29 terms, nothing assumed
Glossary.
Every Hebrew word on this site is introduced where it first appears. This page holds all of them together, in case you met one and moved on.
- Avodah Zarahעבודה זרהah-vo-DAH ZAH-rah
foreign service
The first of the seven laws. The Hebrew does not say false service; it says foreign service, service directed to an address where nothing lives. Zarah is the same word used for a stranger, someone who does not belong to this house.
- Avosאבותah-VOHS
fathers
A tractate of the Mishnah made up almost entirely of ethical statements rather than law, often printed in English as Ethics of the Fathers. Cited on this site by chapter and paragraph, so Avos 1:18.
- Bereishisבראשיתb'ray-SHEES
in the beginning
The first book of the Torah, called Genesis in most English Bibles. Hebrew books are named for their opening word. Every one of the seven laws is read out of a single verse in this book.
- Birkas Hashemברכת השםBEER-kahs hah-SHEM
blessing the Name
The second of the seven laws. The name is a deliberate substitution: the law concerns cursing the Name, and the tradition would not write that phrase, so it wrote its opposite instead. The euphemism has stood for two thousand years.
- Chassidusחסידותkhah-see-DOOS
the teaching of the Chassidic movement
A body of teaching beginning in eighteenth century Eastern Europe that takes the ideas of Kabbalah and puts them to work on the inner life of an ordinary person. Where this site uses a deeper layer, it is usually drawing on this.
- Chazalחז"לkhah-ZAHL
our Sages, may their memory be a blessing
A collective name for the rabbis of the Talmudic period. When this site says the tradition teaches, this is usually who is meant.
- Derashahדרשהd'rah-SHAH
an expounding
A reading that draws law or meaning out of the precise wording of a verse. The seven laws are found in Bereishis 2:16 by a derashah, clause by clause.
- Dinimדיניםdee-NEEM
judgments
The seventh of the seven laws, and the only one that asks a society to build something rather than to refrain. The singular, din, means a judgment or a legal ruling.
- Dira B'tachtonimדירה בתחתוניםDEE-rah b'takh-toh-NEEM
a dwelling in the lowest realms
The teaching that G-d desired a home in the lowest place, meaning this world, the ordinary one. It is the reason the seven laws land on a table and a scale rather than in the heavens.
- Eiver Min HaChaiאבר מן החיAY-ver min hah-KHAI
a limb from the living
The sixth of the seven laws. Eiver is a limb; chai means alive. It forbids eating flesh torn from an animal that is still living, and it was added to Noach at the moment meat was first permitted.
- GezelגזלGEH-zel
robbery
The fifth of the seven laws. Hebrew distinguishes gezel, taking openly, from geneivah, taking in secret. The law is named for the open one and covers both.
- Gilui Arayosגילוי עריותgee-LOO-ee ah-rah-YOHS
uncovering nakedness
The fourth of the seven laws. The phrase is the Torah's own idiom for forbidden sexual relationships, built from the language of exposure rather than of desire.
- Halachahהלכהhah-lah-KHAH
the way one walks
Jewish law, as settled practice rather than as theory. This site does not rule on halachah and says so on every page.
- Hashemהשםhah-SHEM
the Name
The ordinary way of referring to G-d in speech, used instead of pronouncing the four letter Name. Notice that even conversational usage is already a substitution made out of care.
- Kohen Gadolכהן גדולkoh-HEN gah-DOHL
High Priest
The priest who entered the innermost chamber of the Temple once a year, alone and unwitnessed. The Talmud compares a gentile occupied with the seven laws to him, and the comparison is about standing entirely inside your own portion rather than about the size of it.
- Maamarמאמרmah-ah-MAHR
a discourse
A formal Chassidic discourse, built by raising questions on a verse and then answering them all at once from a single idea. Two maamarim by the author stand behind this site.
- MitzvahמצוהMITZ-vah
a commandment
Commonly used in English to mean a good deed, which loses the point. It is a commandment, and Chassidic teaching reads the word as connected to an Aramaic word meaning joining, so that a commandment is a place arranged in advance where two parties meet.
- NoachנחNOH-akh
Noah
The man who survived the flood. All of humanity descends from him in the Torah's account, which is why the seven laws are called the seven commandments of the sons of Noach.
- Rambamרמב"םRAHM-bahm
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon
A twelfth century physician and codifier, known in English as Maimonides. His Mishneh Torah is the standard summary of the whole of Jewish law, and its final chapters are where the seven laws are set out.
- Rambanרמב"ןRAHM-bahn
Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman
A thirteenth century commentator, known in English as Nachmanides. He disagrees with the Rambam about how wide the seventh law is, and this site carries both readings without resolving them.
- Sanhedrinסנהדריןsahn-HED-reen
the high court
Also the name of the tractate of the Talmud that deals with courts and capital law. The passage at Sanhedrin 56b is where the seven laws are derived from a single verse.
- Shefichus Damimשפיכות דמיםsh'fee-KHOOS dah-MEEM
spilling of blood
The third of the seven laws. Hebrew does not use an abstract word for killing here. It names the liquid and the ground it lands on.
- Sheva Mitzvos B'nei Noachשבע מצוות בני נחSHEH-vah MITZ-vohs b'nay NOH-akh
the seven commandments of the sons of Noach
The formal name of the subject of this whole site: seven laws understood as binding on every human being, derived from one verse and set out in the closing chapters of the Mishneh Torah.
- Sinaiסיניsee-NIGH
the mountain of the giving of the Torah
The event at which the Torah was given to Israel. It matters for the seven because the Talmud holds that a law given to the sons of Noach and repeated at Sinai stands for both, so the seven are not merely an ancient inheritance.
- TalmudתלמודTAHL-mood
study, or learning
The record of centuries of discussion of the Oral Torah, closed around the sixth century. It is an argument rather than a summary. References give a tractate and a page side, so Sanhedrin 56b.
- TohuתהוTOH-hoo
chaos, or formlessness
In Kabbalah, a state before this world in which the lights were too great for the vessels holding them, so the vessels shattered. The seven kings of Edom are read as those vessels.
- TorahתורהTOH-rah
instruction, or teaching
Not law in the narrow sense. It means the five books, and it also means the whole body of Jewish teaching built on them. The Talmud says that a gentile occupied with the Torah of his seven commandments is like a High Priest.
- Tzimtzumצמצוםtzeem-TZOOM
contraction, or withdrawal
The Kabbalistic teaching that creation began with a withdrawal of light rather than an outpouring of it, leaving a hollow in which a world could stand. This site reads the six restraints as doing the same work in a human life.
- Vayetzavויצוvah-y'TZAHV
and He commanded
The first word of Bereishis 2:16. The Talmud finds courts of justice in it, and records a second reading that finds idolatry in it. The same word yields both, and the difference is where the command came from.