Explainer: Basic Law: Torah Study and Its Implications
Note: This explainer was updated since its initial publication to reflect changes to the legislation and the law's passage on July 13, 2026.
Torah study is a cornerstone of Jewish heritage and is worthy of support. The Basic Law that has passed in Knesset, however, could have implications for the principle of equality, the constitutional status of a Basic law and indeed, the world of Torah itself.
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Basic Law: Torah Study, which passed into law in Knesset on July 13, 2026, anchors Torah study as a foundational value in the heritage of the Jewish people, making it the only value explicitly declared in one of Israel's Basic Laws, elevating it to constitutional status.
Although Torah study is indeed a cornerstone of Jewish heritage and is worthy of support and encouragement, the Basic Law raises serious concerns for both the constitutional status of Basic Laws and the principle of equality.
The key component of the Basic Law states: “Torah study is a foundational value in the heritage of the Jewish people and the state of Israel.”
Previous versions of the bill provided that those who have undertaken to devote themselves to Torah study for an extended period shall be deemed, for purposes of their rights and obligations, as persons who are performing meaningful service for the state of Israel and the Jewish people or, in a later version, that the constitutional foundational value of Torah study should be balanced with other foundational values. These portions were dropped prior to the passage of the legislation.
On the practical level, even after the portion of the bill explicitly equating Torah study with IDF service was dropped, the concern remains that elevating Torah study to constitutional status could be used as a basis to justify future attempts to exempt Haredim from the IDF and to continue funding yeshivas and subsidies for Haredi draft evaders, as well as education institutions that do not teach the core curriculum (instead focusing exclusively on religious education). This will ultimately be a matter to be determined in Israel's legal system.
Basic Law: Torah Study appeared in the coalition agreements of the government formed in December 2022. It has been raised periodically in public debate during the government’s term but has not been enacted until now. As noted above, the provision that explicitly equated Torah students with soldiers for the purpose of their rights and obligations was removed. A more moderate formulation, referring to a “just balance” between the constitutional foundational value of Torah study and other foundational values, was also removed ahead of the final vote on the second and third readings.
The legislation was signed into law on July 13, 2026.
No. Torah study is a foundational element of Jewish heritage. As such, it is worthy of support and encouragement.
The concern is not with the value of Torah study itself. The concern is with the legal and practical consequences of the Basic Law: the potential to use the law to advance a broad exemption from military service, the potential equation of Torah study with meaningful military or national service, and the constitutional status of a Basic Law being used to address a political problem affecting a particular sector.
Indeed, as stated in the text of the bill, Torah study is a cornerstone of Jewish heritage and of the Jewish and democratic state, and as stated, is worthy of support and encouragement. At the same time, Torah study is a broad concept that encompasses a spectrum that ranges from traditional Talmud study in the spirit of ancestral Jewish tradition to the “Judaism as culture” approach associated with Ahad Ha’am, Bialik, and Rachel the Poetess; Torah from East and West, from antiquity and modernity, halakhah and aggadah. No single Jewish group has a monopoly over the definition of Torah study.
The timing of the debate and vote, just before the end of the Knesset’s term, is not coincidental.
The debate is taking place against the backdrop of increased determination by enforcement authorities to deny personal benefits to yeshiva students who are subject to conscription, and to prevent a situation in which the state, with one hand, calls them to military service, while with the other hand finances and incentivizes their evasion.
Recently, the High Court of Justice issued orders to various government ministries regarding the conditioning of benefits and discounts on the resolving their draft status vis-à-vis the army. These benefits and discounts relate to housing, daycare centers and after-school programs, public transportation, and municipal property tax. The orders were issued in the framework of contempt of court proceedings, after the government failed to comply with its obligation to act decisively to conscript yeshiva students in accordance with the law.¹
The debate also comes after the (non)conscription bill that was discussed in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee was, in effect, shelved. That bill, too, was intended, as written in its purpose clause, to regulate the status of yeshiva students and to continue granting a de facto exemption to the overwhelming majority of them.
