Halakhah, in the general sense of the word, is the entire body of Jewish law, from scripture to the latest rabbinical rulings. It is a complete system of law governing every aspect of human life. It has been traditionally viewed as wholly rooted in God's revealed will (B. T., Ḥag. 3b) but subject to the ongoing interpretation of the Jewish jurists (B. T., B. M. 59b).

In its more specific sense halakhah (pl., halakhot) refers to those laws that were traditionally observed by the Jewish people as if they were scriptural commandments (mitsvot) even though they were nowhere explicitly found in scripture. The term itself, according to Saul Lieberman in Hellenism in Jewish Palestine (New York, 1962), seems to refer to the statement of a juristic norm as opposed to actual case law. The task of much rabbinic exegesis, especially during the tannaitic period (c...