halakha

Halakha, from Hebrew halakhah, literally "the way to walk," is the collective body of Jewish religious law that governs many aspects of daily life, ritual practice, ethics, and civil law. It is derived from the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, traditionally believed to have been transmitted orally and eventually codified. The core sources include the Mishnah (compiled c. 200 CE), the Gemara (commentaries on the Mishnah; Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds), and later codifications and responsa. The principal codifications are Rambam's Mishneh Torah, the Tur and its commentary, and the Shulchan Aruch (with its commentaries), which have long served as practical guides for ritual and daily life. Legal authorities (poskim) interpret and adapt Halakha to new circumstances; their rulings are considered binding within communities that accept their authority.

Halakha covers a wide range of areas: daily observance of commandments and prohibitions (keeping the Sabbath and festivals, kashrut, prayer), life-cycle events (marriage, divorce, funerary practices, brit milah), ritual purity and sanctity, and civil and ethical conduct (oaths, damages, charity). It distinguishes between Halakha (the law proper) and minhag (custom) and Haggadah (non-legal literature).

In modern times, Halakha continues to be interpreted by contemporary poskim to address technologies, medical ethics, and pluralistic communities. While Orthodox Judaism tends to treat Halakha as binding, other movements, such as Conservative and Reform, employ varying approaches to tradition and adaptation.