{"id":203072,"date":"2026-07-12T19:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T19:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/203072\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T19:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T19:07:09","slug":"israels-hysterical-torah-study-bill-will-backfire-on-the-ultra-orthodox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/203072\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel’s hysterical Torah study bill will backfire on the ultra-Orthodox"},"content":{"rendered":"

The coalition is fast-tracking the \u201cBasic Law: Torah Study<\/a>\u201d \u2013 and calling it \u201chistoric.\u201d But the truth is closer to hysterical \u2013 and it\u2019s a sad statement as to how low Israeli politics and the legislative process have stooped.<\/p>\n

No one disputes that \u201cTorah study is a foundational value in the heritage of the Jewish people and the State of Israel,\u201d as the bill\u2019s text states. That was never in question, and it doesn\u2019t need a law to say so, let alone a Basic Law.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s really happening is a payoff to the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) political parties, against the will of an overwhelming majority of Israelis and in direct defiance of the Supreme Court, which ruled that yeshiva students can not be exempted from drafting to the IDF.<\/p>\n

But this government couldn\u2019t care less about the dire security needs, the principle of equality, or what the Supreme Court has to say about it. Instead, they\u2019re busy intimidating judges and pushing legislation to weaken judicial independence and tighten political control over judicial appointments. To paraphrase what Minister Miri Regev once remarked: \u201cWho needs courts if we can\u2019t control them?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ultra-OrthodoxUltra-Orthodox Jewish men from the Vizhnitz Hasidic dynasty study Torah outside the Justice Ministry in Jerusalem during a silent protest against the imprisonment of yeshiva students who failed to comply with military recruitment orders, July 1, 2026; Illustrative. (credit: CHAIM GOLDBERG\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n

Public opinion is harder to ignore, especially with elections approaching. Roughly 65% of Likud\u2019s own voters oppose haredi draft dodging, and more than half say it could change their vote. So the bill\u2019s drafters engaged in doublespeak.<\/p>\n

The bill is being rammed through because the haredi parties have realized that other avenues to ensure continued draft dodging have so far failed. The bill now before the Knesset was even rerouted around the committee that would normally handle it, whose Religious Zionist chairman, MK Simcha Rothman, wanted nothing to do with legislation his own party considers loathsome.<\/p>\n

An earlier draft spoke of yeshiva students having \u201crights and obligations as those who perform meaningful service\u201d \u2013 code, transparent to anyone paying attention, for \u201cthey don\u2019t have to serve.\u201d When that wording sparked outrage even within Likud and the religious-Zionist camp, it was blurred further.<\/p>\n

But the more vague language hasn\u2019t masked the bill\u2019s real intent. Its own explanatory notes still say plainly that the law exists to override the Supreme Court<\/a>\u2019s ruling on equal conscription \u2013 even as the operative text now claims the goal is merely \u201ca just balance with other foundational values of the state.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a cynical dodge, one that strays not just from honest lawmaking but from Judaism\u2019s own values. Moreover, key officials of the Finance Ministry and the Construction and Housing Ministry have already pointed out that, if passed, the bill may have far-reaching financial ramifications amounting to hundreds of millions beyond the draft.<\/p>\n

There is a Talmudic admonition that I find relevant now: \u201cWho is to say your blood is redder than his?\u201d (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 74a). Jewish tradition holds that, in an obligatory war of survival, everyone goes out to fight \u2013 \u201ceven the bridegroom from his chamber, and the bride from her wedding canopy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Its core demand is \u201cjustice, justice shall you pursue\u201d \u2013 not a mass exemption for one sector of the Jewish population, secured through political power and dressed up as piety, while others risk their lives in their place.<\/p>\n

Needing to find a just balance<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> once maligned another sector of Israel\u2019s Jewish population for having \u201cforgotten what it means to be Jewish.\u201d He\u2019d do well to look in a mirror \u2013 and bring one for the haredim, too.<\/p>\n

The bill needs to clear back-to-back Knesset sessions before summer recess, for one reason: to keep Netanyahu in power. It\u2019s designed to give constitutional cover to the open-ended draft dodging of hundreds of thousands of yeshiva students, without saying so outright \u2013 because even the politicians cutting this deal know there are limits to how openly they can defy the public.<\/p>\n

And the price Netanyahu and the Likud are willing to pay doesn\u2019t stop there: a companion bill would bar the army and police from arresting yeshiva students who evade the draft outright \u2013 a law unlikely to survive Supreme Court review, but useful for haredi political leaders\u2019 standing within their own constituency. In exchange, the haredi parties will back further legislation to advance the government\u2019s judicial overhaul. For them, the end justifies any means.<\/p>\n

At the bill\u2019s first committee hearing, Degel Hatorah party leader MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni<\/a> \u2013 one of the bill\u2019s authors \u2013 said it\u2019s time for Israel to recognize Torah study as a \u201csupreme value.\u201d Apparently, even \u201cfoundational value,\u201d the language of the bill, isn\u2019t enough for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What he doesn\u2019t see is that his legislative extortion is backfiring. He and his allies \u2013 the same people blocking Israel\u2019s highways and insisting that yeshiva study, not soldiers\u2019 courage and sacrifices, wins Israel\u2019s wars \u2013 are desecrating God\u2019s name, demeaning the Torah, and burning through whatever sympathy remains for their cause.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s hope that when it comes to a vote, this shameful, dangerous bill fails to find a majority. And if it does pass, let\u2019s hope that Israel\u2019s Supreme Court reads \u201ca just balance\u201d the way Jewish tradition intends it: rooted in equality \u2013 not in trading political power for other people\u2019s blood.<\/p>\n

The writer is one of Israel\u2019s most prominent advocates for religious freedom. He currently serves as president and CEO of Hiddush \u2013 For Religious Freedom and Equality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The coalition is fast-tracking the \u201cBasic Law: Torah Study\u201d \u2013 and calling it \u201chistoric.\u201d But the truth is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[18888,40494,12272,423,37,10880,500,39659],"class_list":["post-203072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-basic-law","tag-draft","tag-haredi","tag-idf","tag-israel","tag-supreme-court","tag-torah","tag-yeshiva-students"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116908579228222978","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}