Ya'ad is the appointment verb, and it is the root under a whole family of Hebrew words that govern how the people of HaShem gather. From it come moed, an appointed time, the ohel moed, the tent of meeting, and edah, the assembly summoned by appointment. The verb is not vague. It fixes a who, a when, and a where, and it assumes a shared direction between the parties who keep it.

HaShem uses it of Himself. At the kapporet He says, "there I will meet (ya'ad) with you" (Exodus 25:22), and again at the door of the tent, "where I will meet with you" (Exodus 29:42-43). The meeting is by appointment, on His terms, around His presence. Amos catches the assumption underneath the verb: "Can two walk together unless they are agreed?" (Amos 3:3). To be appointed to meet is already to be headed the same way.

This is why the word matters for community. An assembly built on ya'ad is gathered by a shared appointment toward a shared purpose, not by a shared building or a shared schedule. The appointment, and the agreement it implies, is the thing that holds. Remove the purpose and you do not have an edah that lost its way; you have a crowd that was never one.