Jewish law as a type of religious legal system

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

What is Jewish law? Like the Jewish people itself, it is very specific, unlike any other legal system. Its foundations are set forth in ancient documents containing the norms that regulate the life of the Jews, given by God. Then these norms were developed by the rabbis, who were given such a right by the Almighty, as stated in the Oral and Written Torah.

That is, the law of the Jews (sometimes called Halakha for short) is orthodox for them - constant and unchanging. Just as the Revelation revealed at Mount Sinai was a unique event that gave all generations of Jews through Moses the commandments established by God.

Jewish law as a type of religious legal system

Halacha in a broad sense is a system that includes laws, social norms and principles, religious interpretations, traditions and customs of the Jews. They regulate the religious, social and family life of Jews who are believers. It is very different from other systems of law. And this is due primarily to its religious orientation.

In the narrower sense of Halacha- this is a set of laws that are contained in the Torah, the Talmud, as well as in later rabbinical literature. Initially, the term "halakha" was understood as "decree". And later it became the name of the entire religious and legal system of the Jews.

Attitude towards Halacha

Orthodox Jews regard Halakha as a firmly established law, while other representatives of Judaism (for example, the Reformist direction) allow its interpretation and amendments to laws and regulations in connection with the emergence of new patterns of behavior in society.

Since the life manifestations of Orthodox Jews are regulated by religious laws, all religious commandments are included in Halakha, as well as legislative Judaic institutions and many additions to them. In addition, Jewish law contains the legal decisions made by various rabbis, which establish the norms of religious behavior or approve individual laws.

Connection with history and religion

The law of the Jews originated and developed in their communities, where norms and laws were developed in order to establish a certain order of people's behavior. Gradually, a number of traditions took shape, which were recorded and eventually transformed into the norms of religious law.

This type of law is distinguished by its four main features, which express the historical and religious roots of Jewish law. These include the following:

1. Sharplythe negative attitude of the Jews of antiquity to other religions and their carriers - the pagans, that is, the peoples who worshiped many other gods. It was the Jews themselves who considered (and continue to consider) God's chosen ones. This naturally evoked a corresponding response. The Jewish religion began to cause sharp rejection and rejection, as well as the way of life of the Jews, their rules of community. This people began to be limited in every possible way in their rights, subjected to persecution, which forced its representatives to unite even more, to isolate themselves.
2. A pronounced imperative character, the prevailing number of direct prohibitions, restrictions, requirements, the primacy of duties over the rights and freedoms of its subjects. Significant sanctions are expected for non-compliance with the bans.
3. The unifying function of law, which is associated with the formation of the Jewish community. The religious idea of a covenant, the conclusion of an agreement between God and the Jewish people on Mount Sinai, acquired a public sound. The sons of Israel are the chosen ones of God, the fact that they are aware of their belonging to Yahweh, believe in a common God, makes them one people. Subordination to the same laws that arose on a religious basis served to unite the Jews with each other, regardless of whether they lived on the territory of their historical homeland or in other states.
4. Orthodoxy. The question of whether the sayings of the ancient prophets are obsolete, not influencing the modern law of the Jews, suggests an unambiguously negative answer. In 1948, Israel adopted a declaration of independence in which, inin particular, it is said that the principles of peace, freedom and justice lie at the basis of the Israeli state - in the understanding corresponding to the understanding of them by the Israeli prophets.

Main branches of law

Judaism assumes a very specific, clearly regulated way of life, the rules of which affect many aspects. For example: what a person should do in the morning, getting out of bed, what he can eat, how to run his business, how to observe Shabbat and other Jewish holidays, whom to marry. But perhaps the most important rules are about how to worship God and how to behave with other people.

All these norms are observed in accordance with the branches of law into which the Halacha is divided. The main institutions of Jewish law are:

1. Family law, which is the main branch of Halacha.
2. Civil law relations.
3. Kashrut is an institution of law that regulates the consumption of goods, products.
4. An industry related to how Jewish holidays should be observed, in particular Saturday - Shabbat.

More on this below.

Halacha applies not only to the State of Israel, but also to residents of Jewish communities in other countries. That is, it is extraterritorial in nature. Another important feature of Jewish law is that it only applies to Jews.

Legal Sources

As alreadymentioned above, the roots of the type of law under consideration go back to the distant past. Among the sources of Jewish law, there are 5 groups of legislative acts. These include the following.

1. Explanations included in the Written Law - Torah - and understood in accordance with the oral tradition received by Moses at Sinai (Kabbalah).
2. Laws that have no basis in the written Torah, but, according to tradition, received by Moses at the same time as it. They are called the Halacha received by Moses at Sinai, or, for short, the Halacha from Sinai.
3. Laws developed by the sages based on the analysis of the texts of the Written Torah. Their status is equated to the status of that group of laws that are directly written in the Torah.
4. The laws established by the sages, designed to protect the Jews from violating the norms written in the Torah.
5. The prescriptions of the sages governing the life of Jewish communities.

Let's take a closer look at these legal sources, which, in principle, constitute the structure of Jewish law.

