Halakha Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon

Halakha The word halakha is derived from the Hebrew root halakh - 'to walk' or 'to go'. Taken literally, therefore, halakha translates as 'the way to walk', rather than 'law'. The Ten Commandments: The Ten Commandments form the basis of Jewish law, stating God's universal and timeless standard of right and wrong. Jewish tradition considers the Ten Commandments the theological basis for the rest of the commandments. According to Conservative Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, Ten Commandments are virtually entwined, in that the breaking of one leads to the breaking of another. Halakha (Hebrew) also transliterated as halacha, halakhah, and halacho is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandments (mitzvot) , subsequent Talmudic and rabbinic laws, and the customs and traditions which were compiled in the many books such as the Shulchan Aruch. Halakha is often translated as 'Jewish law', although a more literal translation of it might be 'the way to behave' or 'the way of walking'. The word is derived from the root which means 'to behave' (also 'to go' or 'to walk') . Halakha not only guides religious practices and beliefs, it also guides numerous aspects of day-to-day life. Historically, in the Jewish diaspora, halakha served many Jewish communities as an enforceable avenue of law - both civil and religious, since no differentiation of them exists in classical Judaism. Since the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah) and Jewish emancipation, some have come to view the halakha as less binding in day-to-day life, because it relies on rabbinic interpretation, as opposed to the authoritative, canonical text which is recorded in the Hebrew Bible. Under contemporary Israeli law, certain areas of Israeli family and personal status law are under the authority of the rabbinic courts, so they are treated according to halakha. Some differences in halakha are found among Ashkenazi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Sephardi Jews, Yemenite, Ethiopian and other Jewish communities which historically lived in isolation. The Tenth Commandment: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." "Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to thy neighbor." Albert Einstein wrote to the Zionist Dr. Weizmann in 1929 (much before Israel was ever formed) : "Should we (the Jewish Community) be unable to find a way to honest cooperation and honest pacts with the Arabs, then we have learned absolutely nothing during our 2000 years of suffering." "If the Jews did not assure that both sides (Arabs and Jews) lived in harmony, the struggle would haunt them in decades to come." Despite Einstein, the Jewish nation harbours expansionist interests and thrives on conflict. Result, the entire world suffers. Luckily for them, the Arab world stands divided. And there is wanton hostilities thriving among them. In a 2019 report filed by Amnesty International, Amnesty International is harshly critical of Israel's policies on arms exports. According to the report written in Hebrew by the organization's Israeli branch, Israeli companies continue to export weapons to countries that systematically violate human rights. Israeli-made weapons are also found in the hands of armies and organizations committing war crimes. The report points to eight such countries that have received arms from Israel in recent years. Often these weapons reach their destination after a series of transactions, thereby skirting international monitoring and the rules of Israel itself. Amnesty calls on the government, the Knesset and the Defense Ministry to more tightly monitor arms exports and enforce transparency guidelines adopted by other Western countries that engage in large-scale weapons exports. Israel as a nation, has made clandestine arrangements with Jews in France and the US, for selling arms in large quantities to the unlawful outfits. The role of the US in arming Israel is an open secret. During the early 1960s, the U.S. government sought to establish a regional arms limitation agreement in the Middle East. The initiative lost steam in early 1965 after it was disclosed that the U.S. had been indirectly supplying weapons to Israel via West Germany since 1962, under the terms of a 1960 secret agreement to supply Israel with $80 million worth of armaments. The remainder of the agreement was fulfilled publicly, following its disclosure by the U.S., with Israel receiving shipments of M48 Patton tanks in 1965 and A-4E Skyhawk attack aircraft in 1968. This clandestine deals of Israel with the West continues even today.