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80-545: The general role of the rosh yeshiva is to oversee the Talmudic studies and practical matters. The rosh yeshiva will often give the highest shiur (class) and is also the one to decide whether to grant permission for students to undertake classes for rabbinical ordination, known as semicha . The term is a compound of the Hebrew words rosh ("head") and yeshiva (a school of religious Jewish education). The rosh yeshiva

160-624: A December 2006 opinion lifting all rabbinic prohibitions on homosexual conduct (the opinion held that only male-male anal sex was forbidden by the Bible and that this remained prohibited). Conservative Judaism also made a number of changes to the role of women in Judaism including counting women in a minyan , permitting women to chant from the Torah, and ordaining women as rabbis . The Conservative approach to halakhic interpretation can be seen in

240-583: A central role in the life of certain communities within Orthodox Judaism , the position of rosh yeshiva is more than just the position within the yeshiva. A rosh yeshiva is often seen as a pillar of leadership in extended communities. In Hasidic Judaism , the role of rosh yeshiva is secondary to the Rebbe , who is head of the Hasidic dynasty that controls it. In many Hasidic groups, the rosh yeshiva of

320-402: A chariot of fire), later translated into English and published as "Strive for Truth". Perhaps one of his most influential ideas, discussed throughout his works but especially in an essay in the first volume of Michtav me-Eliyahu entitled Kuntres ha-Chesed (Heb. קונטרס החסד "Pamphlet [on the topic] of Lovingkindness ), is the "Jewish philosophy of love." He observes that the perfect love from

400-559: A civilization which is preoccupied with developing the external and the material, and neglects the inner moral content will eventually degenerate to its lowest possible depths. One idea of his, expounded on in Michtav me-Eliyahu, is the Nekudas Habechira (point of free will). He states that a man has one point in his service to God where he has to fight his evil inclination, while at other points there will be no struggle, for

480-487: A community recognizes a certain judicial system to resolve its disputes and interpret its laws." Given this covenantal relationship, rabbis are charged with connecting their contemporary community with the traditions and precedents of the past. When presented with contemporary issues, rabbis go through a halakhic process to find an answer. The classical approach has permitted new rulings regarding modern technology. For example, some of these rulings guide Jewish observers about

560-469: A complete enumeration of the rules of interpretation current in his day, but that they omitted from their collections many rules which were then followed." Akiva devoted his attention particularly to the grammatical and exegetical rules, while Ishmael developed the logical. The rules laid down by one school were frequently rejected by another because the principles that guided them in their respective formulations were essentially different. According to Akiva,

640-448: A ham sandwich (which is non-kosher regardless of supervision).) Each time one defeats the evil inclination by choosing to do good over evil, his Nekudas Habechira is raised a bit higher, and that choice will be easier for him to make in the future. Consequently, Man's task in life is to consistently raise his Nekudas Habechira, thus growing ever greater in his service of God. See Free will in theology § Judaism generally. While it

720-443: A livelihood rather than having to take up rabbinic positions. In Kelm, Eliyahu was a diligent student, and received semicha (Rabbinic ordination) from his uncle, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski , who became the spiritual leader of Orthodox Lithuanian Jewry until his death in 1939 and rarely granted ordinations. In 1920 Rabbi Dessler married Bluma, a granddaughter of the "Alter" of Kelm. He entered business with his father, and declined

800-536: A number of young people, and for a while he was the private tutor of the children of the wealthy Sassoon family . A pupil from this time, Aryeh Carmell , became one of the main disseminators of Dessler's ideas after his death. His son left London in the early 1930s to study in the yeshiva of Kelm. During the war they escaped to the Far East, and eventually settled in the United States. Several months before

880-670: A position as a rabbinical judge in Vilna . After the death of his stepmother in 1928, Dessler was obliged to accompany his father to London for medical treatment, and decided to remain in the United Kingdom. His wife and children stayed behind for the time being. In London Dessler served in the rabbinate, initially in the East End and later in Dalston , Northeast London. His family joined him in 1931. In Dalston he started tutoring

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960-586: A prohibition in order to maintain the Jewish system as a whole. This was part of the basis for Esther 's relationship with Ahasuerus (Xeres). For general usage of takkanaot in Jewish history see the article Takkanah . For examples of this being used in Conservative Judaism, see Conservative halakha . The antiquity of the rules can be determined only by the dates of the authorities who quote them; in general, they cannot safely be declared older than

