Knesset Advances Basic Law on Torah Study in Preliminary Vote

The Knesset plenum today (Wednesday) approved, in a preliminary reading, the proposed Basic Law on Torah Study, submitted by MKs Moshe Gafni and Yaakov Asher. The proposal won the support of 56 Knesset members, מול 43 opponents. It will now be transferred to the Knesset Committee, which will determine which committee will discuss it as it moves forward in the legislative process.

Under the proposal, this recognition could have implications for the rights and obligations of those engaged in study. Among other things, this refers to consequences tied to various issues related to the status of yeshiva students, including aspects of military conscription and various benefits.

According to the bill’s sponsors, the move is meant to provide a constitutional framework for the issue following a High Court ruling that struck down previous arrangements. The goal of the legislation is to anchor the government’s policy on the matter at the level of a Basic Law and to explicitly define the status of Torah study within the values of the state.

During the discussion, the bill’s sponsor, Finance Committee Chairman MK Moshe Gafni, laid out the reasoning behind the proposal. In his words, “The law says that Torah study is a foundational value. Even in recent history, we saw the children and young men in Warsaw during the Holocaust studying Torah in shelters, at the very time of the greatest suffering the Jewish people ever endured.” Gafni added that “Torah study was what sustained the Jewish people for thousands of years; it was the people’s refuge in every era.”

Gafni also said that Torah study was a central element in preserving Jewish identity across generations and in communities around the world. “The issue of Torah study existed among the Jewish people all across the globe and kept the Jewish people alive. They continued Torah study in Casablanca, they continued Torah study in Warsaw. That is what existed throughout all the years. Torah study was the anchor of salvation. We are coming to закрепить the social arrangement that has accompanied us since the founding of the state.”

Before the bill was approved in its preliminary reading, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri made clear that, from his party’s perspective, this is an issue of the highest importance. He also stressed that approval of the bill is a condition for his faction’s support for other laws the coalition is seeking to advance.

Addressing the effort to move the legislation forward, Deri said: “Precisely in these days, when the people of Israel need more merit for success in the campaign against their enemies, we demand that the Basic Law on Torah Study be brought to a vote already this week. The parties of the faith-based bloc must unite around the law and express support for it, so that we can continue advancing the important laws on the agenda.”

Responding on behalf of the government, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said the government’s support is conditional on changes to the wording of the bill: “Torah study is a foundational value in the heritage of the Jewish people,” he said. He stressed that “the government’s position is to support the proposal, provided that the comparison between Torah scholars and those who serve is removed from the proposal, and that a revised version is brought for renewed approval by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation before the first reading. Without this correction, the law will not move forward.”