The name ''Halakha'' derives from the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] '''halach''' '''הלך''' meaning "going" or hence the "[correct] way"; thus a literal translation does not yield "law", rather "the way to goaccording to the law." The term Halakha may refer to a single rule, to the literary corpus of rabbinic legal texts, as well as to the overall system of religious law.
The ''Halakha'' is often contrasted with the ''[[Aggadah]]'', the diverse corpus of rabbinic exegetical, narrative, philosophical and other "non-legal" literatures. At the same time, since writers of ''Halakha'' may draw upon the aggada literature, there is a dynamic interchange between the two genres.
Halakha constitutes the practical application of the 613 [[613 mitzvot|mitzvot]] ("commandments") (singular: [[mitzvah]]) in the [[Torah]], (the five books of [[Moses]], the "Written Law") as developed through discussion and debate in the classical [[rabbinic literature]], especially the [[Mishnah]] and the [[Talmud]] (the "[[Oral law#Oral law in Judaism|Oral law]]") and codified by Maimonides in the MISHNE TORAH and later in the [[Shulkhan Arukh]] (the Jewish "Code of Law") which is the complilation of laws restrictively applicable in "our times".)
