Religion as a System of Domination: An Analysis of the Thought of Izrael Shahak

This article provides an in-depth analysis of the work of Israel Shahak, a Polish-Israeli scholar who radically critiqued classical Judaism as a structure of power. In his work, Shahak deconstructs Halakha, revealing it not only as a set of tenets of faith but, above all, as a precise system of social control and political domination. The text explores the concept of the "closed society" and the mechanisms by which the rabbinic caste legitimizes power through the system of dispensations. The analysis also encompasses the influence of Lurianic Kabbalah on the ontology of exclusion and the contemporary implications of religious ethnocentrism in the state of Israel. This is a crucial perspective on the relationship between religious tradition and institutional oppression in both historical and contemporary perspectives.