Source structure

The source structure includes the following:

1. Kabbalah. Here we are talking about a tradition that was perceived by one person from the lips of another, transmitted from one generation to another in the form of legal instructions. It differs from other sources in its static nature, while others develop and enrich the law.
2. The Old Testament, which is part of the Bible (as opposed to the New Testament, which is not recognized in Judaism).
3. Talmud, consistingof two main parts, the Mishnah and the Gemara. The legal component of the Jewish Talmud is Halakha. It is a set of laws taken from the Torah and the Talmud and Rabbinic literature. (Rabbi is an academic title in Judaism, which denotes a qualification in the interpretation of the Talmud and the Torah. It is assigned after receiving a religious education. He is not a clergyman).
4. Midrash. This is the interpretation and commentary of the Oral Teaching and Halacha, at all stages of its development.
5. Takana and pen. Laws adopted by halachic authorities - sages, and decrees, decrees of national government institutions.

Additional sources

Let's look at some additional sources of Jewish law.

1. A custom in all its manifestations, which must correspond to the main provisions of the Torah (in the narrow sense, the Torah is the Pentateuch of Moses, that is, the first five books of the Old Testament, and in the broad sense, it is the totality of all traditional religious norms).
2. Case. These are court decisions, as well as the manner of action and behavior of the experts of the Halakha in a certain situation.
3. Understanding. This is the logic of the sages of Halakha - both legal and universal.
4. Doctrine, which consists of the works of Jewish theologians, the positions of various academic Jewish scales, the ideas of the rabbis and views regarding the interpretation and understanding of biblical texts.

Legal Principles

Among the components that make up law, the most important role belongs to the principles on which it is based, that is, the basic ideas and provisions that determine its essence. As for the principles of Jewish law, they are not listed anywhere in a systematic way. However, in the process of studying the law itself, they are easily viewed, understood and formulated. These include the following:

1. The principle of an organic combination of three principles: religious, ethical and national. It is reflected in a number of norms. Previously, Jews were strictly forbidden to marry representatives of other nations. It was impossible to keep Jews in slavery indefinitely, to treat them cruelly, while in relation to foreigners it was in the order of things. Pawning certain objects at interest was forbidden only to Jews in relation to each other, but not in any way in relation to representatives of other peoples.
2. The principle of God's election of the Jewish people. It is reflected in the laws, commandments, sacred texts, which say that the Jews are a great people, which God separated from all others, blessed and loves him, promising him many blessings.
3. The principle of loy alty to God, the true faith and the Jewish people. Specifically, this is expressed in relation to Jewish law as holy and infallible and, at the same time, in belittling other legal systems and attributing deliberate sinfulness to representatives of other nationalities.

Family Law

This is one of the most extensive branches of Jewish law, which also applies to relations between Jews living in other countries. The courts of some states, for example, the USA, Germany, Belgium, France,Australia, Canada, are guided by its rules in the case of consideration of family cases, if their participants are spouses who consider their marriage as religious.

According to Jewish law, marriage is a religious sacrament that is concluded forever. Its termination in practice is almost impossible. After all, the spouses made a vow to God, and even if they do not want to live together, this is not a reason to break it. In this case, the law is on the side of the family and, first of all, legitimate children.

Spouses can live separately, but the obligation to support children is not removed from them. Such a strict attitude to the inviolability of marriage ties was the impetus for the fact that today in Israel a new form of marriage has appeared - the so-called Cypriot marriage. It is concluded without taking into account religious dogmas, but at the same time it entails a number of inconvenient moments.

Role of a woman

A Jewish woman can only marry a Jew, while a man can marry a woman of another religion. Kinship is on the line of the mother, not the father, since it is believed that a woman who is the wife of a Jew is a Jew, which means that her children are also Jews.

According to Israeli migration law, a Jew is considered a daughter, son, grandchildren of a Jewess, which plays a big role in obtaining citizenship. The special position of women in the family, in contrast to the norms observed in other religious and legal systems, was established in ancient times. It is Jewish law that establishes the equality of husband and wife. The husband in the family solves external problems, and the wife solves internal ones. At the same time, the dowry is givena very minor role.

Kashrut

This branch of law describes the features of consumption primarily of food products. She divides all goods into two groups - kosher and non-kosher, that is, permitted and unacceptable. The rules of Kashrut prescribe:

1. Do not mix dairy and meat products.
2. Only eat the types of animals listed in the Bible.
3. Meat products must be produced in a certain way to be kosher.

Over time, the rules of kosher have spread to other goods: shoes, clothes, medicines, personal hygiene items, personal computers, mobile phones.

Holidays and traditions

Jewish holidays must be observed in accordance with strict regulations. This is especially true for the sixth day of the week, the only day off - Saturday. The Jews call it Shabbat. Jewish law strictly prescribes not to engage in any kind of labor - neither physical nor mental.

Even food must be prepared in advance, it is consumed without warming up. Any activity aimed at making money is prohibited. This day should be completely dedicated to God, except for charity.