Passing the legislation at this time lays the groundwork for Haredim to claim before the courts that, under Israel's Basic Law, Torah study is a foundational value, and therefore benefits cannot be denied to those who devote their lives to it. Elections may or may not lead to a government less sympathetic to the priorities of Haredi leadership—doing so now creates that foundation.
Moreover, on July 14, the Knesset also enacted a law authorizing the freezing of arrests and criminal proceedings against draft evaders who are yeshiva students and do not comply with their conscription obligation. Basic Law: Torah Study gives this problematic law greater force before the High Court of Justice, because the argument will be that the constitutional value of Torah study justifies this blatant discrimination.
The very choice to anchor the issue of Torah study in a Basic Law harms Israel’s constitutional structure.
The rationale behind using a Basic Law appears to be that Israel's Supreme Court would be hesitant to invalidate a Basic Law, thereby reducing the risk of judicial review. If adopted, this legislation may become the first example of a broader pattern in which additional laws are formulated as Basic Laws in order to ostensibly shield them from review by the Supreme Court.
Such a development could create a situation in which any coalition initiative that harms the principle of equality or human rights is drafted as a Basic Law, to the point of emptying the concept of a Basic Law of its meaning.
This move has no foundation on which to rely. The Supreme Court has already ruled that Basic Laws, too, are subject to judicial review when they harm Israel’s foundational values as a Jewish and democratic state, including the principle of equality.
Paradoxically, the passage of this law may in practice encourage increased judicial review and needlessly intensify tension between the branches of government.
Even more seriously, the law represents an attempt to exploit the framework of Basic Laws in order to solve a political problem of a particular sector. Basic Laws are intended to regulate Israel’s governmental structure and the foundational values of Israeli law, much like a constitution. This law dilutes their unique value and turns them into a shortcut for ordinary legislation.
The security implications are severe. Israel is, of course, in the third year of a difficult war, which is exacting physical and psychological casualties. The army has pointed to an immediate and urgent need for 12,000 additional soldiers, and to the exhaustion of the non-Haredi Jewish manpower pool: a recruitment rate of approximately 90% among serving populations and the return of approximately 130,000 people to active reserve duty and hundreds of thousands who served in reserve duty before the war.
Indeed, after October 7, it became even clearer that the current situation is unsustainable from a security standpoint. The national security needs faced by the IDF are so vast, across so many fronts, that there is a real danger that it will be unable to continue holding the borders. The IDF needs Haredi young men to help fill the ranks.
On the economic side, the Israeli economy cannot continue to carry on its back an entire sector, growing ever larger that is funded by the public budget, and does not contribute its share to increasing economic output. In order for Israel to continue to prosper, Haredi public must study core curriculum (e.g., math and science) in the education system and then be absorbed into the labor market as a productive public.
If Basic Law: Torah Study is utilized as a basis to exempt the rapidly growing number of yeshiva students from IDF service and their civic duties, it will no longer be possible to expect their integration into military service and the labor market.
Such a reality may lead to further financial hardship of working households under the tax burden, and to the collapse of regular and reserve soldiers under the burden of defense. This would damage the economy, security, the people’s army model, and social cohesion.
The current situation also violates the principle of equality. Even if the current situation were sustainable, a situation in which there is an entire sector of society that does not contribute its security or economic share is simply unjust.
It is unjust because the years of military service and taxes of certain sectors are directed toward protecting the way of life of another sector that does not shoulder the burden.
Justice requires equality in bearing the economic and security burden. The principle that all citizens are equal under the law is a fundamental principle in a democratic society. No democracy is perfect. But tampering with Israel's constitutional framework for the purpose of applying the law in an unequal manner to one sector of society is a leap in the wrong direction.
The demand for equality in bearing the burden is not solely a secular demand. These arguments also take on halakhic form. According to this view, the State of Israel is in an ongoing state of a war of no choice, defined in halakhah as a “commanded war” or milhemet mitzvah. According to rabbinic sources, in such a situation all go out to war, even a bridegroom from his chamber and a bride from her canopy. Halakhic authorities have emphasized that even Torah scholars are required to participate in a defensive war.⁶
Another argument, developed in research currently being conducted at the Israel Democracy Institute, is that equating the status of learners with that of soldiers and entrenching a sweeping exemption for yeshiva students also harms the world of Torah itself.⁸
The study halls have never known quantitative flourishing of the kind currently being experienced in the State of Israel. Tens of thousands of students fill the benches of the study halls.
