Prof. Benjamin Porat

Ahead of the Shavuot holiday, the Israel Democracy Institute is releasing a series of source materials for study during the "tikkun leil Shavuot" (the traditional Shavuot eve study session).

Religious Zionism (the sector, not the political party that appropriated the name) is one of the most influential population groups in Israel. In the following essay, I wish to draw attention to a worrying process afflicting religious Zionism, the roots of which can be traced back to its early days and has dramatically worsened in recent years.

The legal basis for deferring military service for Yeshiva students no longer exists, removing legal justification for the transference of funds to religious institutions with students under 26. Funding for Torah study institutions is the most substantial question that needs to be addressed at the current time, when Israeli society is rethinking its relations with the Haredi public. 

The horrific October 7 massacre undoubtedly surpasses the savagery of any other wave of terrorism Israel has ever seen. In the face of barbarity, we are called to challenge prevailing conventions, to abandon simplistic arguments, and to move toward more complex ideas that may light the path for some of us.

The current model of the yeshiva and kollel world, in which all men are channelled for long years of study serves the goal of keeping young ultra-Orthodox men off the secular street. Paradoxically, the main victim is the Torah world itself.

The question of how much power the government should wield was one that generations of halakhic decisors (poskim) worked to curtail.

On questions of religion and state the tensions between the centralized and decentralized approaches can be misleading and creative rethinking might provides opportunities for achieving new agreements and a more balanced reality

They do reduce the Rabbinate's centralized power, but in very different ways, which fundamentally upholds the rabbis' authority, rather than undermining it

Dr. Benny Porat discusses the precept of debt cancellation during the sabbatical year (Shemita) and proposes ways in which to update this practice to suit the economics of contemporary Israel and create a model society. 

Do students in the religious Zionist hesder yeshivot really contribute less to the IDF than other men who serve? IDI Researcher Dr. Benny Porat does the math and comes to an interesting conclusion.

The need for the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel to share the burden of military service and participate equally in the Israeli economy was a central issue in the 2013 elections. IDI researcher Dr. Benny Porat shares his thoughts on how to bring about this change in the Haredi community.