Torah Study Bill Clears First Hurdle in Knesset Committee, With Key Clauses Still Under Review

The Knesset Committee today (Tuesday) approved the Torah Study bill for its first reading. Ten Knesset members supported the proposal and four opposed it. The bill seeks to establish that Torah study is a foundational value in the heritage of the Jewish people and in the State of Israel. At the center of the discussion was the question of whether the proposal in fact defines a clear constitutional foundational value, and what its possible implications may be. The bill is expected to go tomorrow to a vote in the Knesset plenum.

Deputy Attorney General Adv. Avital Sompolinsky said: "It is impossible to move forward to a first reading before answering the question of what the purpose of the law is. Based on what the bill's sponsors said in the discussions here, the law emerged from a view that the place of the Haredim in Israeli society is not balanced, and then we are in a different place, one that requires further discussion on issues such as obligations and rights. The questions raised on the table about who is a Haredi person are appropriate and weighty questions, but the law as currently worded does not answer them."

MK Yossi Taieb responded: "The constitutional logic is well defined and contains no ambiguity. It has a value-based status meant to define an identity card for this people. And it has a declarative status, to give judges a constitutional umbrella between the value of Torah study and other foundational values."

MK Yitzhak Goldknopf emphasized the background to the proposal: "The purpose of the law is to recognize the Torah of Israel that was given at Mount Sinai and that we all believe in. How can it be that here in Israel, after all the suffering the Jewish people have endured, Jews are stopping Jews from studying Torah? Why are we asking for this law? Because something happened in the country. We do not want to be on the other side, where someone studying Torah is punished as if he were a thief. We have reached a situation in which Torah scholars are at the bottom when it comes to receiving punishments."

Supporters of the bill, which was approved subject to revision and with several clauses set to be examined, said that the law will not harm any rights or benefits for soldiers and reservists. In their words, "the law deals only with the value of Torah study."