- כנסת
- כְּנֶסֶתf. (preced.) 1) gathering, storage. Y.B. Bath.IV, 14c bot. בית הכ׳ שלעצים a store-house for wood (= אוֹצָר). 2) assembly, community, congregation, esp. congregation of worshippers. Ex. R. s. 21 (interch. with preced. w.); Yalk. Ps. 840, v. preced.בית הכ׳ (abbr. בה״כ) synagogue. Ber.6a. Meg.III, 1 (25b); a. fr.Sot.VII, 7 חזן הכ׳ the sexton of the synagogue within the Temple precincts; Succ.51b of the synagogue of Alexandria, v. חַזָּן; a. fr.כ׳ ישראל (abbrev. כ״י) the congregation of Israel, the Ecclesia, (often personified as a woman betrothed to the Lord). Cant. R. to I, 4; a. fr.כ׳ הגדולה (abbr. כה״ג) the Great Assembly, Ecclesia or Synagoga Magna, a supreme authority established under Ezra and Nehemiah. Ab. I, 1, a. fr. אנשי כ׳ הג׳ the men of the original Great Synagogue. Ib. 2 שיריכה״ג the last members of the Great Synagogue.Pl. כְּנֵסִיּוֹת, כְּנֵיסִ׳. Lam. R. introd. (R. Yitsḥ. 3) בני כְּנֵסִיּוֹתָיו his fellow-members in the royal council; (Yalk. Is. 318 בני המלך).בתי כ׳ synagogues. Meg.6a. Y. ib. III, beg.73d ארבע … ב׳ כ׳וכ׳ there were four hundred and eighty synagogues in Jerusalem, and each had a school Ḥull.51a מפטיר כ׳ janitor at meetings of scholars in college. Pes.49b ראשי כ׳ chiefs of congregations or synagogues.
Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature. Jastrow, Marcus. 1903.