In other words, according to halakhah's mode of discourse, the community of obligated people who constitute the public's decision-making and public studying and public prayer worshiping agencies of Judaism are all male, and each woman is the satellite that revolves around her male.
It is perhaps not insignificant that both the word Torah and halakhah have their analogue in Akkadian words, tertu and alaktu, both of which refer to oracles that you receive from God, to instructions from the deity.
There are a number of points in halakhah where the tradition declares that women were the agents of their destiny.
At the heart of halakhah is the unchangeable 613 mitzvot that G-d gave to the Jewish people in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible).
The word "halakhah" is usually translated as "Jewish Law," although a more literal translation might be "the path that one walks." The word is derived from the Hebrew root Heh-Lamed-Kaf, meaning to go, to walk or to travel.
Some non-Jews and non-observant Jews criticize this legalistic aspect of traditional Judaism, saying that it educes the religion to a set of rituals devoid of spirituality.
Halakhah, as understood by Maimonides, expresses the sober passion of a wise teacher who begins the spiritual process from where his students stand.
With reference to our discussion, we must explore the question of whether Halakhah and religious faith of necessity create a private world of meaning which is unintelligible to those who do not understand or share the presuppositions of the tradition.
Halakhah cannot respond to man's yearning for self-realization if he does not first feel the urgency of building a covenantal community.
Hence, the thrust of the Jewish tradition and the Conservative community is to maintain the law and practices of the past as much as possible, and the burden of proof is on the one who wants to alter them.
The sad truth is that halakhah -- which is a foundation block of our ideology -- is irrelevant to most Conservative Jews.
In discussing whether the School of Hillel or the School of Shammai was truly right in their debates, the Talmud teaches that "Both are the words of the Living God," even though the halakhah usually follows the teachings of the School of Hillel.
The entire halakhah was revealed and transmitted to us through a continuous unbroken chain of scholars who received from one another.
Among the concerns expressed in these texts are: establishing an order of transmission of knowledge; analyzing crises within those complicated chains; understanding and describing the emergence of debates and controversies within the body of halakhic knowledge; establishing relations of authority between different generational layers of the tradition.
The whole Torah was given to Moses with aspects of purity and aspects of impurity, and when they asked him how long they should continue to debate he said to them follow the many but both are the words of the livin God".
One of the reasons that the majority of the Va'ad Halakhah gave for opposing the ordination of women five years ago was that such a step would cause irreparable harm to the future of the Masorti Movement.
The function of the rabbinate has gone through many permutations throughout Jewish history, but the common denominator was and is that the rabbi must be a spiritual leader and a halakhic decisor (posek) for his community.
The inferior status of women in halakhah has been based mainly on psycho-social arguments rather than on arguments of inherent inferiority.
Halakhah that cannot be practiced outside of Israel, or without a Temple, has often been dismissed as not practical in our times and largely ignored.
We understand the Halakhah according to the plain and simple meaning of the text, and the Aggadah figuratively, so that it does not seem to contradict the Halachah.
Theoretically, the entire Halakhah can be completely learned, successfully practiced and taught straight from the written sources: Bible and the sum total of Talmudic literature (Mishnah, Tosephta, Mekhilta, Sifrei, Sifra, Talmud Yerushalmi, and Talmud Bavli).
The root of the Hebrew term used to refer to Jewish law, halakhah, means "go" or "walk." Halakhah, then, is the "way" a Jew is directed to behave in every aspect of life, encompassing civil, criminal, and religious law.
The approach to halakhah is the central factor differentiating Jewish religious movements today.
The foundation of Judaism is the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, sometimes referred to as “the Five Books of Moses”).
The same doctrine is expounded in the following exchange of letters between a young Israeli soldier and his rabbi, published in the yearbook of one of the country's most prestigious religious colleges, Midrashiyyat No'am, where many leaders and activists of the National Religious Party and Gush Emunim have been educated.
An important effect of all these laws - quite apart from their application in practice - is in the attitude created by their constant study which, as part of the study of the Halakhah, is regarded by classical Judaism as a supreme religious duty.
The ban against following Gentile customs (§262) means that Jews must not only 'remove themselves' from Gentiles, but also 'speak ill of all their behavior, even of their dress'.
