Rabbi Ra'am HaCohen Slams Bill Equating Torah Study With Military Service

Rabbi Ra'am HaCohen, the head of the Otniel Yeshiva and rabbi of the community, delivered a sharp critique of the proposed Basic Law on Torah Study, saying it undermines the very meaning of Torah and its observance. He focused especially on the clause that places yeshiva students on the same level as IDF servicemembers, calling that comparison fundamentally wrong.

Speaking in unusually direct political terms, he said he rarely comments on politics, but felt compelled to protest. “You know that I very rarely, maybe not at all, speak about politics. But there are things against which I cannot refrain from a very serious protest,” he said.

HaCohen also condemned the political backing for the bill, saying, “I am not dealing with the operational sides, with the way to implement the observance of Torah. But I cannot allow a reality in which yesterday religious Knesset members raised their hands to deny the Torah of Moses.” He argued that equating Torah study with army service is “shocking,” adding that nothing can match the value of Torah study.

He said Torah cannot be separated from mitzvot, citing the Talmud in Yevamot and the principle that study is greater because it leads to action. “There is no such thing as Torah without observance of Torah,” he said, and noted that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, whose Torah was his profession, would interrupt study to perform a mitzvah that no one else could do. He concluded that a law presenting Torah as something to be kept only “to be fulfilled” is, in his words, “simply a different Torah.”