Word: hebrew
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...what the skullcap represented. Its founders in 1824 were moved both by the Enlightenment idea that humans could better approach God through reason than through unquestioning faith and ceremony and by an urge to create a sleek American Judaism shorn of old-world adornments. They replaced much of the Hebrew liturgy with English. Their platform pledged allegiance to traditional Judaism's moral laws (avoiding the Hebrew word mitzvoth) but dismissed ritual observances such as rules for keeping kosher as "entirely foreign to our present mental and spiritual state." Visitors to Reform temples were often asked to remove their yarmulkes...
Accordingly, his document commits Reform to continuous study of "the whole array of mitzvoth," acknowledging that certain of them "demand renewed attention." Studded with Hebrew, it recommends study of the language "that we may draw closer to our people's sacred texts." Menitoff describes it as a "radical break...
...uniqueness of Reform Judaism." Since the principles are not compulsory, they will continue to be debated by Reform Jews everywhere. But after the measure passed in Pittsburgh, the "for" voters linked arms with the "against" voters, and all joined in the traditional prayer song Shehechiyanu. The words are Hebrew. Everybody knew them...
Taking a break from the army, Barak earned a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. To make some spending money, he worked for a time as a private eye, specializing in cheating husbands. It was on campus that he first dated his future wife, Nava Cohen, now an English teacher. Sitting in the library beside her while they both listened to music on headphones, he handed her the movie listings with a question mark drawn at the top. She replied with an exclamation point inked over her choice. Today they have three daughters...
Barak went on to obtain a master's in systems engineering from Stanford University. As is customary when an Israeli goes abroad, he chose a Hebrew replacement for his East European surname, Brog. Barak had the appropriately militaristic meaning of "lightning," but because of a speech defect that turns his r's into w's, he cannot quite pronounce...