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nic posek he who makes a statement decisor proposes an additional interpretation of a law that interpretation may be considered binding for the posek s questioner or immediate community depending on the stature of the posek and the quality of the decision an interpretation may also be gradually accepted by other rabbis and members of other jewish communities under this system there is a tension between the relevance of earlier and later authorities in constraining halakhic interpretation and innovation on the one hand there is a principle in halakha not to overrule a specific law from an earlier era after it is accepted by the community as a law or vow 18 unless supported by another relevant earlier precedent see list below on the other hand another principle recognizes the responsibility and authority of later authorities and especially the posek handling a then current question in addition the halakha embodies a wide range of principles that permit judicial discretion and deviation ben menahem notwithstanding the potential for innovation rabbis and jewish communities differ greatly on how they make changes in halakha notably poskim frequently extend the application of a law to new situations but do not consider such applications as constituting a change in halakha for example many orthodox rulings concerning electricity are derived from rulings concerning fire as closing an electrical circuit may cause a spark in contrast conservative poskim consider that switching on electrical equipment is physically and chemically more like turning on a water tap which is permissible by halakha than lighting a fire which is not permissible and therefore permitted on shabbat the reformative judaism in some cases explicitly interprets halakha to take into account its view of contemporary society for instance most conservative rabbis extend the application of certain jewish obligations and permissible activities to women see below within certain jewish communities formal organized bodies do exist within modern orthodox judaism there is no one committee or leader but modern us based orthodox rabbis generally agree with the views set by consensus by the leaders of the rabbinical council of america within conservative judaism the rabbinical assembly has an official committee on jewish law and standards 19 note that takkanot plural of takkanah in general do not affect or restrict observance of torah mitzvot sometimes takkanah refers to either gezeirot or takkanot however the talmud states that in exceptional cases the sages had the authority to uproot matters from the torah in talmudic and classical halakhic literature this authority refers to the authority to prohibit some things that would otherwise be biblically sanctioned shev v al ta aseh thou shall stay seated and not do rabbis may rule that a specific mitzvah from the torah should not be performed e g blowing the shofar on shabbat or taking the lulav and etrog on shabbat these examples of takkanot which may be executed out of caution lest some might otherwise carry the mentioned items between home and the synagogue thus inadvertently violating a sabbath melakha another rare and limited form of takkanah involved overriding torah prohibitions in some cases the sages allowed the temporary violation of a prohibition in order to maintain the jewish system as a whole this was part of the basis for esther s relationship with ahasuerus xeres for general usage of takkanaot in jewish history see the article takkanah for examples of this being used in conservative judaism see conservative halakha historical analysis edit rabbinical eras chazal zugot tannaim amoraim savoraim geonim rishonim acharonim v t e the antiquity of the rules can be determined only by the dates of the authorities who quote them in general they cannot safely be declared older than the tanna repeater to whom they are first ascribed it is certain however that the seven middot measurements and referring to good behavior of hillel and the thirteen of ishmael are earlier than the time of hillel himself who was the first to transmit them the talmud gives no information concerning the origin of the middot although the geonim sages regarded them as sinaitic law given to moses at sinai the middot seem to have been first laid down as abstract rules by the teachers of hillel though they were not immediately recognized by all as valid and binding different schools interpreted and modified them restricted or expanded them in various ways rabbi akiva and rabbi ishmael and their scholars especially contributed to the development or establishment of these rules it must be borne in mind however that neither hillel ishmael nor a contemporary of theirs named eliezer ben jose sought to give a complete enumeration of the rules of interpretation current in his day but that they omitted from their collections many rules which were then followed 20 akiva devoted his attention particularly to the grammatical and exegetical rules while ishmael developed the logical the rules laid down by one school were frequently rejected by another because the principles that guided them in their respective formulations were essentially different according to akiva the divine language of the torah is distinguished from the speech of men by the fact that in the former no word or sound is superfluous some scholars have observed a similarity between these rabbinic rules of interpretation and the hermeneutics of ancient hellenistic culture for example saul lieberman argues that the names of rabbi ishmael s middot e g kal vahomer a combination of the archaic form of the word for straw and the word for clay straw and clay referring to the obvious means of making a mud brick are hebrew translations of greek terms although the methods of those middot are not greek in origin 21 22 23 views today edit see also talmud present day the artistic freedom spirit of aggadah left represented by solomon and the legal divine judgment rulings of halakhah right represented by aaron and his sons on the knesset menorah orthodox judaism holds that halakha is divine law laid down in the torah rabbinical laws rabbinical decrees and customs combined the rabbis who made many additions and interpretations of jewish law did so only in accordance with regulations they believed as orthodox jews still believe were given for this purpose to moses on mount sinai 24 25 conservative judaism holds that halakha is normative and binding and is developed as a partnership between people and god based on the sinaitic torah while there is a wide variety of conservative views a common belief is that halakha is and has always been an evolving process subject to interpretation by rabbis in every time period reconstructionist judaism asserts that halakha is normative and binding however it also views halakha as an evolving concept the traditional halakhic system according to this perspective cannot produce a code of conduct that is meaningful and acceptable to the majority of contemporary jews reconstructionism s founder rabbi mordecai kaplan believed that jewish life is meaningless without jewish law one of the planks of the society for the jewish renascence of which kaplan was a founder stated we accept the halakha which is rooted in the talmud as the norm of jewish life availing ourselves at the same time of the method implicit therein to interpret and develop the body of jewish law in accordance with the actual conditions