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Conservative Halakha
Conservative Judaism views halakha (Jewish law) as normative and binding. The Conservative movement applies Jewish law to the full range of Jewish beliefs and practices, including thrice-daily prayer, Shabbat and holidays, marital relations and family purity, conversion, dietary laws (kashrut), and Jewish medical ethics. Institutionally, the Conservative movement rules on Jewish law both through centralized decisions, primarily by the Rabbinical Assembly and its Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, and through congregational rabbis at the local level. Conservative authorities produced voluminous Responsa literature. Conservative Jewish thinkers take the position that halakha can and should evolve to meet the changing reality of Jewish life. Conservative Judaism, therefore, views that traditional Jewish legal codes must be viewed through the lens of academic criticism. As Solomon Schechter noted, "however great the literary value of a code may be, it does not invest it with i ...
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Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism, also known as Masorti Judaism, is a Jewish religious movements, Jewish religious movement that regards the authority of Jewish law and tradition as emanating primarily from the assent of the people through the generations, more than from divine revelation. It therefore views Jewish law, or ''Halakha'', as both binding and subject to historical development. The Conservative rabbinate employs modern Historical criticism, historical-critical research, rather than only traditional methods and sources, and lends great weight to its constituency, when determining its stance on matters of practice. The movement considers its approach as the authentic and most appropriate continuation of ''Halakhic'' discourse, maintaining both fealty to received forms and flexibility in their interpretation. It also eschews strict theological definitions, lacking a consensus in matters of faith and allowing great pluralism. While regarding itself as the heir of Rabbi Zecharias Fr ...
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Kohen
Kohen (, ; , ، Arabic كاهن , Kahen) is the Hebrew word for "priest", used in reference to the Aaronic Priest#Judaism, priesthood, also called Aaronites or Aaronides. They are traditionally believed, and halakha, halakhically required, to be of direct Patrilineality, patrilineal descent from the biblical Aaron (also ''Aharon''), brother of Moses, and thus belong to the Tribe of Levi. During the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem (and previously the Tabernacle), ''kohanim'' performed the Temple korban, sacrificial offerings, which were only permitted to be offered by them. Following Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), its destruction, it seems that most of them joined the Synagogal Judaism, Synagogal Jewish movement before adopting gradually Rabbinic Judaism, other types of Judaism, List of converts to Christianity from Judaism, Christianity or List of converts to Islam from Judaism, Islam. Today, ''kohanim'' retain a lesser though distinct status within Rabbinic Judaism, Rabbinic ...
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Agunah
An aguna or agunah (, plural: , ''ʿaḡunoṯ'') is a Jewish woman who is stuck in her marriage as determined by traditional halakha (Jewish law). The classic case is a man who has left on a journey and has not returned or has gone into battle and is missing in action. It is used as a borrowed term to refer to a woman whose husband refuses or is unable to grant her a divorce (which requires a document known as a '' get''). For a divorce to be effective, halakha requires a man to grant his wife a ''get'' of his own free will. Without a ''get,'' no new marriage will be recognized, and any child she might have with another man would be considered a '' mamzer'' ( illegitimate). It is sometimes possible for a woman to receive special dispensation from a posek (halakhic authority), called a ''heter agunah'', based on a complex decision supported by substantial evidence that her husband is presumed dead, but this cannot be applied if the husband is alive. Because of the difficulty f ...
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Takkanah
A ''takkanah'' (, pl. ''takkanot'', 'improvement') is a major legislative enactment within ''halakha'', the normative system of Judaism's laws. A ''takkanah'' is an enactment that revises an ordinance that no longer satisfies the requirements of the times or circumstances or which, being deduced from a biblical passage, may be regarded as new. A ''takkanah'' is enacted by a rabbinical decree or ordinance to improve and preserve religious life. It is, therefore, the antithesis of the ''gezerah'' (). The term is applied also to the institution provided for in the enactment. ''Takkanot'' were enacted even in the time of the Second Temple, those of unknown origin being ascribed to earlier leaders, and they have been promulgated at all subsequent periods of Jewish history. Introduction Classical Jewish law granted rabbis wide legislative powers. There are two powerful legal tools within the ''Halakhic'' system: * ''Gezeirah'': "preventive legislation" of the classical rabbis, intended ...
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Conservative Responsa
Conservative Judaism views halakha (Jewish law) as normative and binding. The Conservative movement applies Jewish law to the full range of Jewish beliefs and practices, including thrice-daily prayer, Shabbat and holidays, marital relations and family purity, conversion, dietary laws (kashrut), and Jewish medical ethics. Institutionally, the Conservative movement rules on Jewish law both through centralized decisions, primarily by the Rabbinical Assembly and its Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, and through congregational rabbis at the local level. Conservative authorities produced voluminous Responsa literature. Conservative Jewish thinkers take the position that halakha can and should evolve to meet the changing reality of Jewish life. Conservative Judaism, therefore, views that traditional Jewish legal codes must be viewed through the lens of academic criticism. As Solomon Schechter noted, "however great the literary value of a code may be, it does not invest it with in ...
