B.u.g. Big Ugly Guy (9781101593523)
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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.