At the same time, the study halls have never known the Torah-scholarly mediocrity that they are currently experiencing in Israel. In an intellectual world, such as the study hall and academia, quantity and quality stand in an inverse relationship to one another.
A healthy, lively, and vibrant study hall must be elite, selective, and structured as a pyramid: entry into it should be limited, and remaining in it should be reserved for the few.
This idea was expressed by the Sages in various sources, including: “In the ordinary course of the world, one thousand people enter for Scripture and one hundred emerge from them; one hundred enter for Mishnah and ten emerge from them; and one for Talmud”; and “I have seen people of ascent, and they are few.”
When the study hall becomes the default option for everyone, without screening, without time limitation, and without the “price” and uniqueness of choosing a life of spirit over a life of action, it necessarily lowers its standards, aims for the average, and becomes mediocre. Anyone who examines the Torah yield of the “society of learners” that has developed in the State of Israel cannot help but be negatively impressed.
The current situation, in which Haredi society functions as a society of learners, harms not only the Israeli economy and Israel’s security, but also the world of Torah itself.
This is the irony of the Basic Law: Torah Study. In order to restore the value of Torah study, it is necessary to restore the study hall to its original form: a vibrant place that encourages spiritual excellence, in which a small group of people with intellectual curiosity and high learning abilities sit and study.
The conscription of most yeshiva students would help remedy not only the ills of the economy and security, but also those of the study halls and Torah study.
The intentions behind this law rest on the assumption that Torah and military service stand in contradiction to one another. That assumption should be rejected.
The world of hesder yeshivot, and the successful service of young Haredi men who muster the courage to serve in the military, show otherwise. Military service does not necessarily impair the quality of Torah study. On the contrary: engagement, with discernment, with other people, and contribution to statehood and security, are conditions for meaningful Torah study.
Even after dropping the explicit equation of military service and Torah study, the bill still harms the principle of equality, Israel’s resilience and its security and economic future, its constitutional structure, and even the world of Torah itself.
¹ HCJ 5819/24, Movement for Quality Government v. Minister of Defense; the original judgment was issued in November 2025, and the operative orders, as part of a contempt of court proceeding for noncompliance with the original ruling, were issued on April 26, 2026.
² Report by the head of the IDF Planning and Manpower Administration Division, Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, at the meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee regarding the conscription law, May 20, 2026.
³ On the nature of Israeli discourse regarding conscription and the distinction between the various arguments, see Shlomit Ravitsky Tur-Paz, introductory chapter, in And You Shall Remain Silent – Has Haredi Society Changed During the War? (2024), Jerusalem: The Israel Democracy Institute.
⁴ One of the arguments raised to justify the division between learners and soldiers relies on the biblical figures of Jacob’s sons, Zebulun and Issachar. According to Bereshit Rabbah 99:8, “Zebulun engaged in commerce [livelihood] and Issachar engaged in Torah, and Zebulun came and fed him,” and they shared between them the spiritual reward of the study.
⁵ See Shlomit Ravitsky Tur-Paz, “How Can I Bear Alone?” – The Partnership of Haredi Society in the Burden of the War: An Attitudes Survey, in And You Shall Remain Silent – Has Haredi Society Changed During the War? (2024), Jerusalem: The Israel Democracy Institute.
⁶ Benny Porat, Yair Orvito, Shlomit Ravitsky Tur-Paz, “Shall Your Brothers Go to War While You Sit Here?!” – Source Sheets – The Obligation to Enlist in the Army and the Exemption From It (2024), Jerusalem: The Israel Democracy Institute.
⁷ HCJ 6427/02, Movement for Quality Government v. Knesset of Israel (published 2005).
⁸ Benny Porat and Eliyahu Berkovitz, “I Have Seen People of Ascent, and They Are Few” – An Internal Critical Perspective on the Torato Umanuto Arrangement (unpublished), The Israel Democracy Institute.