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| | Covenant and Conversation - Three Types of Community |
 | | Edah comes from the word ed, meaning "witness." The verb ya'ad carries the meaning of "to appoint, fix, assign, destine, set apart, designate or determine." The modern Hebrew noun te'udah means "certificate, document, attestation, aim, object, purpose or mission." The people who constitute an edah have a strong sense of collective identity. |
 | | An edah is a community of the like-minded. |
 | | To preserve the diversity of a tsibbur with the unity of purpose of an edah - that is the challenge of kehillah-formation, community-building, itself the greatest task of a great leader. |
| www.ou.org /shabbat_shalom/article/covenant_and_conversation_community (1894 words) |
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