Glossary of Terms

This glossary offers short explanations and context for the key technical terms used across this website.

Term	Definition
Mitzvah	Literally “commandment”. A religious obligation or divine directive in Judaism; often used colloquially to mean a good deed.
Mitzvot	Plural of Mitzvah.
Taryag	The Hebrew alphanumeric representation of the number 613. It is formed by the letter values: Tav (400) + Resh (200) + Yod (10) + Gimel (3) = 613. Scholars often speak of Taryag Mitzvot (the 613 commandments).
Torah	In the narrow sense, the Five Books of Moses (Pentateuch). In the broader sense, the entirety of Jewish teaching.
Talmud	The central text of rabbinic literature, consisting of the Mishnah (written law) and the Gemara (discussion and commentary).
Halakha	The collective body of Jewish religious laws derived from the Written and Oral Torah.
Gematria	The Jewish system of associating Hebrew letters with numbers and interpreting words based on their numerical values.
Tzitzit	The specially knotted fringes attached to the four corners of certain garments.
Tallit	The Jewish prayer shawl to which the Tzitzit are attached.
Rambam / Maimonides	Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (1135–1204), one of the most prominent Jewish scholars, philosophers, and physicians of the Middle Ages.