Pale of Settlement
The western territories of the Russian Empire in which Jews were permitted permanent settlement. Known in Russian as
cherta postoiannogo zhitel’stva evreev, the English word
pale was borrowed from the term applied to the area of English settlement in Ireland, where the lands of the “wild Irish” were considered “beyond the pale.”) [
See Pale of Settlement.]
pilpul
A method of reasoning in
Talmud study,
pilpul is also used colloquially to denote unnecessarily complex and specious argumentation. [
See Talmud Study.]