1040-408: A rabbinic posek ("he who makes a statement", "decisor") proposes an additional interpretation of a law, that interpretation may be considered binding for the posek's questioner or immediate community. Depending on the stature of the posek and the quality of the decision, an interpretation may also be gradually accepted by other rabbis and members of other Jewish communities. Under this system there

1120-542: A school will be the son or son-in-law of the rebbe, the assumed heir of the rebbe. However, the role that yeshivahs have within Hasidic communities is not nearly as important as it is in Lithuanian Jewish ( Litvishe ) communities. Hasidic students usually get married at the age of 18, which—in most cases—is the end of their yeshiva education. Students in the Lithuanian Jewish communities typically continue to study until they get married starting at around age 23, with

1200-426: A self-evident trust that their pattern of life and belief now conformed to the sacred patterns and beliefs presented by scripture and tradition". According to an analysis by Jewish scholar Jeffrey Rubenstein of Michael Berger's book Rabbinic Authority , the authority that rabbis hold "derives not from the institutional or personal authority of the sages but from a communal decision to recognize that authority, much as

1280-588: A water tap (which is permissible by halakha ) than lighting a fire (which is not permissible), and therefore permitted on Shabbat. The reformative Judaism in some cases explicitly interprets halakha to take into account its view of contemporary society. For instance, most Conservative rabbis extend the application of certain Jewish obligations and permissible activities to women (see below ). Within certain Jewish communities, formal organized bodies do exist. Within Modern Orthodox Judaism , there

1360-405: Is a tension between the relevance of earlier and later authorities in constraining Halakhic interpretation and innovation. On the one hand, there is a principle in halakha not to overrule a specific law from an earlier era, after it is accepted by the community as a law or vow , unless supported by another, relevant earlier precedent; see list below. On the other hand, another principle recognizes

1440-455: Is actually counter-productive. They propose that Judaism has entered a phase of ethical monotheism, and that the laws of Judaism are only remnants of an earlier stage of religious evolution, and need not be followed. This is considered wrong, and even heretical , by Orthodox and Conservative Judaism. Humanistic Jews value the Torah as a historical, political, and sociological text written by their ancestors. They do not believe "that every word of

1520-547: Is an evolving concept and that the traditional halakhic system is incapable of producing a code of conduct that is meaningful for, and acceptable to, the vast majority of contemporary Jews. Reconstructionist founder Mordecai Kaplan believed that "Jewish life [is] meaningless without Jewish law.", and one of the planks of the Society for the Jewish Renascence, of which Kaplan was one of the founders, stated: "We accept

1600-680: Is between the Written Law, laws written in the Hebrew Bible , and the Oral Law, laws which are believed to have been transmitted orally prior to their later compilation in texts such as the Mishnah, Talmud, and rabbinic codes. Commandments are divided into positive and negative commands, which are treated differently in terms of divine and human punishment. Positive commandments require an action to be performed and are considered to bring

1680-772: Is comparable to a dean in a university. The personal and ethical development of the students in the yeshiva is usually covered by a different personality, known as the mashgiach or spiritual supervisor. This concept, introduced by the Mussar movement in the 19th century, led to perfection of character as one of the aims of attending a yeshiva. One typical and influential mashgiach was Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler . Halakha Halakha ( / h ɑː ˈ l ɔː x ə / hah- LAW -khə ; Hebrew : הֲלָכָה , romanized :  hălāḵā , Sephardic : [halaˈχa] ), also transliterated as halacha , halakhah , and halocho ( Ashkenazic : [haˈlɔχɔ] ),

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1760-577: Is considered to be a true teaching, even if it is not the true teaching in according to the heavens. For instance, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik believes that the job of a halakhic decisor is to apply halakha − which exists in an ideal realm−to people's lived experiences. Moshe Shmuel Glasner , the chief rabbi of Cluj ( Klausenberg in German or קלויזנבורג in Yiddish) stated that the Oral Torah

1840-564: Is derived from the root which means "to behave" (also "to go" or "to walk"). Halakha not only guides religious practices and beliefs; it also guides numerous aspects of day-to-day life. Historically, widespread observance of the laws of the Torah is first in evidence beginning in the second century BCE. In the Jewish diaspora , halakha served many Jewish communities as an enforceable avenue of law – both civil and religious , since no differentiation of them exists in classical Judaism. Since

