Halakhah, halacha, or halocho refers to Jewish law.
More literally, halakhah means ‘the way’ and many Jews take it as a guide for everyday life. These laws come from the Torah and interpretations of the Torah.
The Talmud shows the sages debating Torah interpretations. Great Torah scholars in history also wrote halakhic rulings. There have been many important compilations of halakhic works in history that inform halakhah today. As times change, it is up to modern halakhic scholars to figure out how the law relates to new questions and issues.
Today, different communities and individuals interpret Jewish law in different ways. Many Jews do not take Jewish law as binding. Instead, they observe what is meaningful to them. Others take halakhah as spiritual guidance for Jewish living rather than a list of instructions.
Text adapted from English Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0.
Page from an illuminated Spanish Bible, MS Kennicott 2, The Bodleian Library via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
