Knesset vote on Torah study bill sparks criticism over draft exemptions

The article argues that the Knesset’s vote this week on a Basic Law for Torah study is not a defense of religion, but a political move to preserve ultra-Orthodox draft exemptions and other privileges. It opens with a story about Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz and Nobel laureate S. Y. Agnon in Jerusalem, in which Agnon asks why Judaism’s historic religious force was broken, and Leibowitz answers that Torah’s power weakened when it became institutionalized as “Torah study.” Agnon then quips that the verse should be rewritten as, “Torah commanded us Moses, an inheritance for the handlers of it.”

From there, the piece says the law rewards cynicism, discrimination, and idle avoidance of responsibility, while harming Torah itself. It claims Judaism historically valued literacy and learning for broad segments of society, that Torah study was central but not a substitute for ordinary life, and that people studied for its own sake, without needing state protections, subsidies, or exemptions. The article says the Jewish world has never had as many Torah learners as today in Israel, but that the modern system of mass, state-supported yeshiva enrollment is a 200-year distortion that has worsened in a sovereign Jewish state.

The legislation, according to the article, is designed to entrench generous benefits for yeshiva students, especially military non-service, and to strip the High Court of the power to strike down such benefits on equality grounds. It adds that the law would in practice protect people who do not study Torah at all and falsely register as students. The ultra-Orthodox leadership, it says, knows the official numbers do not reflect reality, because many listed students drop out, work, or travel, and no sustainable model has been offered for them.

The article also says the bill denigrates religious-Zionist, traditional, and secular Torah learning, which receives no comparable state support. It notes that the proposal has been floated repeatedly over the years, and was last shelved in summer 2023 amid protests over the judicial overhaul, when even Likud understood the public anger. This time, it passed with only four coalition members voting against it, all born outside Israel: Dan Illouz, Sharren Haskel, Moshe Solomon, and Yuli Edelstein, whom the article presents as a reminder of principled Zionist leadership.