1920-465: Is difficult to determine which teachers had most influence on Rabbi Dessler, it is apparent that he is a child of the yeshiva world of the early 20th century, which was then influenced heavily by the ethical Musar movement, but has similarly gained proficiency in Kabbalah and works of Hasidic Judaism and Jewish philosophy . His method in interpreting tenets of Jewish philosophy reveals an adherence to

2000-684: Is no one committee or leader, but Modern US-based Orthodox rabbis generally agree with the views set by consensus by the leaders of the Rabbinical Council of America . Within Conservative Judaism , the Rabbinical Assembly has an official Committee on Jewish Law and Standards . Note that takkanot (plural of takkanah ) in general do not affect or restrict observance of Torah mitzvot . (Sometimes takkanah refers to either gezeirot or takkanot .) However,

2080-439: Is normative and binding, and is developed as a partnership between people and God based on Sinaitic Torah. While there are a wide variety of Conservative views, a common belief is that halakha is, and has always been, an evolving process subject to interpretation by rabbis in every time period. See Conservative Judaism, Beliefs . Reconstructionist Judaism holds that halakha is normative and binding, while also believing that it

2160-525: Is not simply to be the dean, but is generally to give the highest-level lecture in the yeshiva, which is usually a program of at least two years. Students who have studied in a yeshiva are generally known as "students of the Rosh Yeshiva", as their lecture is the one in which they usually attain their method of Talmudic analysis and critical reasoning, and this method is based on the particular style of that rosh yeshiva. In addition, since yeshivas play

2240-475: Is often contrasted with aggadah ("the telling"), the diverse corpus of rabbinic exegetical , narrative, philosophical, mystical, and other "non-legal" texts. At the same time, since writers of halakha may draw upon the aggadic and even mystical literature, a dynamic interchange occurs between the genres. Halakha also does not include the parts of the Torah not related to commandments. Halakha constitutes

2320-468: Is required to have a comprehensive knowledge of the Talmud and the ability to analyse and present new perspectives, called chidushim ( novellae ) verbally and often in print. In some institutions, such as YU's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary , the title of rosh yeshiva is given to many rabbis and the dean of the yeshiva is known as the rosh ha-yeshiva. The primary role of the rosh yeshiva

2400-497: Is so loose that not attending synagogue may lead them to drop it altogether, their rabbi may give them a dispensation to drive there and back; and more recently in its decision prohibiting the taking of evidence on mamzer status on the grounds that implementing such a status is immoral. The CJLS has also held that the Talmudic concept of Kavod HaBriyot permits lifting rabbinic decrees (as distinct from carving narrow exceptions) on grounds of human dignity, and used this principle in

2480-422: Is still seen as binding. Conservative Jews use modern methods of historical study to learn how Jewish law has changed over time, and are, in some cases, willing to change Jewish law in the present. A key practical difference between Conservative and Orthodox approaches is that Conservative Judaism holds that its rabbinical body's powers are not limited to reconsidering later precedents based on earlier sources, but

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2560-568: Is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah . Halakha is based on biblical commandments ( mitzvot ), subsequent Talmudic and rabbinic laws , and the customs and traditions which were compiled in the many books such as the Shulchan Aruch . Halakha is often translated as "Jewish law", although a more literal translation might be "the way to behave" or "the way of walking". The word

2640-466: The shofar on Shabbat, or taking the lulav and etrog on Shabbat. These examples of takkanot which may be executed out of caution lest some might otherwise carry the mentioned items between home and the synagogue, thus inadvertently violating a Sabbath melakha . Another rare and limited form of takkanah involved overriding Torah prohibitions. In some cases, the Sages allowed the temporary violation of

2720-531: The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) is empowered to override Biblical and Taanitic prohibitions by takkanah (decree) when perceived to be inconsistent with modern requirements or views of ethics. The CJLS has used this power on a number of occasions, most famously in the "driving teshuva", which says that if someone is unable to walk to any synagogue on the Sabbath, and their commitment to observance

2800-461: The Jewish diaspora , Jews lacked a single judicial hierarchy or appellate review process for halakha . According to some scholars, the words halakha and sharia both mean literally "the path to follow". The fiqh literature parallels rabbinical law developed in the Talmud , with fatwas being analogous to rabbinic responsa . According to the Talmud ( Tractate Makot ), 613 mitzvot are in

