew for the Other Side, referring to evil or impure spiritual forces.
Sogetsu: One of the three major schools of traditional Japanese flower arranging. It is the most modern.
Talmud: The collection of writings from the postbiblical period that recorded the oral tradition that included debates over Jewish law as well as lore. Written down over a period between 200 CE and 500 CE, it records decisions known in the oral tradition from earlier rabbinic periods. There are in fact two
Talmuds: one written in Babylonia and the other in Jerusalem.
Tanakh: An acronym for the Hebrew Bible, which includes the Torah (the Five Books of Moses), the Nevi’im (Prophets), and the Ketuvim (the Writings, which includes books such as the Psalms and the Song of Songs).
tefila: Hebrew for “prayer.”
Tetragrammaton: The four-letter name of the Divine, YHVH –yod, hey, vuv, hey. It is written without vowels and considered to be unpronounceable. When read aloud most Jews read it as Adonai (Lord) or HaShem (the Name), and many Kabbalists will read it as Havayah (the Name of Being). In the Temple period, it was only said aloud once a year by the high priest, during Yom Kippur. It is thought to come from the Hebrew verb “to be,” and some people think of it as “Is/Was/Will Be.”
Tiferet: The sixth Sephira. Hebrew for “adornment,” it is translated as Beauty, Truth, Balance, Harmony, and Compassion.
Tikkun Leil Shavuot: The Kabbalistic practice of staying up all night through to dawn from before the start of Shavuot to study sacred texts in order to “repair” the oversleeping of the Israelites on the day they were to receive the Torah at Mt. Sinai. And by staying up all night in study, one awakens to revelation.
Tikkun Olam: Hebrew for Repair of the World. From a Kabbalistic perspective, any action that helps reunify the Divine is a Tikkun Olam. Fulfilling the mitzvot (commandments) is essential to this practice. Today, in Jewish social justice settings, it refers to social action that furthers the spread of justice and equality.
to’e’vah: Hebrew term translated most frequently as “abomination” but is perhaps more accurately translated as “taboo,” in that it refers to an act that is ritually prohibited.
Torah: The Five Books of Moses. The word torah has a range of meanings, including “teaching” and “law.”
Torah Nistar: Refers to the hidden meaning of the Torah, its esoteric meaning.
t’shuvah: Hebrew for “return.” It carries the meaning of “repentance,” but includes a sense of a reconciling return to innocence.
Tzimtzum: The paradoxical concept that the Omnipresent Divine withdrew Its Godself to leave space for Creation that is filled with the Divine. Another way to describe the veiling of the Divine within Creation.
Via Lucis: Latin for the Way of Light. It is a Christian meditation practice that centers on the Resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ. It is a recent development, in reaction to the Via Crucis, the Stations of the Cross, which focuses attention on the torture of Christ on his way to the Crucifixion.
Via Negativa: A theological way of thinking about the Divine in which the only way It can be described is by negation, as in: It’s not that. It takes the position that the Divine is beyond our language or our conceptual or our perceptual abilities, and as such, any attempt to describe It cannot be correct.
Vipassana: From Pali, the language of the Buddha. It literally means “insight” or “seeing clearly.” In the Buddhist tradition, it refers to one of the Buddha’s meditation techniques that give practitioners insight into the true nature of reality.
wa: Japanese for “harmony.”
Yechida: The highest level of the soul, always in contact and connected to the Divine.
Yesod: The ninth Sephira, Foundation.
yetzer hara: Hebrew for “the inclination to do evil.”
yetzer hatov: Hebrew for “the inclination to do good.”
Yetzirah: One of the four Kabbalistic worlds, the world of Formation. In the tarot deck, it corresponds to the suit of Swords.
YHVH: See Tetragrammaton.
yod: The tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It also signifies the number 10.
yoducha: Hebrew for “[they] will give thanks ”
Yom Hillula: The anniversary of the death of a sage or saintly person, observed as a celebration.
Yom Kippur: Hebrew for Day of Atonement. It is considered the holiest day on the liturgical calendar.
zava’ah: An ethical will, written with the intention of passing down wisdom and values from one generation to another.
Zohar: Hebrew for “radiance.” Also the name of the book considered to be the most important Kabbalistic text, written by Rabbi Moses de León in thirteenth-century Spain.
A Note about God Language
JEWS DO NOT PRONOUNCE the four-letter name of God, transliterated as YHVH. With no vowels in the name, it’s unclear exactly how to pronounce the name. Historically, it is believed that only the high priest at the Temple knew this pronunciation, and he only used it one day a year, during Yom Kippur, when he would enter the Holy of Holies. When Jews see these four letters in a text, they substitute a title, Adonai, which roughly translates as Lord. Or sometimes they say HaShem, which simply means the Name. Christians have often translated this name as Jehovah or Yahweh. However, by adding vowels, you fix the meaning in Hebrew; without vowels, these letters, which are the letters for the verb to be, can be roughly translated as “Is/Was/Will Be.” In other words, the Eternal.
In this book, I try not to use the word God very much. Like Adonai, it’s not a name; it’s a descriptive title. Orthodox Jews don’t even write the word, preferring to leave out the vowel, just as in the Hebrew, to avoid taking the name in vain, writing it as G-d. I rather like a variation that I’ve seen, which uses either a question mark or an exclamation point: G?d or G!d. Personally, though, I’d prefer using an interrobang: G?d.
Because the Jewish understanding of Ein Sof is that It is beyond gender, I do my best not to use a gender pronoun, though in Judaism, there are gendered faces of the deity, with the understanding that the Shekinah is the feminine face of the One. That said, when quoting old sources, I leave the gendered pronouns in. Just as for many years when reading old prayer books, I became adept at seeing one word and reading another.
In the myths of some other peoples, there are many gods. In the Tanakh, there are many words, names, and titles used to describe this One Being that essentially cannot be described because It cannot be contained by language.
One of the most important Jewish prayers, the Kaddish, speaks to the problem of the inability of language to describe something beyond language by simultaneously praising YHVH with words while recognizing that none of these words of praise can possibly exp
ress the ineffable.
Blessed, praised and glorified, exalted, extolled and honored, magnified and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He; though he be high above all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations, which are uttered in the world; and say ye, Amen.1
So you’ll have noticed that I prefer to use words that speak to the qualities we associate with the Deity: the Source, the Holy One, the Compassionate One, the Divine. These words are also inadequate. Still, I prefer to use many words that speak to qualities and characteristics that give voice to our varied experiences of the Divine rather than the words God or Lord, which can carry childish or medieval hierarchical associations. This practice is hardly radical; it is what you will find in translations from Hebrew in the siddur (prayer book) of the Jewish Reconstructionist movement, and many of these names you will find in the Hebrew Bible itself. HaRachaman, the Compassionate One, is just such a traditional name. The Kabbalists use many names for the Deity, and they assigned some of these names that appear in Torah to each of the Sephirot. There are many complicated meditative techniques taught by Kabbalists based on permutations of the names of the Deity. If this is something you want to explore, start by reading Aryeh Kaplan’s translation of the Sefer Yetzirah, Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation.
All this is to say, don’t get hung up on a name. When I’m quoting a sacred text, Jewish or Christian, I use the words used by the translator of that particular text. In your own prayers, use what feels natural and comfortable to you. Or use something that feels uncomfortable so that it takes you out of the illusion that you know Who or What it is that you’re addressing.
Footnotes
*1 The Mishnah was the first time in history that the “oral tradition” in Judaism was written down, sometime in the third century CE.
*2 This custom actually survives to this day; you can see it enacted in the online YouTube video titled “A Shower of Rose Petals for Pentecost at St. John Cantius Church.”