It is only since Qumranic halakhah has come to light that we are afforded new insight into the anti-sectarian nature of some of the intra-Pharisaic disputes, and can comprehend the particularly bitter nature of some of them.
Long before this scroll came to light, Yisrael Knoll postulated, on the basis of later aggadic midrashim and Karaite literature, the existence of a halakhic tradition from Temple times that prohibited the receiving of sacrifices from gentiles.
Whereas the majority of the sages viewed halakhah as the product of a human legal process, disregarding even Divine Truth revealed by miracles, R. Eliezer ignored the legal procedure and searched for clues to absolute truth in nature itself.
All of this is being exacerbated by Israel's opening itself to the world and the influences of world culture which by definition is not Jewish and, in its presentation by the media that spread it throughout the world, is distinctly secular or, even worse, idolatrous.
As biblical religion developed into what became halakhic Judaism this balance was re-established between halakhah and mishpat hamelukhah for the same purposes.
Indeed, those religious Jews who understood Zionism to be entirely within the former camp rejected it and Israel, its product, as violations of the will of God.
This stands in sharp contrast not simply to later rabbinic midrash halakhah, but to the Qumran pesharim, which systematically employ explicit scriptural commentary to prophetic texts to trace the sacred history of the community as the privileged fulfillment of prophetic predictions.
However, for all the midrash and halakhah found within the scrolls, textually they evidence very little midrash halakhah: the explicit citation and interpretation of Scripture as a source of or justification for law.
So as not to be misunderstood let be clear: I am not claiming that the activity or process of midrash halakhah was absent at Qumran, but that it is not well-represented in the legal discourse that has been textually preserved among the community's writings.
And there is the problem of the manner in which the halakhah is derived from Scripture.
Although, in the early period, the Sadducees [one of the sects of Second Temple Judaism] rejected the whole doctrine of the Oral Torah, and much later [in early medieval times], the Karaites rejected the Talmud, it is the [Babylonian] Talmud that became the ultimate source of the halakhah as traditionally conceived.
This can only mean that the real basis for many of the laws is in the life of the people.
That Halakhah existed from ancient times is confirmed from nonpentateuchal passages of the Bible, where, for example, servitude is mentioned as a legitimate penalty for unpaid debts (2 Kings 4:1).
Quite distinct from the Law of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), Halakhah purports to preserve and represent oral traditions stemming from the revelation on Mount Sinai or evolved on the basis of it.
Interpretations and discussions of law directly related to Old Testament texts are referred to as Midrash Halakhah.
Halakhah: An Encyclopedia of the Law of Judaism: Volume 1-2, Between Israel and God: Part A, Faith, Thanksgiving, Enlandisement: Possession and Partnership: Part B,..., The
Catholic Biblical Quarterly, The: Halakhah: An Encyclopedia of the Law of Judaism: Volume 1-2, Between Israel and God: Part A, Faith, Thanksgiving, Enlandisement: Possession and Partnership: Part B,..., The
Not included, however (by conscious design and decision), are the extensive discussions surrounding these laws in the actual texts themselves, for N.'s avowed purpose "is to lay the groundwork for defining the systematic religious statement of the Halakhah viewed whole and complete,.
But the underlying crisis of Conservative Judaism lies not in the realm of Halakhah, but rather in the demise of significant Agadah, in the lack of a seriously taken religious ideology, out of which must spring the motivation for religious practice.
Here is a mitzvah de-oraita (a commandment recognized as having Biblical authority), a basic claim of the Halakhic system, by now rather a dead letter to most of the Conservative rabbinate.
What the Conservative Movement is left with is not Halakhah, but traditionalism, or, indeed, conservatism.
It is "common knowledge" that all of Halakhah was given at Sinai but also that great scholars in each generation add to the received Halakhah.
In fact, one of the main purposes of this book is to repudiate this view.
Nevertheless, the search for answers to questions concerning the nature of Halakhah itself -- what I am calling "meta-Halakhah" -- often goes unrewarded.
Like the religious laws in many other cultures, Judaism classically drew no distinction in its laws between religious and non-religious life.
Modern critics, however, charge that with the rise of movements that challenge the "Divine" authority of halachah, traditional Jews have greater reluctance to change, not only the laws themselves but also other customs and habits.
