Jewish Terms and their Meanings
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Group |
Description |
Reference |
| Yad | Literally "hand"; the pointer used by the reader to indicate the place during the reading of the Torah. | |
| Yahad | "Union"; term used in the Dead Sea Scrolls in the sense of "community" with special reference to the Qumran community. | |
| Yahadut | Judaism | |
| Yahrzeit | The anniversary of a death; also known as "Nahalah". | |
| Yahya ibn Zakariyya | John the Baptist | |
| Yam ha-Aravah | Dead Sea | |
| Yam ha-Talmud | "Sea of the Talmud"; a post-talmudic expression indicating the vastness of the Talmud. | |
| Yam Kinneret | Sea of Galilee | |
| Yam Suf | Red Sea | |
| Yamim Nora'im | "Days of Awe"; a term applied to the period from the first day of Rosh Ha-Shanah until the Day of Atonement and more particularly to these two festivals. | |
| Yammah, Zibah | Both these words refer to a woman's flux, an excessive abnormal discharge. By contrast "onah" is used to refer to her normal period. | |
| Yare'ah | The moon | |
| Yarmulka | Yiddish for the Hebrew "Kippah"; a skullcap | |
| Yatom | Orphan | |
| Yavam | brother of a man who died childless, and who was to marry his brother's widow. Same as "Levir". | |
| Yayin | Wine | |
| Ye'ush | "Despair"; despair of property. A person's ownership of property ceases when it is apparent that he has made up his mind that the property will be out of his possession forever. | |
| Yekki | Jews of German background. | |
| Yekum Purkan | "May deliverance arise"; the name of two prayers recited in the Ashkenazi rite immediately after the reading of the haftarah on the Sabbath. | |
| Yerushalayim | Jerusalem | |
| Yeshivah shel Ma'lah | "Academy on high"; in rabbinic tradition, a heavenly body of scholars. | |
| Yeshivah, Yeshivot | "Sitting"; designation for an academy, also an orthodox Jewish school. | |
| Yevamah | A woman whose husband had died childless, and who was then obligated to marry his brother. | |
| Yezer ha-Ra | Inclination to evil, bad impulse. | |
| Yezer ha-Tov | Inclination to good, good impulse. | |
| Yibbum | Levirate marriage; the marriage between a widow whose husband died without offspring (the yevamah) and the brother of the deceased (the yavam or levir), as prescribed in Deuteronomy 25:5–6. It is also called "Halizah". | |
| Yiddish Language | Language used by Ashkenazi Jews for the past 1,000 years. Developed as an intricate fusion of several unpredictably modified stocks, the language was gradually moulded to serve a wide range of communicative needs. | |
| Yiddishkeit | Literally "Jewishness"; refers to practicing Judaism based on how Judaism understands the Torah. | |
| Yidoni, yidonim | A wizard, wizards | |
| Yigdal | "May He be magnified"; opening word of a liturgical hymn. | |
| Yihud | "Being alone together"; forbidden as a safeguard against fornication. | |
| Yihus | Genealogy | |
| Yirat Elohim | Fear of God | |
| Yirat Shamayim | "Reverence of heaven". | |
| Yishtabbah | "Praised"; first word and the name of the blessing which concludes the Pesukei de-Zimra section of the morning service. | |
| Yizhar | "New oil", ointment. | |
| Yizkor | "He shall remember"; opening word of the memorial prayer, said for departed close relatives on the last day of Passover. | |
| Yom ha-Azma'ut | Israel's Independence Day | |
| Yom ha-Sho'ah | Holocaust Remembrance Day | |
| Yom Kippur Katan | Minor Day of Atonement; the eve of the new month which became for the pious a day of fast and repentance. | |
| Yom Kippur, Yom ha-Kippurim | Day of Atonement | |
| Yom Tov | Festivals | |
| Yoreh De'ah | Dietary laws; one element of Joseph Caro's four part code of Jewish law. | |
| Yovel | Jubilee | |
| Yozer, Yozerot | A series of piyyutim inserted in the benedictions which precede and follow the Shema of the morning prayers. | |
| Yuhasin | Pedigrees; laws dealing with the determination of an individual's personal status and its legal consequences, insofar as such a status derives from a person's particular parentage. |