Wednesday, July 10, 2019

The Jewish Bet Din Religious Court Explained

By Barbara Wright


Some religions have a religious court. In Judaism, this court is called the Bet Din. In Islam, it is the Shariah Court, which is governed by a set of Islamic laws. The Jewish Bet Din is governed by Judaism laws. This is a set of laws that apply to the Jews. A religious Jew is a person who follows Judaism to the letter. In some places even secular Jews have to be governed by the laws of Judaism. Law and religion go hand in hand. In some cases, religion has even inspired the formation of national and local laws.

The Bet Din is religious in nature. That means that it can only be applied in a religious context and in this case it is the religion of Judaism. Therefore, a Christian or an Islam who is living in the state of Israel will not be bound by the rules of this court. This court has a number of officials.

The chief of court is the most senior official. He has a final say on all the matters of the court. This has to be a highly respected rabbi or posek. This is someone who understands the ins and outs of Torah, which is the holiest book in Judaism. A rabbinic judge will be concerned with cross-examining witnesses.

The Bet Din can be traced back to ancient Biblical times. The Bible starts with the book of Genesis. This documents the creation of planet earth. The next book is Exodus. It is in this book that one will start seeing references of this kind of court. The Exodus from Egypt to Israel was an important period in the history of the Jews.

The ancient Bet Din was a very powerful court. It had a lot of say in everyday life in Israel. Its effects were felt all over the land. With its righteous judgments, the people of Israel flourished and they became the talk all over the world. It dealt with all kinds of judicial cases including criminal and civil cases.

The status of the court kept changing. At times, it was quite powerful. In other times, it was merely symbolic. Changes occurred as a result of changes in the history of the world. When the Romans conquered most parts of the world, most local based courts lost their power as a result of the establishment of the Roman legal system.

The Israeli religious court of the present day is largely active in Israel. It is also active in other countries of the world where there is a significant population of Jews such as the United States of America and Brazil. This court needs to exist in accordance with the other courts of the land such as the high court.

In modern day times, a religious court complements the other courts. A country can have more than one religious court. Each religion can have its own religious court. This court is only restricted to civil matters. It does not have a say on criminal matters. These have to be handled by the office of public prosecutor of a country, which is a government institution.




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