Historically, Halakha served many Jewish communities as an enforceable avenue of civil and religious law.
Written by Jacob Neusner- The Halakhah Between Israel and God Transcendent Transactions Where Heaven and Earth Intersect Brill Reference Library of Ancient Judaism Vol 1
Jacob Neusner- Judaism s Story of Creation Scripture Halakhah Aggadah Brill Reference Library of Ancient Judaism Vol 3
Summary Jacob Neusner- Judaism s Story of Creation Scripture Halakhah Aggadah Brill Reference Library of Ancient Judaism Vol 3
Halakhah (from Hebrew, âto goâ), in Judaism, the body of traditional law that is based on rabbinical interpretation and supplements the scriptural law...
No new books were added to the Jewish Bible after the Roman period, instead major efforts went into interpreting and developing the Halakhah, or oral law, and writing down these traditions in the Talmud, the key work on the interepretation of Jewish law, written during the first to fifth centuries CE.
Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews, Jewish worship stopped being centrally organized around the Temple, and instead was rebuilt around rabbis who acted as teachers and leaders of individual communities.
Though Jews had settled outside of Israel since the time of the Babylonians, the results of the Roman response to the Jewish revolt shifted the center of Jewish life from its ancient home to the diaspora.
Divided into eight sections and forty-two chapters, this study explores the nature of halakhah -- traditional Judaism's detailed, specific faith commandments -- and its evolution, and seeks to clarify the creative and progressive elements of the halakhic system.
Originally published in Hebrew, and available for the first time in English, this innovative and groundbreaking book inaugurates a new perspective of Jewish thought, faith and practice.
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Not just Yemenite-- but every pronouncian that distinguish the letters.
Re: Halakhah regarding Prayer Service and Torah Reading
: I understand that there is specific halakhah, which rules that pronunciation of Hebrew must exact during public prayer and Torah readings, and that it is forbidden to use any other pronunciation of Hebrew.
That's about as appealing as having "Reform Judaism" defined as a reading of halakhah where nobody gives a damn about gender distinctions, or "Conservative" defined as a reading of halakhah that tries to please everyone and winds up pleasing no one.
What I mean is that if Orthodox Judaism let women count for a minyan it would no longer be Orthodox, so why not just daven at a Conservative or Egal minyan right now?
This vision would see the mitsvot in which these hierarchical distinctions are embedded as necessary compromises with specific socio-historical realities, as Rambam argued in the case of sacrifices and as we implicitly assume in the case of slavery.
Many aggadic teachings, derived from often inscrutable Scriptural verses, pervaded the halakhah.
Since the Tosefta is replete with explanations of the Mishnah's difficult passages, illustrations of the Mishnah's points, dissenting opinions with respect to the Mishnah's rules, and aggadic elaboration of the Mishnah's halakhah, the Tosefta has long been seen by scholars of rabbinics as a companion to the Mishnah.
The dependence of the Mishnah on the Tosefta has led scholars to make assumptions about the relationship of these two tannaitic works to each other.
The crossroads of aggadah and halakhah is the definition of a heretic.
Lest one think that the idea of mandatory beliefs is solely a Maimonidean concept, it should be pointed out that other important scholars agreed with him.
These beliefs whose acceptance is a commandment are part of the intersection of halakhah and aggadah and, as such, are subject to the halakhic process of decision-making.
...Moreover, Feldman makes his own point of view clear, which is that wherever there is a clash between halakhah and modern-day values, it is halakhah which must have the final say-as was mentioned above, it was he who wrote the minority opinion opposing the inclusion of women in the minyan...
...The Conservative 44THE DILEMMA OF CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM/45 contention was that Orthodoxy had needlessly panicked in the face of modernity, with its twin threats of assimilation and secularization, and out of this sense of panic had turned the halakhah, Jewish religious law, into a rigid code of behavior and prescript...
Kaplan, Lawrence J. ONE of the most striking and important developments on the American Jewish scene in the twenty years immediately following World War II was the emergence of Conservative Judaism as the...
Click here for teshuvot of the Vaad Halakhah of the Rabbinical Assembly of Israel.
While the teshuvot on this website provide an invaluable source of learning, they are not meant to, nor can they, substitute for the opinions of a local rabbi.
