For Orthodox Jews in the United States, religious law, or halakhah, is central to everyday life. Jewish law regulates personal and religious conduct, as well as communal conduct, including how to resolve disputes, says Rabbi Yosef Chaim Perlman, administrator of the Badatz Bais Aharon court in Brooklyn, N.Y. Religious law governs most aspects of an Orthodox Jew’s life “from the moment he opens his eyes in the morning … until he closes his eyes to go to sleep, and everything in between,” Perlman says.
14 Instead, rabbinical courts, called battei din (the singular is beit din, also commonly spelled beth din), adjudicate a wide range of conflicts, says Rabbi Shlomo Weissmann, director of the Beth Din of America in New York. These religious tribunals handle not only divorces but also employment and commercial conflicts, disagreements between tenants and landlords, and many other contentious issues. In addition, rabbinical courts oversee conversions to Orthodox Judaism.
The focus of religious courts can vary,
as each Orthodox community has its own beit din to serve the needs of its members. For example, Weissmann says divorces make up the majority of cases in his beit din – more than 300 per year. By contrast, Perlman estimates that only a quarter of the cases that come before his beit din involve marital disputes. Perlman says Jews in his community also use the beit din for such purposes as arbitrating commercial agreements. “Their Jewish education” has made them feel more responsibility to take disputes to a beit din, as well as more aware of the wide range of services the religious tribunal offers, he says.
So are you dishonest about being Jewish or about the Jewish version of Sharia Law.
By the way nearly all religions have similar courts
Applying God’s Law: Religious Courts and Mediation in the U.S.