Word.ws English Dictionary

herem

herem noun: a prohibition enacted by rabbinic authority.

Noun

herem (countable and uncountable, plural herems)

  1. (Judaism) A prohibition enacted by rabbinic authority.
    • Six months after the Brisker Rav's arrival in 1878, he reinstated the cherem against any changes in the educational system.1998, David Rossoff, “The Battle Cry”, in Where Heaven Touches Earth
    • Rabbi David Hacohen of Corfu supported a ḥerem against dancing by men with married women.2024, David Golinkin, “Is Mixed Dancing Really Forbidden At Weddings?”, in Responsa in a Moment, volume 4, page 235
  2. (Judaism) The exclusion of a person from the Jewish community.
    • Mr Raz said he was fired from his job at the settlement council six months ago because of his involvement in the campaign and a rabbi placed him in "herem", an ancient religious practice requiring that a wayward person be ostracised.2006 March 23, Chris McGreal, “Settlers don't know when the knock on the door will come and they have to leave”, in The Guardian

Forms of herem

pluralherems
alternative formcherem

Origin of herem

Transliteration of Hebrew חֵרֶם (ḥērem). Doublet of haram and harem.

Questions about herem

What does herem mean?
Herem means a prohibition enacted by rabbinic authority.
What part of speech is herem?
Herem is a noun.
What is the plural of herem?
The plural of herem is herems.

Words near herem in the dictionary

  1. hereinto
  2. hereinunder
  3. hereish
  4. Herek
  5. Hereks
  6. herem
  7. Hereman
  8. heremit
  9. heremite
  10. heremites
  11. heremitic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: herem (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “herem.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/herem. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.