2880-583: The Musar movement , Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv , best known as the Alter (Elder) of Kelm . Eliyahu was orphaned of his mother at a young age. His father remarried, and would become a successful timber merchant in the city of Homel over the ensuing years, although he would lose virtually his whole fortune after the Russian Revolution , which would prompt his son to relocate to England (1929). The young Elya

2960-545: The Shabbat and holidays). Through the ages, various rabbinical authorities have classified some of the 613 commandments in many ways. A different approach divides the laws into a different set of categories: The development of halakha in the period before the Maccabees , which has been described as the formative period in the history of its development, is shrouded in obscurity. Historian Yitzhak Baer argued that there

3040-582: The United States and Israel . Prior to the Holocaust , most of the large yeshivas were based in Eastern Europe . Presently, the majority of the world's yeshivas and their rosh yeshivas are located in the United States and Israel . The following is a list of some famous rosh yeshivas: The title rosh mesivta (alt. rosh metivta) has a long history, going back many centuries. The role

3120-554: The tanna ("repeater") to whom they are first ascribed. It is certain, however, that the seven middot ("measurements", and referring to [good] behavior) of Hillel and the thirteen of Ishmael are earlier than the time of Hillel himself, who was the first to transmit them. The Talmud gives no information concerning the origin of the middot, although the Geonim ("Sages") regarded them as Sinaitic ( Law given to Moses at Sinai ). The middot seem to have been first laid down as abstract rules by

3200-469: The "divine" authority of halakha , traditional Jews have greater reluctance to change, not only the laws themselves but also other customs and habits, than traditional Rabbinical Judaism did prior to the advent of Reform in the 19th century. Orthodox Jews believe that halakha is a religious system whose core represents the revealed will of God. Although Orthodox Judaism acknowledges that rabbis have made many decisions and decrees regarding Jewish Law where

3280-456: The "traditionalist" wing believe that the halakha represents a personal starting-point, holding that each Jew is obligated to interpret the Torah, Talmud and other Jewish works for themselves, and this interpretation will create separate commandments for each person. Those in the liberal and classical wings of Reform believe that in this day and era, most Jewish religious rituals are no longer necessary, and many hold that following most Jewish laws

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3360-575: The 20th century. He is best known for being the mashgiach ruchani ("spiritual counselor") of the Ponevezh yeshiva in Israel and through collections of his writings published posthumously by his pupils. Eliyahu Dessler, who was known throughout his life as Eliyahu Leizer or Elya Lazer , was born in 1892 (5652) in Gomel . His father, Reuven Dov Dessler , was a disciple of one of the main leaders of

3440-496: The CJLS's acceptance of Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz's responsum decreeing the biblical category of mamzer as "inoperative." The CJLS adopted the responsum's view that the "morality which we learn through the larger, unfolding narrative of our tradition" informs the application of Mosaic law. The responsum cited several examples of how the rabbinic sages declined to enforce punishments explicitly mandated by Torah law. The examples include

3520-625: The Halakhic process, a religious-ethical system of legal reasoning. Rabbis generally base their opinions on the primary sources of halakha as well as on precedent set by previous rabbinic opinions. The major sources and genre of halakha consulted include: In antiquity, the Sanhedrin functioned essentially as the Supreme Court and legislature (in the US judicial system) for Judaism, and had

3600-474: The Jewish Enlightenment ( Haskalah ) and Jewish emancipation , some have come to view the halakha as less binding in day-to-day life, because it relies on rabbinic interpretation, as opposed to the authoritative, canonical text which is recorded in the Hebrew Bible . Under contemporary Israeli law , certain areas of Israeli family and personal status law are, for Jews, under the authority of

3680-496: The Noahide Laws. They are a set of imperatives which, according to the Talmud, were given by God to the "children of Noah" – that is, all of humanity. Despite its internal rigidity, halakha has a degree of flexibility in finding solutions to modern problems that are not explicitly mentioned in the Torah. From the very beginnings of Rabbinic Judaism, halakhic inquiry allowed for a "sense of continuity between past and present,

3760-465: The Orthodox views that halakha was given at Sinai, Orthodox thought (and especially modern Orthodox thought) encourages debate, allows for disagreement, and encourages rabbis to enact decisions based on contemporary needs. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein says in his introduction to his collection of responsa that a rabbi who studies the texts carefully is required to provide a halakhic decision. That decision

