Gallach

Common Jewish expression for priest. The epithet is from the Hebrew Gallach, "shaved," an allusion to the Catholic tonsure.

Galuth

"Exile," Colloquially used as connoting not only the fact of the exile of the Jewish people, but the attending experiences, persecutions, etc.

Garden of Eden

"Gan Eden" (Gen. ii.-iii.). Old writers locate the earthly paradise in the north of Babylon. Here Adam and Eve lived till their fall. The term, however, is also applied in Jewish literature to the celestial abode of bliss, and references to that concept are more common than to the earthly Eden which Talmudic rabbis also located as situated somewhere in Assyria.

Gelilah

"Rolling up." One of the symbolic ceremonies of the synagog ritual consisting of wrapping the Scroll of the Law in its vestments.

Gemara

An Aramaic word meaning study, that which is learned. The name is applied to the great body of traditional lore which grew up as a commentary and supplement to the Mishnah. When the latter was completed and accepted (c.200 c.e.), it became the subject of study in the schools of Palestine and soon after of Babylonia, whither it was brought by Rab. The brief statements of the Mishnah were explained and elaborated, disputed questions were clarified and sometimes settled, new applications of the laws were made, and many matters untouched in the Mishnah were introduced. The chief topic of the Gemara is thus law, or Halakah. Much non-legal matter, or Hagadah, was, however, interspersed between the legal discussions. Here are found the beautiful legends, fables, parables, proverbs, and homilies, for which the Talmud is famed, together with much interesting material that bears on history, folklore, superstition, etc.

This mass of commentary, discussion, argument, and Hagadah, clustering around the Mishnah, grew in the course of cents. to enormous bulk, and only gradually was it reduced to definite form. Ultimately two Gemaras were compiled, one in Palestine and one in Babylonia. The Palestinian Gemara (often called inaccurately the "Yerushalmi," i.e., the Gemara of Jerusalem) was completed about the beginning of the fifth cent. It contains discussions based on 39 treatises of the Mishnah. Its style is abrupt and fragmentary; lengthy discussions are few. The Hagadic material is rich and valuable. The Yerushalmi has been comparatively neglected by scholars and presents many riddles to the student.

The Babylonian Gemara was not completed till about a cent. later. It extends over 36 1/2 treatises of the Mishnah, yet its bulk is about three times as great as that of the Palestinian Gemara. The legal arguments are far more thorough and extensive, and are marked by a talent for keen and subtle reasoning. The Hagadah found in the "Babli" is largely of Palestinian origin: of the remainder, much concerns demons and other superstitious beliefs. The Babylonian Gemara has been constantly and minutely studied since its completion; and not only are there many commentaries and other works to elucidate it, but a living tradiion of its interpretation has been preserved, which is not the case with the Palestinian Gemara. It is generally considered authoritative in legal matters where it differs with the Yerushalmi. The language of both Gemaras is chiefly Aramaic, but many passages are in Hebrew, including, of course, quotations from the Bible.

In common usage, Gemara is practically equivalent to Talmud. More correctly, the Talmuds consist of the Mishnah, with the Palestinian or Babylonian Gemaras, respectively.

B.J.B.

Genizah

Storeroom in a synagog for old prayer-books or Hebrew mss. Worn or mutilated Scrolls of the Law were buried, and therefore are not found in these lumber rooms from which, in recent years, many valuable mss. have been retrieved. Prof. Solomon Schechter made the Cairo Genizah famous. The sanctity attached to prayer books made the storage of mutilated pages or copies a custom.

Geshem

"Rain." The title of the additional service in the orthodox liturgy for the Eighth Day of Solemn Assembly, when according to the Palestinean calendar, the prayer for rain is seasonal.

Get

"Bill of divorce." Mentioned in Deut. xxiv. 4 and in Jeremiah iii. I as being well known to the people. The important features of the bill of divorce are the date, the place, the names of the parties, the signatures of the witnesses, and the phrases which express separation.

Ghetto

Presumed to have originated in Italy as the name of the quarter to which Jews were restricted. The restricting of Jews to a given district did not originate in Italy unless it be assumed that the Jews who settled in Rome before the destruction of the Temple voluntarily confined themselves in the neighborhood of the Tiber, and in the vicinity of what became the historic ghetto. The segregation of a group of nations, or religionists or fellow craftsmen, is at least as old as the evolution of the Greek city state, and was characteristic of Jerusalem at its height. Such segregation was enforced in the early Islamic state, and there were distinct Jewish quarters in Egypt under the Fatimites, and in Spain , at an earlier date, under the Moors.

Graduate School For Jewish Social Work, The

Organized in New York in 1925. To provide facilities for the initial training of Jewish social workers by offering a course of graduate study; to provide facilities for the further training and preparation of such workers as are already in the field of Jewish social work, and to build up a literature of Jewish communal life.

Course of Study: Two academic years of three quarters each leading to the M.S.S. and D.S.S. degrees. Admission requirements: The B.S. or B.A. degree. Library: 7,500 books and pamphlets on social work, social science, and Judaica. Fields prepared for: Family case work, child care, medical social work, psychiatric social work, community center work, social research. Graduates to date, 120. Chairman, Louis E. Kirstein, Boston; vice chairman, Fred M. Butzel; treasurer, I. Edwin Goldwasser, Dr. M.J. Karpf, president of the faculty and director.

M.J.K.

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