Overview
- The Knesset House Committee began preparing the Basic Law: Torah Study for its second and third readings after work on the bill was advanced in early July, with debate now focused on the precise wording.
- Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik and Deputy Attorney General Avital Sompolinsky said the current text is ambiguous and must state clearly if it is only declarative to avoid creating enforceable rights.
- Finance Ministry officials issued an official opposition saying the law could carry large fiscal costs, revive benefits for yeshiva students, and increase the economic burden on reservists if courts treat it as operative.
- Supporters including Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich reject the ministry's cost warnings and say the law is meant only to give Torah study constitutional weight for judges to consider; religious leaders have proposed changes to either broaden or limit the law's reach.
- Committee members will resume deliberations before second and third readings with key questions still open about whether the Basic Law will remain a symbolic value or become a legal lever that reshapes budget, draft policy, and court decisions.