dayan

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Pronunciations

dayan (DYE-yin) listen

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Definitions

  • n. A judge who adjudicates cases involving religious practices or spiritual matters in a beit din.

  • n. A rabbinic judge who may directly question and cross-examine witnesses.

Example Sentences

  • "What I am trying to say is that the dayan receives Divine assistance when he is weighing the case before him, so that he will pasken correctly." (The Seraph of Brisk: Reb Yehoshua Leib Diskin by Shalom Meir Wallach)

  • "They've asked Dayan Katz for a ruling on surrogate mothers." (Glinert)

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Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew
  • Yiddish

Etymology

  • TH דיין dayán > Y דײן dayen

      • Who Uses This

      • Orthodox: Jews who identify as Orthodox and observe halacha (Jewish law)

      Regions

      • Australia / New Zealand
      • Great Britain
      • South Africa

      Dictionaries

      • The New Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten and Lawrence Bush (New York, 2003[1968]).
      • Dictionary of Jewish Usage: A Popular Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms, by Sol Steinmetz (Lanham, MD, 2005).
      • The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).

      Alternative Spellings

      dayyan, dayen

Notes

  • The word is related to דין din, Hebrew for judgment or a ruling, and בית דין bet din, a religious court.

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