What Lies Behind the High Court Judges’ Targeted Attack on Torah Students?
By Rabbi Yehuda Epstein | Tuesday, 11th of Iyar, 5786 (April 28, 2026)
What truly stands behind the targeted harm inflicted by High Court of Justice (“BAGATZ”) judges against those who study Torah?
If in the past it was Aharon Barak who claimed to Haredi Judaism that, despite their ideological disputes, it would be the Supreme Court that would protect the civil rights of the Haredi public in a time of trouble—today the mask has been removed. Barak’s disciples and their disciples stand at the tip of the spear in the struggle to restrict the steps of the Torah world. They systematically back the collective and targeted abuse of the Haredi public, emphasizing economic harassment and the revocation of basic rights, all based on the Torah world’s refusal to enlist into the IDF “melting pot.”
This raises a great wonder when one recalls that this is not a court with a militaristic approach that views military service as the be-all and end-all, or the strength of the army as a supreme value. Quite the opposite—when it comes to the struggle against the Arab enemy seeking to destroy us, the High Court is the most comfortable crutch for terrorist supporters, providing them with invaluable assistance. The “Nukhba” menu is too meager for their tastes, and any infringement on their rights keeps these “enlightened” judges awake at night. The lives of IDF soldiers are secondary in importance when they rule on issues like the “neighbor procedure,” “knock on the roof,” or the clearing of trees used as cover for terrorists.
Furthermore, regarding “mixed service”—which has nothing to do with operational necessity and whose entire purpose is to erode Torah values and the aspiration for victory—the Court stands firmly alongside radical left-wing organizations. These groups have found the army to be a gold mine for forcing their distorted values on the entire population, and they will do everything to destroy every good portion and prevent an Israeli victory on every possible front.
Therefore, the question sharpens: What turns this same Court, regarding the issue of Haredi recruitment, into one with uncompromising militaristic positions bordering on fascism—viewing the State and the Army as the absolute totality, to the point of denying property tax discounts and daycare subsidies to poor families?
The Mirror of Guilt
The easy answer to this question is that we are dealing with haters of Israel who cannot miss an opportunity to harm the Haredi Jew, who embodies for them what every Jew embodies for every antisemite in the world. They simply cannot resist the temptation when they have the power to mistreat those who hold up a mirror to them and remind them of the Judaism from which they are doing everything to escape.
This applies even more strongly to those judges who have a kippah (skullcap) covering their heads. By their very willingness to serve in such a senior position in a system that is entirely a denial of the Torah of Moses, their consciences torment them. To silence it, they create a thesis for themselves: that Western values are the embodiment of good, justice, integrity, and morality, while the simple Jews faithful to the Torah are the “enemy” that must be fought.
The Existential Threat to the “Ivory Tower”
While the above explanation is plausible, I believe there is something deeper at play. Haredi Judaism—and first and foremost, the Torah world—constitutes a fundamental threat to the very existence of the so-called “Supreme” Court in the State of Israel.
With their sharp eyes, the judges identify the challenge the Torah world poses to the entire system of values upon which Israeli law is based. Even more so, they see the Torah of G-d as a tangible threat to the system itself. This is especially true for those religious judges who, alongside their academic studies, acquired enough Torah education to know what the Torah thinks of secular courts (Arkaot) and the status of a judgment not based on Torah.
They understand well that the Torah is not limited to prayer, phylacteries, the lulav, and kosher laws. It contains an entire system of Choshen Mishpat (civil law) and Even HaEzer (family law)—laws that clash with the civil legal system of a democratic state. They know well that the Torah rules over all areas of life, including the realm where they see themselves as the masters. When a Jew prays three times a day, “Restore our judges as of old,” the more he focuses on that prayer, the more he envisions the blade of a D9 bulldozer ascending the ivory tower, and their giant armchairs being cleared away with the rest of the ruins into the dustbin of history.
The Perfect Alternative
The High Court judges understand perfectly that the Torah world is not a “nature reserve” for a primitive tribe detached from practical life. The Torah world is the perfect alternative to the judicial dictatorship they are trying to force upon the nation. The Torah world has a legal system built to perfection from the foundation to the rafters. More importantly, it has a grounded value system standing behind the “righteous statutes and ordinances” that G-d commanded Moses.
They know something else, too: they know that as time passes, more and more Jews—not necessarily Haredi, and not even necessarily skullcap-wearing—realize that the original Torah system is infinitely better than their system built on Western values. As the Court chooses to go further toward the realms of the radical left and the most delusional values of the worst of nations, more and more Jews become alienated from it and prefer the Torah system instead.
The Torah world stands before the secular legal system and threatens it by its very existence. Every Sabbath, hundreds of thousands—perhaps more—point toward the Torah scroll and declare: “This is the Torah that Moses placed before the children of Israel, by the word of G-d, through the hand of Moses.” The High Court judges view this declaration as civil rebellion, a challenge to their authority and what they call the “rule of law.”
Conclusion
And you know what? They are right! Indeed, the Holy Torah constitutes an alternative to their tyrannical rule. Our Torah is a “Torah of Life,” and it is meant to manage the entire life of the nation—first and foremost the legal system in a Jewish state.
That is why they persecute us. That is why they go out of their way and suddenly discover how “important” it is to care for the army and security—things they work against in normal times. While this requires us to gird our loins and prepare for difficult days, it is also comforting and strengthening. If they know the pendulum is swinging in our direction, and the masses of the people are increasingly identifying with Torah values rather than theirs, then we have nothing to do but be encouraged.
We must strengthen ourselves in Torah study for its own sake, direct our learning toward the practical goal of establishing the rule of Torah in all systems of life, and prepare for the Great Day when the Torah constitution will indeed be the constitution of the nation!
We conclude with a prayer: “Restore our judges as of old and our counselors as at the beginning, and remove from us sorrow and sighing, and reign over us, You G-d, alone, with kindness and mercy, and justify us in judgment.”
The author is Rabbi Yehuda Epstein – Chairman of the “Kedushat Zion” Association, the Haredi Association for Seeking Zion in Holy Purity.