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HEBREW WORD STUDY – THE HALAKAH

Isaiah 30:21: “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.”

For over ten years I have studied this amazing word halakah. It comes from the root word halak and has a feminine ending, the idea of nurturing, loving and caring. It literally means the way to walk or the way to behave. It is often rendered by many rabbis as the law. This is because it is believed to be derived from an old Akkadian word iku which means a property tax and the Aramaic halak where it means an obligation.

The point is that this is more than taking a stroll it is speaking of the manner in which you are obligated to live your life. Hence the Jews have adopted this word halak and now associate it with the Torah and the 613 commandments. For it is in the Torah that we are taught the way to live.

The Halakah (you may see it spelled halakhah) has been developed throughout the generations since before 500 BC, in a constantly expanding collection of rabbinic literature an/or Oral Tradition known in the day of Jesus as the Tradition of the Fathers. About three hundred years after the birth of Christ it was consolidated in the Talmud. The Talmud consists of a body of intricate rabbinical opinions, legislation, customs, and recommendations, many of them passed down over the centuries. It developed into an assortment of ingrained behaviors which are relayed to successive generations from the moment a child begins to speak. It is the subject of intense study in yeshivas today. Something lacking in our present public education.

Oh, but say, I learned one more thing this past week when I was studying the word halak. When we walk the Halakah we are walking a path where Someone (Jesus) has already walked before us. Not only that according to Jewish teaching the Holy Spirit is before us, behind us, to our left and to our right. In other words He walks with us.