and spiritual needs of modern life 26 reform judaism holds that modern views of how the torah and rabbinic law developed imply that the body of rabbinic jewish law is no longer normative seen as binding on jews today those in the traditionalist wing believe that the halakha represents a personal starting point holding that each jew is obligated to interpret the torah talmud and other jewish works for themselves and this interpretation will create separate commandments for each person those in the liberal and classical wings of reform believe that in this day and era most jewish religious rituals are no longer necessary and many hold that following most jewish laws is actually counter productive they propose that judaism has entered a phase of ethical monotheism and that the laws of judaism are only remnants of an earlier stage of religious evolution and need not be followed this is considered wrong and even heretical by orthodox and conservative judaism humanistic judaism values the torah as a historical political and sociological text written by their ancestors they do not believe that every word of the torah is true or even morally correct just because the torah is old the torah is both disagreed with and questioned humanistic jews believe that the entire jewish experience and not only the torah should be studied as a source for jewish behavior and ethical values 27 some jews believe that gentiles are bound by a subset of halakha called the seven laws of noah also referred to as the noahide laws according to the talmud they are a set of imperatives given by god to the children of noah that is all of humanity 28 flexibility edit despite its internal rigidity halakha has a degree of flexibility in finding solutions to modern problems not explicitly mentioned in the torah from the very beginnings of rabbinic judaism halakhic inquiry allowed for a sense of continuity between past and present a self evident trust that their pattern of life and belief now conformed to the sacred patterns and beliefs presented by scripture and tradition 29 according to an analysis by jewish scholar jeffrey rubenstein of michael berger s book rabbinic authority the authority that rabbis hold derives not from the institutional or personal authority of the sages but from a communal decision to recognize that authority much as a community recognizes a certain judicial system to resolve its disputes and interpret its laws 30 given this covenantal relationship rabbis are charged with connecting their contemporary community with the traditions and precedents of the past when presented with contemporary issues rabbis go through a halakhic process to find an answer the classical approach has permitted new rulings regarding modern technology for example some of these rulings guide jewish observers about the proper use of electricity on the sabbath and holidays often as to the applicability of the law in any given situation the proviso is to consult your local rabbi or posek this notion lends rabbis a certain degree of local authority however for more complex questions the issue is passed on to higher rabbis who will then issue a teshuva which is a responsum that is binding 31 indeed rabbis will continuously issue different opinions and will constantly review each other s work so as to maintain the truest sense of halakha this process allows rabbis to maintain a connection of traditional jewish law to modern life of course the degree of flexibility depends on the sect of judaism with reform being the most flexible conservative somewhat in the middle and orthodox being much more stringent and rigid modern critics however have charged that with the rise of movements that challenge the divine authority of halakha traditional jews have greater reluctance to change not only the laws themselves but also other customs and habits than traditional rabbinical judaism did before the advent of reform in the 19th century denominational approaches edit orthodox judaism edit see also semikhah concept and yeshiva jewish law hasidim walk to the synagogue rehovot israel orthodox jews believe that halakha is a religious system whose core represents the revealed will of god although orthodox judaism acknowledges that rabbis have made many decisions and decrees regarding jewish law where the written torah itself is nonspecific they did so only in accordance with regulations received by moses on mount sinai see deuteronomy 5 8 13 these regulations were transmitted orally until shortly after the destruction of the second temple they were then recorded in the mishnah and explained in the talmud and commentaries throughout history up until the present day orthodox judaism believes that subsequent interpretations have been derived with the utmost accuracy and care the most widely accepted codes of jewish law are known as mishneh torah and the shulchan aruch 32 orthodox judaism has a range of opinions on the circumstances and extent to which change is permissible haredi jews generally hold that even minhagim customs must be retained and existing precedents cannot be reconsidered modern orthodox authorities are more inclined to permit limited changes in customs and some reconsideration of precedent 33 despite the orthodox views that halakha was given at sinai orthodox thought and especially modern orthodox thought encourages debate allows for disagreement and encourages rabbis to enact decisions based on contemporary needs rabbi moshe feinstein says in his introduction to his collection of responsa that a rabbi who studies the texts carefully is required to provide a halakhic decision that decision is considered to be a true teaching even if it is not the true teaching in according to the heavens 34 for instance rabbi joseph b soloveitchik believes that the job of a halakhic decisor is to apply halakha which exists in an ideal realm to people s lived experiences 35 moshe shmuel glasner the chief rabbi of cluj klausenberg in german or קלויזנבורג in yiddish stated that the oral torah was an oral tradition by design to allow for the creative application of halakha to each time period and even enabling halakha to evolve he writes thus whoever has due regard for the truth will conclude that the reason the proper interpretation of the torah was transmitted orally and forbidden to be written down was not to make the torah unchanging and not to tie the hands of the sages of every generation from interpreting scripture according to their understanding only in this way can the eternity of torah be understood properly for the changes in the generations and their opinions situation and material and moral condition requires changes in their laws decrees and improvements 36 conservative judaism edit further information conservative halakha a mixed gender egalitarian conservative service at robinson s arch western wall the view held by conservative judaism is that the torah is not the word of god in a literal sense however the torah is still held as mankind s record of its understanding of god s revelation and thus still has divine authority therefore halakha is still seen as binding conservative jews use modern methods of historical study to learn how jewish law has changed over time and are in some cases willing to change jewish law in the present 37 a key practical difference between conservative and orthodox approaches is that conservative judaism holds that its rabbinical body s powers are not limited to reconsidering later precedents based on earl...