One talmudic passage refers to homosexual acts between women: “R. Huna taught, Women who have sex one with the other are forbidden to marry a Kohen (priest).” The halakhah rejects Rav Huna’s opinion and allows a lesbian to marry a Kohen.
He also served as co-chair of the Rabbinical Assembly’s committee on human sexuality.
MyJewishLearning.com - Ideas & Belief: Homosexuality and Halakhah
History and Purity in First-Century Judaism 158(18) The Halakhah as Anthropolog 176(29) PART THREE A THEOLOGICAL POST-SCRIPT Why the Rabbis Are Right: Before and After 205(34) the Oral Torah Index of Subjects 239(5) Index of Scriptural References 244
The Halakhah : Historical and Religious Perspectives (Brill Reference Library of Judaism): IÉ ®‘“XBookWeb
The Halakhah : Historical and Religious Perspectives (Brill Reference Library of Judaism)
Therefore, even in a situation where both parties concede to having enacted a valid matrimonial ceremony, if they admit that no witnesses were present, the halakhah will not grant them the status of a married couple (see BT Kiddushin 65a; Maimonides " Ishut," 4:6; Karo, SA EH, 42:2).
The chatan must express his intent that the money (ring) he is giving to his kallah (bride) is to effect a valid marriage, and that she is "consecrated" to him.
One of the authors was once called upon to prepare a marriage contract for a couple who were to be married according to halakhah, but no civil license was to be obtained.
In 1987, the CJLS approved a teshuvah by Isidoro Aizenberg on miscarriage; in 1991, it accepted a teshuvah by Debra Reed Blank on a ritual response to miscarriage; and in 1992, it adopted my teshuvah on Jewish practices following the death of an infant who has lived less than thirty-one days.
Traditional halakhah already notes the quasi-human status of this potential life by requiring the burial of the body of a formed fetus from the end of the fifth month on.
From the vantage of traditional halakhah, a fetus is a nafel, not a legal human being, until its head or the majority of its body emerges from its mother's body.
Our Academic Council includes the foremost halakhic scholars in the Reform, Liberal, and Progressive rabbinate as well as a number of Conservative and Orthodox colleagues, and university professors.
There is hardly a newscast or a newspaper that does not mention them on a daily basis.
Discussions on these issues is vital as questions on these matters continue to be raised with increasing urgency.
The mystic interpretation of Scripture practised by the Jewish scholars who lived after the time of Christ, may be reduced to the following systems.
The Halakhah contained the legal inferences derived from the Mosaic Law, all of which the Talmudists referred back to Moses himself; the Haggadah was the collection of all the material gathered by the Talmudists from history, archæology, geography, grammar, and other extra-Scriptural sources, not excluding the most fictitious ones.
(aa) The Talmudists ascribed to every text several thousand legitimate meanings belonging either to the Halakhah or the Haggadah.
A male convert must undergo circumcision, followed by ritual immersion (Tevilah).
The Talmud (Yevamot 24b) declares in the name of Rabbi Nehemiah that those who convert in order to marry a Jew (Jewess) or for the sake of some material preferment are not considered bona fide converts.
Even though the halakhah does not require three halakhic scholars to oversee the process of conversion, nevertheless it has been the practice for centuries for rabbis to oversee the process of conversion and accept converts into the fold.
Ai nostri giorni stiamo assistendo al rafforzamento di quei gruppi religiosi che si accostano alla legge orale con Chokhmah, e che di conseguenza riconoscono gli studiosi della Torah, Ghedole' Israel, come legittimi maestri di Israele.
Il buon senso, quando applicato alla Halakhah, non fa che spargere confusione ed errore, come succede per tutte le discipline specializzate.
Quando la gente parla di una Halakhah insensata, congelata o empirica, non fa che riproporre l'approccio di Qorach.
Goldstein, Nile E. and Peter S. Knobel. Duties of the Soul: The Role of Commandments in Liberal Judaism. New York: UAHC Press, 1999. See particularly Michale L. Morgan’s "Beyond Autonomy and Authority: The New Dilemma of Liberal Judaism."
Tucker, Gordon. "God, the Good and Halakhah." In Judaism, Vol.
Shavit Artson, Bradley. "Halakhah and Ethics: The Holy and the Good." In Conservative Judaism, XLVI #3, Spring 1994: 86.