Seder plate
A plate that holds ritual foods used throughout the Pesach (Passover) seder. Each item on a seder plate is a symbol of the Exodus story and helps participants at the seder retell the story each year.
Yachatz
“breaking.” A step of the Pesach (Passover) seder when a whole piece of matzah is broken in half. The larger half is set aside as the afikoman. Often younger participants are involved in a game of “find the afikoman.”
Z’roa
Literally, “bone.” It is customary to place a shank bone on the seder plate as a reminder of the Passover sacrifice in Temple times.
Maccabees
The family of five sons who led the revolt against the Hellenization of Jerusalem and became the heroes of the Hanukkah story.
Baal t’kiah
Literally, “master of t’kiah,” meaning “one who sounds the shofar.”
Bein adam laMakom
Literally, “between a person and God.” Refers to the religious or ritual mitzvot, or sacred obligations. The Mishnah teaches that the day of Yom Kippur atones for sins between a person and God.
Bein adam lachaveiro
Literally, “between a person and their fellow.” Refers to ethical, moral, or social mitzvot that govern relationships between and among people.
Cheit
A Hebrew term for “sin.” Cheit is a Hebrew archery term meaning “missing the mark.” A section of High Holiday liturgy is the Al Cheit, a confession of ways in which we “missed the mark” during the past year.
T’kiah
Literally, “blast” or “blowing of a horn;” it is a note of the shofar call.
T’kiah g’dolah
Literally the “great” t’kiah, this is the longest, deepest call of the shofar heard as the final shofar blast on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.