Torah: A term that specifically means the Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Usually referring to the scroll written in Hebrew, but can mean the printed text as well. Christians refer to this as the Old Testament but Jews do not.
Torah portion: The section of the Torah corresponding to the date of the bar mitzvah boy’s birth and read aloud by him, then talked about in his speech.
Tzedakah: The Hebrew word meaning charity.
Yahrzeit: Lighting a candle at the year’s commemoration of a loved one’s death.
Yiddish: the language of Eastern European Jews made up from medieval German and including words from Hebrew, Romance, and Slavic languages. At one point, actually up until the mid-twentieth century, it had a vibrant culture, a literary and poetic tradition, newspapers printed in the language, as well as stage plays and songs. Traditional Klezmer songs are usually sung in Yiddish.
B.u.g. Big Ugly Guy (9781101593523) Page 21