3840-419: The Talmud states that in exceptional cases, the Sages had the authority to "uproot matters from the Torah". In Talmudic and classical Halakhic literature, this authority refers to the authority to prohibit some things that would otherwise be Biblically sanctioned ( shev v'al ta'aseh , "thou shall stay seated and not do"). Rabbis may rule that a specific mitzvah from the Torah should not be performed, e. g., blowing

3920-425: The Torah as immoral, and came to the conclusion that no court should agree to hear testimony on mamzerut . The most important codifications of Jewish law include the following; for complementary discussion, see also History of responsa in Judaism . Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (1892 – 31 December 1953 ) was an Orthodox rabbi , Talmudic scholar, and Jewish philosopher of

4000-460: The Torah is true, or even morally correct, just because the Torah is old". The Torah is both disagreed with and questioned. Humanistic Jews believe that the entire Jewish experience, and not only the Torah, should be studied as a source for Jewish behavior and ethical values. Some Jews believe that gentiles are bound by a subset of halakha called the Seven Laws of Noah , also referred to as

4080-815: The Torah, 248 positive ("thou shalt") mitzvot and 365 negative ("thou shalt not") mitzvot , supplemented by seven mitzvot legislated by the rabbis of antiquity. Currently, many of the 613 commandments cannot be performed until the building of the Temple in Jerusalem and the universal resettlement of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel by the Messiah. According to one count, only 369 can be kept, meaning that 40% of mitzvot are not possible to perform. Rabbinic Judaism divides laws into categories: This division between revealed and rabbinic commandments may influence

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4160-409: The application of a law to new situations, but do not consider such applications as constituting a "change" in halakha . For example, many Orthodox rulings concerning electricity are derived from rulings concerning fire, as closing an electrical circuit may cause a spark. In contrast, Conservative poskim consider that switching on electrical equipment is physically and chemically more like turning on

4240-519: The corpus of rabbinic legal texts, or to the overall system of religious law. The term may also be related to Akkadian ilku , a property tax, rendered in Aramaic as halakh , designating one or several obligations. It may be descended from hypothetical reconstructed Proto-Semitic root *halak- meaning "to go", which also has descendants in Akkadian, Arabic, Aramaic, and Ugaritic. Halakha

4320-468: The days of the Sanhedrin, however, no body or authority has been generally regarded as having the authority to create universally recognized precedents. As a result, halakha has developed in a somewhat different fashion from Anglo-American legal systems with a Supreme Court able to provide universally accepted precedents. Generally, Halakhic arguments are effectively, yet unofficially, peer-reviewed. When

4400-417: The divine language of the Torah is distinguished from the speech of men by the fact that in the former no word or sound is superfluous. Some scholars have observed a similarity between these rabbinic rules of interpretation and the hermeneutics of ancient Hellenistic culture. For example, Saul Lieberman argues that the names of rabbi Ishmael's middot (e. g., kal vahomer , a combination of the archaic form of

4480-458: The eternity of Torah be understood [properly], for the changes in the generations and their opinions, situation and material and moral condition requires changes in their laws, decrees and improvements. The view held by Conservative Judaism is that the Torah is not the word of God in a literal sense. However, the Torah is still held as mankind's record of its understanding of God's revelation, and thus still has divine authority. Therefore, halakha

4560-462: The halakha, which is rooted in the Talmud, as the norm of Jewish life, availing ourselves, at the same time, of the method implicit therein to interpret and develop the body of Jewish Law in accordance with the actual conditions and spiritual needs of modern life." Reform Judaism holds that modern views of how the Torah and rabbinic law developed imply that the body of rabbinic Jewish law is no longer normative (seen as binding) on Jews today. Those in

4640-475: The importance of a rule, its enforcement and the nature of its ongoing interpretation. Halakhic authorities may disagree on which laws fall into which categories or the circumstances (if any) under which prior rabbinic rulings can be re-examined by contemporary rabbis, but all Halakhic Jews hold that both categories exist and that the first category is immutable, with exceptions only for life-saving and similar emergency circumstances. A second classical distinction

