Halacha and the Jewish State
Halacha does not deal with state-related issues as created when Israel's nation had no home
Within the difficult and complex debate over the Gaza disengagement, the claim that a voluntary pullout from Gaza is contradictory to halacha (Jewish law) is often presented. Consequently, religious Jews find themselves torn between their belief in the sacred Jewish laws and their obligation to obey state laws.
However, this claim is not consistent with halacha’s actual role and significance in Jewish history.
Halacha was devised subsequent to the destruction of the Second Temple and the loss of Jewish independence, which destroyed the normative structure that allowed a collective Jewish existence in lieu of a binding national and legal framework.
As such, halacha, as well as the institutions that were established to enforce it, was undoubtedly one of the most glorious tools ever constructed by the people of Israel: It permitted the nation’s continued existence throughout its extensive period in exile and in the absence of sovereignty.
Halacha induced the formation of community frameworks, established the authority of rabbinical law, and assisted in organizing relations between Jews and non-Jewish authorities. Without halacha, Jewish existence in the Diaspora would not have been possible.
Halacha organizes relations between Jews, non-Jews
But herein lay the point: Halacha represents the Jewish nation’s irregular condition. A Jewish state that conducted itself according to halacha never existed, because halacha does not organize relations between Jews and Jewish authoritative institutions; it organizes relations between Jews and non-Jewish institutions.
If Israel’s wise men, such as Maimonides, spoke of kings’ laws, they were referring to the messiah king and how he would rule the nation. Halacha does not, and cannot, consider the existence of a Jewish state that is not established as a result of the messiah’s arrival.
Israel’s most famous philosopher, Yishayahu Leibowitz, best expressed this notion when he said, “The entire biblical constitution that deals with the state and society…was never meant for realization in the historical reality, but was rather an ideal picture of the time of the messiah.”
The current tension regarding the Gaza disengagement was also present among religious Zionist Jews who, at least until the Six Day War, made the distinction between the messianic expectation and the pragmatic historical reality of the establishment of a modern Jewish state.
It is permissible to object to the disengagement plan for any number of reasons, be they ideological or pragmatic. However, halacha does not allude, in any way, to how the Jewish state should function in the non-messianic reality of complex international and security issues.
The secular public is willing to cooperate with religious Jews on various issues, such as matrimonial law and kosher supervision, because halacha deals with these matters.
However, halacha does not deal with state-related issues, because it was created at a time when the nation of Israel was devoid of a home country or kingdom; this is the source of halacha’s power and glory.
- Shlomo Avineri is a professor of political science at the Hebrew University and former director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
