Editing Halakha (section)

== Etymology and terminology ==
[[File:Talmud set.JPG|thumb|right|upright=1.35|A full set of the [[Babylonian Talmud]]]]
The word ''halakha'' is derived from the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] root ''halakh'' – "to walk" or "to go".<ref name="EncJudaica">{{cite book |title= Encyclopaedia Judaica |edition= 2 |issue=8 |chapter= Halakhah |first= Louis |last= Jacobs}}</ref>{{rp|252}} Taken literally, therefore, ''halakha'' translates as "the way to walk", rather than "law". The word ''halakha'' refers to the corpus of rabbinic legal texts, or to the overall system of religious law. The term may also be related to [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] {{transliteration|akk|ilku}}, a property tax, rendered in Aramaic as {{transliteration|arc|halakh}}, designating one or several obligations.<ref name="EBR Schiffman">{{cite encyclopedia |url= https://www.academia.edu/23518527 |title= Halakhah |section= Second Temple and Hellenistic Judaism |first= Lawrence H. |last= Schiffman |encyclopedia= Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception |volume=11 |pages=2–8 |publisher= De Gruyter |access-date=10 October 2018}}</ref> It may be descended from hypothetical reconstructed Proto-Semitic root [[wiktionary:Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/halak-|''*halakh-'']] meaning "to go", which also has descendants in Akkadian, Arabic, Aramaic, and Ugaritic.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/halak- - Wiktionary|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/halak-|access-date=2020-10-23|website=en.wiktionary.org}}</ref>

''Halakha'' is often contrasted with ''[[aggadah]]'' ("the telling"), the diverse corpus of rabbinic [[Exegesis|exegetical]], narrative, philosophical, mystical, and other "non-legal" texts.<ref name="EBR Schiffman"/> 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 the practical application of the [[613 mitzvot|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]]''.<ref>[https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/halakhic-texts-101/ "Introduction to Halacha, the Jewish Legal Tradition."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190104144821/https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/halakhic-texts-101/ |date=2019-01-04 }} ''My Jewish Learning''. 8 April 2019.</ref> 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 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 Judaism|rabbinical law]] developed in the [[Talmud]], with fatwas being analogous to [[History of responsa in Judaism|rabbinic ''responsa'']].{{sfn|Glenn|2014|pp=183–84}}{{sfn|Messick|Kéchichian|2009}}