bimah

variants or bima
as in altar
a raised platform in a synagogue from which the Torah is read He stepped up to the bimah for the reading.

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of bimah Then, Fixler took to the bimah himself. The New York Times News Service Syndicate, The Denver Post, 8 Mar. 2025 The flags of the U.S. and Israel will both be displayed on the bimah, or raised platform, at the front of the sanctuary. Frank E. Lockwood, Arkansas Online, 13 Oct. 2023 The discovery this week follows the 2019 unearthing of the Tuscan baroque-style bimah, the synagogue’s central prayer platform, in the same dig by a team of international scholars headed by Jon Seligman, director of the antiquities authority’s Excavations, Surveys and Research Department. Cnaan Liphshiz, sun-sentinel.com, 1 Sep. 2021 Half was hidden in a safe under the bimah of a synagogue so that even the Germans could not find it. New York Times, 4 May 2022 On the bimah, Charlotte has shown her maturity — proving it even to herself. Kate Aurthur, Variety, 4 Feb. 2022 Excavations led by a joint Israeli and Lithuanian team uncovered the Torah ark, or Aron Kodesh—the cabinet that holds a synagogue’s sacred scroll—and the bimah, or raised prayer platform. Livia Gershon, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Aug. 2021 The team also found the entire façade of the bimah, as well as the remains of one of four pillars that held up the building’s roof. Livia Gershon, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Aug. 2021 The young man orders the bar-mitzvah boy off the bimah. Peter Orner, The New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bimah
Noun
  • According to the Associated Press, the pope began the outing by being pushed in a wheelchair while wearing nasal tubes, before he was brought to the front of the altar in the square.
    Brenton Blanchet, People.com, 6 Apr. 2025
  • Faith leaders gathered in Philadelphia on Thursday to erect an altar in front of ICE headquarters in a defiant protest against the Trump administration's decision to allow agents to make immigration arrests in churches.
    Newsweek Staff, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • Use my convening power, use my platform as mayor, and then use my pulpit to convene everyone in the city who will touch economic development.
    Nicholas Creel, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Apr. 2025
  • Their majority was led by new Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, R-Georgia, who dramatically accelerated the trend of shifting that office from a relatively nonpartisan to highly partisan pulpit.
    Arthur I. Cyr, Chicago Tribune, 19 Mar. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Bimah.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bimah. Accessed 2 May. 2025.

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