4720-648: The late 1940s, the leadership of the Ponevezh yeshiva in the Israeli town of Bnei Berak convinced Dessler to become mashgiach ruchani (spiritual counsellor and lecturer on ethical issues). He relocated to Israel, again gathering a small circle of students. One of his pupils, Chaim Friedländer, would later fill his position as Ponevezh mashgiach . Rabbi Dessler died quite suddenly on December 31, 1953 (Hebrew date 25 Tevet 5714), presumably of ischemic heart disease . He had suffered from peripheral vascular disease in

4800-405: The levels below this have already been conquered, and he will easily win those battles of will; whereas levels higher are not yet within his grasp. (For example, someone who adheres to Orthodox Judaism will have no problem keeping kosher, but may sometimes be tempted to rely on unreliable kosher supervision, while somebody farther away from religious practice will have to struggle with whether to eat

4880-568: The months prior to his death. Most of Rabbi Dessler's work has reached the public through the pupils he reared in England and Israel, chiefly Aryeh Carmell and Chaim Friedlander . Together, they edited his collected correspondence and ethical writings posthumously in the six-volume Michtav me-Eliyahu ("Letter from Elijah" which alludes to the letter that the prophet Elijah sent to the King of Judah that arrived after Elijah ascended to heaven in

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4960-579: The outbreak of World War II, his wife left for Lithuania with her daughter to visit relatives. The war separated them, and the women spent the war mainly in Australia. In the early 1940s, Dessler assumed leadership of the newly formed Gateshead kollel , an institute of religious study for married men, then a novelty in Western Europe. During the ensuing years he led the kollel , raised its funds, and also tutored small groups of young people. In

5040-463: The performer closer to God. Negative commandments (traditionally 365 in number) forbid a specific action, and violations create a distance from God. A further division is made between chukim ("decrees" – laws without obvious explanation, such as shatnez , the law prohibiting wearing clothing made of mixtures of linen and wool), mishpatim ("judgements" – laws with obvious social implications) and eduyot ("testimonies" or "commemorations", such as

5120-538: The point of view of Jewish philosophy is not "give and take" but focuses exclusively on giving . Dessler also believed that the acquisition of secular knowledge came at the expense of Torah knowledge. He warned against studying foreign or secular ideas. He also warned against preoccupation with materialism and technology, which, in his view, distance mankind from spirituality and detracted from believing in Divine providence in Judaism § Haredi Judaism . He writes that

5200-551: The power to administer binding law, including both received law and its own rabbinic decrees, on all Jews—rulings of the Sanhedrin became halakha ; see Oral law . That court ceased to function in its full mode in 40 CE. Today, the authoritative application of Jewish law is left to the local rabbi, and the local rabbinical courts, with only local applicability. In branches of Judaism that follow halakha , lay individuals make numerous ad-hoc decisions but are regarded as not having authority to decide certain issues definitively. Since

5280-713: The practical application of the 613 mitzvot ("commandments") in the Torah, as developed through discussion and debate in the classical rabbinic literature , especially the Mishnah and the Talmud (the " Oral Torah "), and as codified in the Mishneh Torah and Shulchan Aruch . Because halakha is developed and applied by various halakhic authorities rather than one sole "official voice", different individuals and communities may well have different answers to halakhic questions. With few exceptions, controversies are not settled through authoritative structures because during

5360-515: The proper use of electricity on the Sabbath and holidays. Often, as to the applicability of the law in any given situation, the proviso is to "consult your local rabbi or posek ". This notion lends rabbis a certain degree of local authority; however, for more complex questions the issue is passed on to higher rabbis who will then issue a teshuva , which is a responsa that is binding. Indeed, rabbis will continuously issue different opinions and will constantly review each other's work so as to maintain

5440-521: The rabbinic courts, so they are treated according to halakha . Some minor differences in halakha are found among Ashkenazi Jews , Mizrahi Jews , Sephardi Jews , Yemenite , Ethiopian and other Jewish communities which historically lived in isolation. The word halakha is derived from the Hebrew root halakh – "to walk" or "to go". Taken literally, therefore, halakha translates as "the way to walk", rather than "law". The word halakha refers to

5520-409: The responsibility and authority of later authorities, and especially the posek handling a then-current question. In addition, the halakha embodies a wide range of principles that permit judicial discretion and deviation (Ben-Menahem). Notwithstanding the potential for innovation, rabbis and Jewish communities differ greatly on how they make changes in halakha . Notably, poskim frequently extend

