Knesset Advances Basic Law Equating Torah Study With Military Service

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief

(Worthy News) – Israel’s Knesset on Wednesday approved in a preliminary reading a controversial Basic Law proposal that would declare Torah study a foundational value of the State of Israel and effectively recognize long-term yeshivah study as a form of meaningful service comparable to serving in the Israel Defense Forces.

The bill, sponsored by United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni and backed by ultra-Orthodox parties, passed 56-43 with government support. It now moves to committee and must still pass three additional Knesset readings before becoming law.

The legislation seeks to enshrine Torah study as “a fundamental value in the heritage of the Jewish people” and recognize those who devote themselves to long-term Torah study as making a significant contribution to the state and the Jewish people. Critics say the wording could have major legal and financial consequences by strengthening the status of Haredi men who do not enlist in the military while expanding state benefits for those exempt from service.

“Torah study was what sustained the Jewish people for thousands of years; it was the people’s refuge in all periods,” Gafni said during the Knesset debate.

Because the proposal is being advanced as a Basic Law, it would carry quasi-constitutional weight in Israel’s legal system, potentially affecting future court rulings and government policy on military conscription.

The measure comes amid a fierce national dispute over long-standing military exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men, a debate that has intensified since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack and Israel’s ensuing multifront war. As soldiers and reservists continue to serve across multiple fronts, many Israelis have demanded a more equal sharing of the national defense burden.

Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled in 2024 that blanket exemptions for Haredi yeshivah students were illegal, prompting the military to begin preparations to conscript yeshivah students and leading to the curtailment of some state benefits. An estimated 80,000 Haredi men eligible for military service have not enlisted.

The exemption system traces back to Israel’s early years, when Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion reached an informal status quo arrangement with leading rabbis to defer military service for Haredi men studying in yeshivahs. At the time, the number of students involved was only several hundred. Today, the issue has become one of the most divisive questions in Israeli public life.

The vote exposed rare dissent inside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition. Coalition lawmakers who voted against the bill included Likud MKs Yuli Edelstein and Dan Illouz, Religious Zionist Party MK Moshe Solomon, and Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel of New Hope.

Minister Ze’ev Elkin, speaking on behalf of the government, said the coalition would only continue backing the bill if language comparing Torah students to military servicemembers is removed before later readings.

“The government’s position is to support the bill, provided that the comparison between Torah scholars and those who serve is removed,” Elkin told lawmakers, warning that otherwise the bill “will not advance.”

Opposition leaders sharply condemned the proposal, accusing the coalition of using Israel’s Basic Law framework to preserve draft exemptions at a time of war.

“What does this law have to do with Torah study?” said Opposition Leader Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid. “This is a law to finance evasion. This is not a law about Torah, this is a law about money.”

Lapid also pushed back against Gafni’s reference to Torah study sustaining Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust, saying, “In the Warsaw Ghetto they did not receive stipends to study Torah; in the Warsaw Ghetto they took up arms and launched a revolt for the Jewish people.”

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned that the measure “will seriously harm the State of Israel,” adding that “without a functioning economy and without an army, we simply cannot live here.”

National Unity MK Gadi Eisenkot accused Netanyahu’s coalition of cutting “a deal for a few more weeks in power” with ultra-Orthodox parties at the expense of “Israeli lives and security.”

Left-wing Democrats MK Gilad Kariv dismissed coalition assurances that the most controversial wording would be removed, calling them “a complete lie.” He said the legislation “spits in the face of the serving public and bereaved families.”

Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers praised the vote as a historic correction. UTJ chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf called it “the beginning of correcting a four-year injustice” and said it would “restore the proper respect” for yeshivah students.

UTJ MK Yisrael Eichler described the measure as “a declaration of holy war” against those he said “blaspheme God, persecute the Torah and oppose those who study it.” UTJ MK Meir Porush accused opponents of the legislation of being “antisemites” and “enemies of the Torah and its students,” while also denouncing the judiciary for what he called the “systematic persecution of Torah scholars.”

A parallel proposal from the Shas Party is also expected to advance and could be merged with Gafni’s bill.

According to Hebrew media reports, Arab parties Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am were absent from the vote as part of an understanding with the ultra-Orthodox parties. Under that reported arrangement, the Haredi parties would oppose legislation backed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to increase restrictions on mosque loudspeakers in exchange for the Arab factions not opposing the Torah study Basic Law.

The legislation now moves to the Knesset House Committee, which will determine which committee prepares it for further debate.

For Netanyahu’s coalition, the issue strikes at the heart of its political survival. For Israel, it raises a deeper national question: how to honor Torah study as part of the Jewish people’s inheritance while maintaining the shared military responsibility required to defend the Jewish state.

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