qahal

The qahal (), sometimes spelled kahal, was a theocratic organizational structure in ancient Israelite society according to the Hebrew Bible, and an Ashkenazi Jewish system of a self-governing community or kehila from medieval Christian Europe (France, Germany, Italy). This was adopted in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (16th–18th centuries) and its successor states, with an elected council of laymen, the 'qahal', at the helm of each kehila. This institution was exported also further to the east as Jewish settlement advanced. In Poland it was abolished in 1822, and in most of the Russian Empire in 1844.

==Etymology and meaning== The Hebrew word qahal, which is a close etymological relation of the name of Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes), comes from a root meaning "convoked [group]"; its Arabic cognate, qāla, means to speak. Where the Masoretic Text uses the term qahal, the Septuagint usually uses the Koine Greek term ekklesia, , which means "assembly", "gathering", or "congregation", later used for church. In one particular part of the Priestly Code, the Septuagint instead uses the term , also meaning "gathering" or "congregation" where the Masoretic Text uses qahal. This last term is the origin of the word for "synagogue" in Hebrew.