5600-456: The teachers of Hillel, though they were not immediately recognized by all as valid and binding. Different schools interpreted and modified them, restricted or expanded them, in various ways. Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael and their scholars especially contributed to the development or establishment of these rules. "It must be borne in mind, however, that neither Hillel, Ishmael, nor [a contemporary of theirs named] Eliezer ben Jose sought to give

5680-401: The trial of the accused adulteress ( sotah ), the "law of breaking the neck of the heifer," and the application of the death penalty for the "rebellious child." Kaplan Spitz argues that the punishment of the mamzer has been effectively inoperative for nearly two thousand years due to deliberate rabbinic inaction. Further he suggested that the rabbis have long regarded the punishment declared by

5760-409: The truest sense of halakha . Overall, this process allows rabbis to maintain connection of traditional Jewish law to modern life. Of course, the degree of flexibility depends on the sect of Judaism, with Reform being the most flexible, Conservative somewhat in the middle, and Orthodox being much more stringent and rigid. Modern critics, however, have charged that with the rise of movements that challenge

5840-500: The utmost accuracy and care. The most widely accepted codes of Jewish law are known as Mishneh Torah and the Shulchan Aruch . Orthodox Judaism has a range of opinions on the circumstances and extent to which change is permissible. Haredi Jews generally hold that even minhagim (customs) must be retained, and existing precedents cannot be reconsidered. Modern Orthodox authorities are more inclined to permit limited changes in customs and some reconsideration of precedent. Despite

5920-517: The vast majority continuing their studies in a kollel after marriage. As a result, the role that a rosh yeshiva plays in Lithuanian Jewish communities is much more important than in the Hasidic ones. Yeshivas continue the scholarly traditions of the sages of the Mishnah and Talmud who often headed academies with hundreds of students. In the Talmudic academies in Babylonia , the rosh yeshiva

6000-715: The word for "straw" and the word for "clay" – "straw and clay", referring to the obvious [means of making a mud brick]) are Hebrew translations of Greek terms, although the methods of those middot are not Greek in origin. Orthodox Judaism holds that halakha is the divine law as laid out in the Torah (five books of Moses), rabbinical laws, rabbinical decrees, and customs combined. The rabbis, who made many additions and interpretations of Jewish Law, did so only in accordance with regulations they believe were given for this purpose to Moses on Mount Sinai , see Deuteronomy 17:11 . See Orthodox Judaism, Beliefs about Jewish law and tradition . Conservative Judaism holds that halakha

6080-528: The written Torah itself is nonspecific, they did so only in accordance with regulations received by Moses on Mount Sinai (see Deuteronomy 5:8–13 ). These regulations were transmitted orally until shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple . They were then recorded in the Mishnah, and explained in the Talmud and commentaries throughout history up until the present day. Orthodox Judaism believes that subsequent interpretations have been derived with

6160-555: Was an oral tradition by design, to allow for the creative application of halakha to each time period, and even enabling halakha to evolve. He writes: Thus, whoever has due regard for the truth will conclude that the reason the [proper] interpretation of the Torah was transmitted orally and forbidden to be written down was not to make [the Torah] unchanging and not to tie the hands of the sages of every generation from interpreting Scripture according to their understanding. Only in this way can

6240-409: Was little pure academic legal activity at this period and that many of the laws originating at this time were produced by a means of neighbourly good conduct rules in a similar way as carried out by Greeks in the age of Solon . For example, the first chapter of Bava Kamma , contains a formulation of the law of torts worded in the first person. The boundaries of Jewish law are determined through

6320-665: Was referred to as the reish metivta ("head of the academy" in Aramaic ) and had the title of gaon . Regard for the rosh yeshiva in many ways is the transplantation of Hasidic attitudes in the Lithuanian world. Depending on the size of the yeshiva, there may be several rosh yeshivas, sometimes from one extended family. There are familial dynasties of rosh yeshivas, for example, the Soloveitchik , Finkel , Feinstein , Kotler , and Kook families, which head many yeshivas in

6400-503: Was taught by private tutors. At the age of 13 (in 1906), he was to be one of the youngest students at the yeshiva of Kelm , which was then being led by Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Braude, the son-in-law of the founder. Rabbi Dessler would later speak in fond terms on the study and self-perfection in the Kelm yeshiva. It was unusual in the sense that it provided its pupils with a secular education parallel to their religious studies, enabling them to earn

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