Halakha and Shari'a

Halakha is the body of Jewish religious law. It comprises biblical laws found in the Hebrew Bible, Talmudic law, and post-Talmudic religious legalistic texts, as well as in traditions and customs that have developed throughout centuries of Jewish practice and as a result of scholarly deliberations. The word Halakha is derived from the Hebrew word for “walk” or “go,” and so it refers not only strictly to law but also to the way Jewish persons should live their lives and the path on which they should journey. Although later distinctions were made between the more particular ritual laws (known as hukkim) and the more universal ethical/moral laws (called mishpatim), the Torah itself makes no such division; both are of equivalent importance within Israelite society. From a global standpoint, it is significant to note that unlike other religious codes of law, such as the Muslim Shari'a, Halakha also contains many basic principles that apply to people of all faiths. In that sense, Jews perceive Halakha as a global system of religious law, particularly as it relates to ethical practices and monotheistic belief. The seven Noahide laws, basic ethical principles and practices that are incumbent on Gentiles from a Jewish point of view, are such an example.

The earliest contribution to Halakha comes from the five books of Moses, known as the Torah, where according to tradition, all or nearly all of the 613 foundational commandments (known as mitzvoth) can be found. Subsequent to the Torah is the next major work of Halakha—the Talmud, a 26-volume compilation of laws and customs developed by rabbinic scholars after the canonization of Torah and encompassing discussions from approximately the second century BCE to the seventh century CE. Following the Talmud, social and technological advances within Jewish life gave rise to new interpretations and codifications of Jewish law, which were collected in later religious texts, such as the Mishneh Torah, authored by the great philosopher and jurist Moses Maimonides in the 12th century, and the Shulchan Aruch, written by the mystic and jurist Rabbi Yosef Caro in the 16th century.

Since more than 2,000 years of Jewish life have taken place while in exile from the Jewish homeland of Israel, the preponderance of Halakha naturally relates to life in the diaspora. Whereas in premodern times, Jews lived within semiautono-mous communities that were governed by Halakha, and thus, so long as a Jew remained in the community, he or she automatically lived under the hal-akhic system, today, strict observance of Halakha is a voluntary choice of Jews, generally undertaken by those living solely within the Orthodox Jewish community. Disagreements exist among Conservative, Reform, and Orthodox Jewish communities over how Halakha should be interpreted. Furthermore, even among Orthodox communities, one may find differences in the interpretation and practice of Jewish law, since there is no single central halakhic authority that is empowered to decide between different understandings of Halakha for the entire Jewish community as a whole. In the modern state of Israel, Halakha is not generally used as the state civil law, except in certain areas of family and personal status law.

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