Basic Law on Torah Study Shows Disdain for Torah Scholars

The Basic Law on Torah Study, approved today in a preliminary Knesset vote, is a moral and religious low point for the ultra-Orthodox politicians. In the name of the struggle for sectoral benefits, subsidies for daycare, municipal tax discounts and exemption from military service, they have not hesitated to turn Torah study into a partisan issue.

Unlike the message the ultra-Orthodox are trying to create, the importance of Torah study has never been in doubt in the Knesset of Israel. Yair Lapid likes to point out, rightly, that it was during his term as finance minister in the Netanyahu-Lapid government that the importance of Torah study was first written into the Military Service Law. Amendment 19 to the defense law stated that, out of “recognition of the importance of Torah study,” the defense minister may defer the service of a student in a national religious yeshiva. On that same basis, a more lenient framework was also set for drafting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students. Even now, in the midst of the conscription crisis, there is broad political agreement that there will be a quota of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who will be fully exempt from military service.

The ultra-Orthodox politicians are forcefully turning the struggle over sectoral benefits into a religious struggle, and in doing so seek to create hostility and a rift between the Jewish people and its Torah and historical heritage. And on the substance of the law, if the ultra-Orthodox politicians are willing to be honest and indeed grant special legal status to “Torah scholars,” then they will be able to set clear criteria for who is considered a Torah scholar, who will receive the title “his Torah is his profession,” and who will not. But the reality is that they consistently refuse to condition a yeshiva student’s draft exemption on a one-time or permanent knowledge test or even an annual personal interview. As long as they do not do this, one cannot avoid the impression that what they call a “Basic Law on Torah Study” is really a “Basic Law on the ultra-Orthodox male.”

I do not know whether the ultra-Orthodox Knesset members know this, but there is a structured halachic discussion about what obligations should be imposed on Torah scholars within the community. These are debates spanning hundreds of years, Jewish communities collected taxes for themselves, and there was always tension around this question. In the Shulchan Aruch, for example, it is ruled that Torah scholars should be exempt from security-related taxes, but not from infrastructure, education and social taxes. However, Rabbi Moses Isserles, the Rema, said that there were communities that customarily did not exempt Torah scholars from taxes, and contemporary halachic authorities have raised doubts about whether these exemptions are relevant when we are in an active security event or when the burden on the general public will be very high. More importantly, however, the halachic discussion is personal, not sectoral.

The law proposed by the ultra-Orthodox politicians leaves the question of who is a “Torah learner” vague and sectoral. They write that “one who has undertaken to devote himself to studying Torah for a long period” will be considered a Torah learner. But the halachic definitions are different. They are based on the fact that the Torah scholar knows, that he can be asked about most Talmudic issues and knows them. Moreover, the view of most, if not all, decisors is that even someone who works for a living can be considered as one whose “Torah is his profession,” if he devotes his free time to Torah study.

While Jewish law and tradition seek to exempt people with clear Torah knowledge, the ultra-Orthodox seek to diminish the historical status of the Torah scholar and grant it to anyone directed to sit in the study hall, regardless of his learning and achievements. It is unnecessary to say that between the lines, the ultra-Orthodox contempt for non-ultra-Orthodox Torah scholars is reflected, including those who at some point chose to combine work with Torah study.

Despite all this, one can end on an optimistic note. Here is a suggestion for the legal advisers to the government and the Knesset, if the Basic Law on Torah Study passes and joins the reference to the “importance of Torah study” in the Military Service Law, this may help solve one of the major legal and social problems surrounding ultra-Orthodox conscription, the current instruction by the attorney general to the police and the IDF that arrests must now be carried out indiscriminately. In other words, it is impossible to distinguish between a yeshiva student who is actually studying and a yeshiva student who does nothing.

These arrests serve the interests of the ultra-Orthodox politicians, who want to create social chaos in Israel. Now, on the basis of the law, there will be grounds to create a distinction in enforcement between those who actually study Torah and those who are wasting their time. To that end, it may be necessary to establish a small unit that can examine the detainee and see whether he is in fact close to Torah study or not. In the future, this unit could serve as the basis for that same “draft exemption” that will be granted to some ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students in any future conscription law. In this way, the Basic Law on Torah Study will become the foundation for expanding conscription in the ultra-Orthodox sector.