Word: halakhah
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...determine the character of Jerusalem -- and by extension, the very nature of the state of Israel. On one side, wearing beards, side curls, long black coats and fur-rimmed hats, are the ultra-Orthodox militants, who want all Israelis to live according to the strict dictates of the halakhah, or religious law. On the other side, constituting the vast majority of the country's 4.3 million citizens, are the secular Jews, who believe Israel should be a modern democracy based on the principles of individual rights, tolerance and pluralism...
...branches is one of the three major Jewish congregations. Known in Hebrew as the haredim (the trembling, or God- fearing, ones), the ultra-Orthodox believe all Jews must live according to the teachings of the Torah and the Talmud, as distilled in the 613 commandments that make up the halakhah. Many commandments concern observance of the Sabbath, which Jewish scholars have traditionally interpreted as prohibiting almost any activity on the holy day. To accommodate those beliefs, Israeli municipal governments have passed numerous Sabbath-keeping ordinances. In Jerusalem, for example, there is no public transportation on that day. All restaurants, except...
...issue is vital because Jews throughout the world have an automatic right to become Israeli citizens under the Law of Return. While children born of Jewish mothers are automatically Jewish, the ultras argue that converts to Judaism should not be considered Jews unless they were converted according to the halakhah -- effectively excluding those proselytized by Reform or Conservative rabbis...
...Return, last revised in 1970, grants automatic citizenship to any immigrant who is "born of a Jewish mother or who has converted." Orthodox politicians, distressed at the Miller ruling, are insisting on an amendment that the Knesset has repeatedly rejected. It would require conversion "according to halakhah" (religious law) as interpreted by Orthodoxy. The Orthodox claim that, otherwise, rabbinical courts, which supervise marriages, will need to maintain two lists of Israelis: those qualified to wed under religious law and those who cannot because of questionable conversions...
What concerns many Israelis is that some Orthodox Jews want to regulate daily life according to Halakhah, or religious law. Coed swimming would be outlawed, only kosher food would be served, television and radio programs would be banned from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. For former President Yitzhak Navon, 63, the dilemma cuts to the very heart of what Israel should be. "Are we going to live according to the laws of Moses or to the laws of Parliament?" he asks. "And who decides that?" Amos Oz argues that as a Jew, "I am free to decide what I will...