Jewish law (Halakhah) is rooted in the three-thousand-year history of the Jews. Jewish law contains elements that are central to both the religious and national development of the Jews. Until the end of the eighteenth century, Jewish law regulated every aspect of Jewish life, private and public. Individuals or groups who did not recognize the authority of Halakhah were excluded from the Jewish community. Since then, only that segment of the Jewish people known as Orthodox still feels bound by Halakhah; other Jews observe Halakhah to a lesser degree or not at all.

When the Jews came into existence as a distinct people—according to tradition, with the exodus from Egypt and the divine revelation at Mount Sinai—all nations had their own gods specifying the particular norms that were to govern every aspect of their lives. That is what it meant to be a distinct, separate nation...