Halachic state

An opinion poll released in March 2016 by the Pew Research Center found high support for a halachic state among religious Israeli Jews. The poll found that 86% of Israeli Haredi Jews and 69% of non-Haredi religious Jews support making halakha Israel's legal code while 57% of traditional Jews and 90% of secular Jews oppose such a move.[2]

Just a couple of parties like Chayil and Kahanist groups actively promote this (Kahanists such as Kach and Kahane Chai advocate the abolition of secular democracy and the creation of a halakhic state in its stead). In contrast, United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Shas believe that a Jewish-run state is halakhically forbidden until the Messianic age. Therefore, the aspiration is essentially messianic, and they are not trying to implement it. Meimad is the only Jewish religious political party in Israel that actively opposes a halachic state. The Jewish Home party wishes to increase the Jewish religious character of the state incrementally by influencing individuals. Noam, a very conservative Orthodox party founded in July 2019, supports the creation of a halakhic state.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe advocated the transformation of Israel into a halachic state after the Messiah comes.[3] He also pointed out many times that according to Jewish tradition, the arrival of the Moshiach, the Jewish Messiah, would bring the Land of Israel to be under the rule of the halakha. This state would be a monarchy, with Moshiach at its head.

In 2009, Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman stated that "step by step, Torah law will become the binding law in the State of Israel. We have to reinstate the traditions of our forefathers, the teaching of the rabbis of the ages, because these offer a solution to all the issues we are dealing with today". He later retracted his statement.[1] According to 2002 Israel Prize winner Nahum Rakover, who received the Yakir Yerushalayim prize for his research on the use of Jewish law in the legal system,[4] Neeman's opinion was nothing new. He said that the idea is supported in the Foundations of Law Act, passed in 1980, which encourages judges to use Jewish law in their decisions. Yitzhak Kahan, former president of the Israeli Supreme Court, recommended that Jewish law be implemented even in cases of an existing precedent, although his opinion was not accepted and former justice ministers Shmuel Tamir and Moshe Nissim advocated teaching judges and lawyers Jewish law to provide them with the necessary knowledge to implement the law.[1]

In June 2019, Tkuma leader Bezalel Smotrich campaigned for the Ministry of Justice, saying that he sought the portfolio to "restore the Torah justice system".[5] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the comments and appointed openly gay MK Amir Ohana to the post.[6]

The 2004 attempt to revive the Sanhedrin as an upper house in Israel (with either the resulting bicameral legislature or the lower house inheriting the title Knesset) was also regarded as an attempt to move the Israeli government to a halakhic state of governance and jurisprudence.

In 2014, Israel's cabinet advanced a bill that would define Israel as "the nation-state of the Jewish people" and also said that Jewish law would be a "source of inspiration" for the Knesset. This was seen by non-Orthodox Jews as a step toward enforcing Orthodox halakha as the law of the land.[7] However, the final version of the law did not include this proposed clause.

• Christian state
• Islamic state
• Jewish state
• State of Judea
• Theonomy