teva

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Pronunciations

teva (TEH-vuh) listen
teva (TEH-vah) listen

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Definitions

  • n. Nature.

  • n. Character (quality of a person or thing).

  • n. The raised dais in the middle of a synagogue from which the Torah is read.

Example Sentences

  • "Teva chug will be going on a tiyul to Mount Rainier. Meet at the lower moadon after peulat boker."

  • "The teva of dorm life is that there's never enough of anything but germs" (Weiser, Frumspeak, p. 97)

  • "The hazanim read the service from the tevah."

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Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew
  • Yiddish
  • Modern Hebrew

Etymology

  • Y טבֿע teve 'nature; character; imprint'
    TH תבה teva 'holy ark'

      • Who Uses This

      • Orthodox: Jews who identify as Orthodox and observe halacha (Jewish law)
      • Camp: Jews who attend or work at a Jewish overnight summer camp

      Regions

      • North America
      • Great Britain
      • South Africa

      Dictionaries

      • Frumspeak: The First Dictionary of Yeshivish, by Chaim Weiser (Northvale, 1995).

      Alternative Spellings

      tevah, tehvah, tehva

Notes

  • Teva is a common term used by Sephardim and Mizrahim for what Ashkenazim call the bimah (which is usually at the front of a synagogue as opposed to the middle).

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