Q&A: Secular Rule
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Secular Rule
Question
In chapter six of Moves, you point out that in principle there should have been a religious court appointed over religious law, and alongside it a judicial system (or a king) appointed over secular law.
And I didn’t understand: if that’s the case, then you’ve basically emptied the entire civil-law section of the Shulchan Aruch of content. In other words, if social and legal order was the job of a secular court, why is there a legal category in Jewish law at all?
Answer
Not so. The religious court adjudicates civil law. And in fact, civil law was not meant to create social order. In places where justice requires deviating from Jewish law, the king’s legal system steps in and intervenes.