Halakha (Hebrew: הֲלָכָה, also transliterated halakhah or halacha) is the collective body of Jewish religious law derived from the Written Torah, the Oral Torah, and subsequent rabbinic legislation and custom. The term is often rendered “Jewish law,” though a more literal translation is “the way” or “the path one walks,” from the Hebrew root meaning “to go.” Halakha governs religious ritual, civil and criminal matters, and routines of daily conduct for observant Jews. The degree to which halakha is considered binding, and by what authority it is interpreted, varies across Jewish denominations and is addressed further on Viewpoint pages below.
Halakha is traditionally understood as deriving from the 613 biblical commandments (mitzvot), as elaborated through the Mishnah and the Talmud (collectively the Oral Torah), and later codified in works such as Maimonides' twelfth-century Mishneh Torah and the sixteenth-century Shulchan Aruch of Joseph Karo, with the glosses of Moses Isserles incorporating Ashkenazi practice. Halakhic reasoning proceeds through an ongoing process of legal interpretation, precedent, and rabbinic responsa (teshuvot) rather than through a single centralized judicial authority. Since the Sanhedrin ceased to function in its full capacity in 40 CE, no body or authority has been generally regarded as having the power to create universally recognized precedents, and the authoritative application of Jewish law today rests with local rabbis and rabbinical courts.
Because of this decentralization, different individuals and communities may arrive at different answers to halakhic questions, and controversies are often not resolved through any single authoritative structure. Minor variations in halakhic practice exist among Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi, Yemenite, Ethiopian, and other Jewish communities that historically developed in relative isolation. The transmission and authority of the Oral Torah alongside the Written Torah is itself a long-standing point of internal debate, addressed further on Debate. In the State of Israel, certain areas of family and personal-status law for Jews fall under the jurisdiction of rabbinic courts applying halakha, while in most of the Jewish diaspora today adherence to halakha is a matter of voluntary religious observance rather than civil enforcement.
A fuller account of halakha's historical development, from the Second Temple period through the codification era, is provided on halakha-history.
Jewish denominations and individual authorities differ substantially on the binding force, flexibility, and proper interpretive method of halakha.