Halakah (Heb. for “going” or “way”) is a postbiblical norm or rule in rabbinic Judaism that applies the legal judgments of the Torah to existing situations. As far as rabbinic practice and the rabbinic understanding of tradition are concerned, Halakah effectively can count just as much as the Torah (i.e., as the revelation to Moses from Sinai). It is oral torah. It decides (often by specific cases) what is clean or unclean, innocent or guilty, permitted or forbidden. In an actual case the decision is binding, but later it forms a basis for discussi…