The Degel Hatorah MKs (from the left) Rabbis Uri Maklev, Moshe Gafni, Yaakov Asher, Yitzchak Pindrus
A victory for Torah: the Knesset plenum approved this week a Basic Law for its second and third reading: the bill presented by Rav Moshe Gafni, chairman of Degel HaTorah. For the first time since the passing of the Israeli State's original Bill of Rights, a new constitutional law has been passed, anchoring the study of Torah "as a basic fundamental value in the heritage of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel." The bill passed by a majority vote of 63 verses for and 52 votes against.
The office of the Degel HaTorah Chairman, MK Rabbi Gafni, applauded the passing of the law: "It has become a reality! A historic step has been taken in the annals of the State of Israel. For thousands of years, the study of Torah has been the power which guarded the Jewish people in all of its countries of exile and throughout all the generations. From hereon in, the State of Israel has also established, as a Basic Law, that Torah study is a fundamental value of the heritage of the Jewish people and of the Jewish State."
The announcement stated: "The State of the Jews has again redeclared the eternal values upon which the Jewish people has been built from generation to generation. This Basic Law will serve as a value compass for the State and will express the acknowledgement that the study of Torah is not merely a heritage of the past, but a very integral fundamental upon which the present and future of the Jewish people stands."
In the speech before the Knesset plenum, in his presentation of the bill, Rabbi Gafni noted, "This law should have been unnecessary. At the very beginning of the State, Ben Gurion established that Torah students should be exempt from military duty. But now, there are views that at the time, it referred to only a certain number or percentage thereof, and they question the veracity of the statements of the past heads of state, including those from the Labor Party and the Likud, in praise of Torah students that without their merit, the people would not enjoy the right of existence."
Rabbi Gafni added: "What has occurred in these past years is a veritable nightmare. The secular media is against Torah scholars. Here, too, in the Knesset discussions and the committee deliberations and in general, the talk against Torah students has brought us propose this particular Charter amendment, which I would not have presented otherwise."
Regarding the need for such a basic law regarding Torah study, Rabbi Gafni said: "The reality of these past and current years is a harsh one. Very much so. We are not prepared to compromise on this issue; it represents our very survival and we will protect our Torah scholars so that here, in this land, in Eretz Yisrael, in this State of Israel, Torah scholars will occupy a prestigious place, and this constitutional bill will provide, if not a minimal, but at least a prestigious place for those who study Torah in Eretz Yisrael."
Chairman of the Yahadut HaTorah party, Rav Uri Maklev, delivered an incisive address in the Knesset plenum in which he decried the discriminatory campaign being carried on against Torah students and scholars. "There is no other country which so persecutes Torah scholars and their families with a burning hatred. The decrees and sanctions will not break their spirit for they are the true prime advocates of our People."
He added: "We find ourselves in the period of Bein Hametzorim, days when hatred led to the Destruction. Today, those who constrict the Torah public and succeed in causing them pain and suffering, have come into power and believe that the way to succeed is by persecuting it. These are not only Days of Straits, but days of penal restriction as well.
"But the Torah public carries on with head uplifted to preserve the heritage of generations, suffused with a sense of mission and faith. It declares, in the very face of the inciters and persecutors: Moshe is Truth and his Torah is truth, and you are the frauds."
With the passing of the law for the second and third reading in the Knesset plenum, MK Rabbi Yaakov Asher said: "As HaRav Saadya Gaon said: 'Our nation only exists by merit of its Torah.' This is the path in which we were raised, and which accompanied our people throughout the millennia. The Torah is the source of our existence, our identity and our might. For the chareidi community, Torah study is not merely an advantage or merit or even tradition — it is the very core and path of our lives."
And he added: "The world of yeshivos and Houses of Study are our people's very holy cruse of oil and the core which has preserved the chain of generations even during its most difficult periods in history, both in exile and here in Eretz Yisroel. To our great chagrin, there are many wayward brethren who fail to understand the peril that can visit us without the merit of the Torah world. Sadly, they fail to understand that 'not with might and not with strength but only with My spirit, says Hashem of Hosts."