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Responsa
''Responsa'' (plural of Latin , 'answer') comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them. In the modern era, the term is used to describe decisions and rulings made by scholars in historic religious law. In the Roman Empire Roman law recognised , i.e., the responses and thoughts of jurists, as one of the sources of (written law), along with laws originating from magistrates, from the Senate, or from the emperor. A particularly well-known and highly influential example of such ''responsa'' was the ''Digesta'' (or ''Digests''), in 90 books, the principal work of the prominent second century jurist Salvius Julianus. This was a systematic treatise on civil and praetorian law, consisting of responsa on real and hypothetical cases, cited by many later Roman legal writers. In the Catholic Church In the Catholic Church, ''responsa'' are answers of the competent executive authority to specific questions (in Latin, '' ...
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Jewish Law
''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), 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'' or ''Mishneh Torah''. ''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 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, and some say that the first evidence was even earlier. In the Jewish diaspora, ''halakha'' served many Jewish communit ...
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Minhag
''Minhag'' ( "custom", classical pl. מנהגות, modern pl. מנהגים, ''minhagim'') is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, '' Nusach'' (נוסח), refers to the traditional order and form of the prayers. Etymology The triliteral () means primarily "to drive" or, by extension, "to conduct (oneself)". The actual word ''minhag'' appears twice in the Hebrew Bible, both times in the same verse and translated as "driving": Homiletically, one could argue that the use of the word minhag in Jewish law reflects its Biblical Hebrew origins as "the (manner of) driving (a chariot)". Whereas halakha "law", from the word for "walking path," means the path or road set for the journey, minhag "custom", from the word for driving, means the manner people have developed themselves to travel down that path more quickly. The present use of minhag for "custom" may have been influenced by the Arabic ''minhaj''; in current Islamic usage, this term is u ...
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Torah
The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () or the Five Books of Moses. In Rabbinical Jewish tradition it is also known as the Written Torah (, ). If meant for liturgic purposes, it takes the form of a Torah scroll ( '' Sefer Torah''). If in bound book form, it is called '' Chumash'', and is usually printed with the rabbinic commentaries (). In rabbinic literature, the word ''Torah'' denotes both the five books ( "Torah that is written") and the Oral Torah (, "Torah that is spoken"). It has also been used, however, to designate the entire Hebrew Bible. The Oral Torah consists of interpretations and amplifications which according to rabbinic tradition have been handed down from generation to generation and are now embodied in the Talmud and Midrash. Rabbinic tradition's underst ...
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Menachem Elon
Menachem Elon (; ; November 1, 1923 – February 6, 2013) was an Israeli jurist and Professor of Law specializing in traditional Jewish Law, an Orthodox rabbi, and a prolific author on traditional Jewish law (Halakha). He was the head of the Jewish Law Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He lost the 1983 Israeli Presidential Election to Chaim Herzog. Elon served as a justice of the Israeli Supreme Court from 1977–1993, and as its Deputy President from 1988–1993. Biography Menachem Fetter (later Elon) was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, into a religious Jewish family from Hasidic backgrounds. Elon's family fled to the Netherlands a year before Nazism's ascent in Germany. In 1935, Elon's family immigrated to Mandatory Palestine. In 1938, he studied Halakha (traditional Jewish law) in the Hebron Yeshiva, and was ordained as a rabbi by chief rabbis Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel and Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog. He was among the founders of a yeshiva high school Midr ...
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Sotah
Sotah ( or , "strayer") is a tractate of the Talmud in Rabbinic Judaism. The tractate explains the ordeal of the bitter water, a trial by ordeal of a woman suspected of adultery, which is prescribed by the Book of Numbers in the Hebrew Bible (''Tanakh''). In most editions, this tractate is the fifth in the order of Nashim, and it is divided into nine chapters. The tractate exists in the Mishnah, Tosefta, and both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud. ''Sotah'' is also the term used for the woman tried in this manner. Mishnah The '' mishnas'' (''mishnayot'') are devoted in the main to an exact definition of the rules of procedure in the case of a wife who was either actually or supposedly unfaithful. The mishnas discuss other rituals in which speech is a key component, such as ''egla arufa'', breaking the heifer's neck; '' Hakheil'', the Jewish King's septa-annual public Torah reading; and the Blessings and Curses of Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Tosefta The Tosefta of Sotah ...
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Temple In Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. According to the Hebrew Bible, the Solomon's Temple, First Temple was built in the 10th century BCE, during the reign of Solomon over the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), United Kingdom of Israel. It stood until , when it was destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. Almost a century later, the First Temple was replaced by the Second Temple, which was built after the Neo-Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire, Achaemenid Persian Empire. While the Second Temple stood for a longer period of time than the First Temple, it was likewise destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Projects to build the hypothetical "Third Temple" have not come to fruit ...
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