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tansy

(Encyclopedia)tansy tănˈzē [key], perennial herb (Tanacetum vulgare) of the family Asteraceae (aster family), native to Europe but naturalized in North America. It was long cultivated for its ornamental foliage ...

feast

(Encyclopedia)feast, commemorative banquet symbolizing communal unity. Generally associated with primitive rituals and later with religious practices, feasts may also commemorate such events as births, marriages, h...

Gamaliel of Jabneh

(Encyclopedia)Gamaliel of Jabneh jăbˈnē [key], fl. a.d. 100, Jewish scholar; grandson of the Gamaliel who, according to tradition, taught St. Paul the law. A Palestinian Tanna, he succeeded Johanan ben Zakkai as...

plagues of Egypt

(Encyclopedia)plagues of Egypt, in the Bible, the plagues and other troubles brought on Egypt by God through the hands of Moses, because Pharaoh would not let the people of Israel go out of Egypt. The account, in t...

kosher

(Encyclopedia)kosher [Heb.,=proper, i.e., fit for use], in Judaism, term used in rabbinic literature to mean what is ritually correct, but most widely applied to food that is in accordance with dietary laws based o...

Gaster, Moses

(Encyclopedia)Gaster, Moses gäsˈtər [key], 1856–1939, Romanian Jewish scholar and writer, b. Bucharest. Expelled (1885) from Romania for championing the Jewish cause, he went to England and was lecturer at Oxf...

Exodus

(Encyclopedia)Exodus ĕkˈsədəs [key], book of the Bible, 2d of the 5 books of the Law (the Pentateuch or Torah) ascribed by tradition to Moses. The book continues the story of the ancestors of Israel in Egypt, n...

pilgrim

(Encyclopedia)pilgrim, one who travels to a shrine or other sacred place out of religious motives. Pilgrimages are a feature of many religions and cultures. Examples in ancient Greece were the pilgrimages to Eleusi...

Pentecostalism

(Encyclopedia)Pentecostalism, worldwide 20th–21st-century Christian movement that emphasizes the experience of Spirit baptism, generally evidenced by speaking in tongues (glossolalia). The name derives from Pente...

sacrifice

(Encyclopedia)sacrifice [Lat. sacrificare=to make holy], a type of religious offering, or gift to a superior or supreme being, in which the offering is consecrated through its destruction. The Paleolithic evidenc...

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