Law of Moses, Mosaic Law Quotes
The reference to sex with Niddot refers to having sex with a menstruating woman which the ultra-Orthodox see as a serious sin. Few modern people the world over obey this biblical injunction. The Israeli Supreme court has constantly invalidated laws and government regulations that require other Jews and non-Jews in Israel to obey all the Sabbath laws of the Bible. That in the view of Ovadia is “desecrating” the Sabbath.
Almost all religions placed women in an inferior status in society with little of the freedom or power—civil or religious—for men that the religion urged.
Note that not unlike Sharia, Islamic Law, this meant the death penalty for Witchcraft, Heresy, Adultery and Disobedient Children.
The Torah consists of the first 5 books of the Old Testament. For Orthodox Jews, the Torah is central and fundamental to their belief structure. In most democracies, a statement such as this might be made by a religions fundamentalist, but is unexpected when uttered by a high government official. However, in Israel there are several small religious political parties which oftem become very powerful when the major policies are of approximate equal strength. To entice them to join their coalition, the major parties give the religious parties cabinet positions. In this particular instance, Neeman’s party in the governing coalition could cause the government to fall, So a Justice Minister of a Modern Democracy can actually repudiate the laws and supreme court whenever they are not in harmony with “the word of God” and not lose his post or even be repudiated. There is probably no other country in the world where the Minister of Justice has repudiated the law of the land and the nation’s highest court.
This is one of the characteristics of a theocracy—that all law comes from the Deity and religious law is civil law and vica versa. This is similar to the modern views held by the extreme conservative Muslims regarding their Islamic law, Sharia.
