Rabbinic Judaism and property laws), requiring—according to rabbinic thought—a subsequent definition through the Oral Law. Thus Rabbinic Judaism claims that almost all directives, both positive and negative, in the Torah are non-specific in nature and require the existence of either an Oral Law, or some other method to explain them. Much rabbinic Jewish literature concerns specifying what behavior is sanctioned by the law; this body of interpretations is called "halakha" ("the way"). Until the Haskalah (Hebrew: "Jewish enlightenment") of the late 18th century, and the resulting division of Ashkenazi Jews into religious movements or denominations, especially in North America and anglophone countries,
Sephardic Bnei Anusim purpose of marriage is solely to remove any doubt relating to any possibility of a broken maternal lineage (which religiously might affect the status of offspring borne to that marriage), and it in no way infers that the Sephardic Bnei Anusim are otherwise of Jewish ancestry. Although not halakhically Jewish as a collective group, Sephardic Bnei Anusim are broadly categorized as Zera Yisrael (זרע ישראל, literally "Seed of Israel"). Zera Yisrael are the Halakhically non-Jewish descendants of Jews who, for practical purposes, are neither Jews nor completely gentile. According to some of the most prominent medieval Jewish sages, the designation