It is natural to plan a gap year the way a diaspora family does: pick the program, work out the fee, book the flight. Then you find that the most expensive variable is not on any program's price list. It is the date printed on the teudat oleh (new-immigrant certificate), and whether it falls before or after the program starts. Every Israeli-side number on this page moves on that date. None of them move on the program's.
> This is general information, not tax, legal, or financial advice. Cross-border (US/UK) and Israeli tax interact in complex ways, so consult a qualified cross-border professional before acting.
A lifelong Israeli family never has this variable. Their eighteen-year-old arrives with an allowance-and-savings clock that started in the birth month, a health card that has never not existed, and no diaspora grant to lose. Yours arrives with a much shorter version of the first, a registration deadline on the second, and a Bituach Leumi bill that starts in the same month the child money stops.
Which date decides who pays, the aliyah date or the program start date?
The aliyah date, on both sides of the ledger. It opens the Israeli entitlements, and it is the date that puts the diaspora grant in question.
Masa Israel Journey is a Government of Israel and Jewish Agency venture that subsidises long-term programs in Israel. Masa describes its grants and scholarships as a gift from the Government of Israel and The Jewish Agency for Israel 13, and the Jewish Agency describes the Masa Jewish Studies track as covering Torah and Talmud instruction in Israel's leading yeshivas and seminaries, inside a portfolio for Jewish young adults aged 18 to 35 running from six weeks to ten months 14.
Masa publishes several grant conditions, including being Jewish and an age range running from ninth-grade graduate to 40 for the 2025-2026 academic year 12. Four of them bear directly on a family mid-aliyah, all four in Masa's own words 12:
- you must "not have Israeli citizenship OR if you do, you must have left Israel before the age of 14 and have lived outside of Israel for at least four consecutive years prior to receiving your grant";
- you must "have not been on an organized post-high school program (including an academic program) of more than four months in Israel since September 2004";
- you must "have not spent 4 consecutive months or longer in Israel within the 24 month period prior to the start of your chosen Masa program after the age of 18";
- and "in order to be eligible for Masa financial assistance you must apply for Masa funding prior to the start date of your program".
Read the carve-out in the citizenship condition closely. It releases a citizen who left Israel young and stayed away for years, which describes the child of a yored, not a teenager whose family is in the middle of an aliyah file. Israeli citizenship itself is governed by the Nationality Law, 5712-1952 28, and status is administered by the Population and Immigration Authority, not by a program office and not by this page. So the sequence that protects a budget is: establish your child's status with the Authority, put it to Masa in writing, and get Masa's answer before you pay a program deposit. The fourth condition above makes the timing unforgiving on its own, because funding has to be applied for before the program starts 12, not once the family has worked out where it stands.
The Israeli benefit that sits nearest to a gap-year grant is not a gap-year grant at all. It is tuition support for a first degree or a pre-academic mechina through the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration's Student Authority, a separate entitlement on its own clock that does not begin until studies do (see the Student Authority tuition benefit). Budget the gap year as though no grant is coming, and treat one you do secure as upside.
One naming trap is worth clearing while you are there. Two different institutions share the word mechina. A pre-academic mechina is the bridge into a first degree. A pre-military mechina is a separate category with its own statute, the Pre-Military Preparatory Academies Law, 5768-2008 23. The two are easy to confuse from outside the system. Confirm which one your child is actually enrolling in, and put the benefit question to the Student Authority rather than to an admissions office.
Why does your child's state savings pot arrive smaller than a native's?
Because the deposits follow child-allowance eligibility, and for an oleh child that eligibility starts on the day of aliyah rather than the day of birth.
Bituach Leumi (National Insurance) states that it "has opened a personal savings plan for each one of your children who is eligible for a child allowance until they reach the age of 18", managed by a provident fund or a bank at the parents' choice 10. Into that plan, Chisachon LeChol Yeled (savings for every child), it deposits NIS 58 a month as of 1 January 2026, credited on the 20th, which Bituach Leumi describes as the same date the allowance is paid, with parents able to divert a matching NIS 58 out of the allowance to reach NIS 116 a month 9 10.
For a family that made aliyah, kitzvat yeladim (child allowance) runs from the day of aliyah, paid automatically off Ministry of Integration data with no claim to file; a personal claim is needed only if nothing has arrived more than two months after landing 7. Two newcomer wrinkles sit underneath that, and neither exists for a native family. A family that arrived first and obtained oleh status later is entitled from the day of arrival, provided Bituach Leumi recognised it as resident from that day, and in that case a personal claim at the local branch is required rather than optional 7. And a child who immigrates without parents is entitled from the day of aliyah only on filling out and submitting a form at a branch 7. Both can apply in a gap-year household, where the student may land ahead of, or without, the rest of the family.
The month mechanics are granular: a child who immigrates before the 15th of the month is paid from the 1st of that month, and one who immigrates on the 16th or later from the 1st of the following month 6.
Here is what that does in practice. Take Noa, born 10 March 2008, whose family lands on 3 September 2024. She arrives before the 15th, so entitlement runs from 1 September 2024, and it ends at the end of March 2026, the month she turns 18 6. That is 19 months of eligibility. Run the identical rules from her birth month instead of her aliyah month and the same 2008 birth date yields 217, because entitlement would have opened on 1 March 2008. Arriving at 16 rather than being born here costs roughly nine tenths of the window.
Treat those as counts of eligible months, not as deposits any child has actually banked. The monthly figure is restated each January 9 10, so a real account is a sum of different monthly rates plus whatever the chosen track returned, and it is the provident fund or bank managing the account, not Bituach Leumi, that can tell you what is in it 10 11. At the January 2026 rate, Noa's 19 months represent about NIS 1,100 of state deposits, or about NIS 2,200 if her parents doubled it out of the allowance 9.
Her allowance over the same 19 months, as a first child at NIS 173 a month as of 1 January 2026, comes to about NIS 3,300 on the same today's-rate basis 8.
Two grant rules decide what lands on top, and both are keyed to the date of birth rather than to how long the account has been open. A child born up to 31 December 2016 receives a NIS 582 grant at 18, withdrawable with parental permission; a child born from 1 January 2017 receives NIS 291 at age 3 and NIS 291 at bar or bat mitzvah instead 9 11. Then comes the rule a gap-year budget can quietly destroy: for both cohorts, if no savings money is withdrawn before 21, a further NIS 582 is deposited at 21 9 11. Drawing the account down at 18 to pay for the year forfeits it. From 21 the child may withdraw without parental authorisation 11. The account mechanics are covered in Gemel Yeladim: the government savings plan, and the allowance itself in Kitzvat Yeladim.
What stops the month your child turns 18, and what starts?
The allowance stops at the end of the month in which the child reaches 18 6, the state deposit runs alongside it only until 18 9 10, and in the same period the child becomes personally liable to Bituach Leumi. For a lifelong Israeli family that swap is expected. For a family two years into aliyah it usually is not, because a first year in Israel on the new-oleh health-contribution exemption may never have produced a bill at all 16.
Here is what the bill looks like. A yeshiva student pays his own national and health insurance contributions at minimum rates, NIS 171 a month as of 1 January 2026 25. An academic student who does not work pays the same minimum of NIS 171 4. A resident who does not work, has no income, and is in neither category pays NIS 143 national plus NIS 123 health, NIS 266 a month as of 1 January 2026 5.
The exemption behind the surprise is worth reading in full, because its clock runs from the aliyah date and not from the birthday. A new oleh, including a returning minor or a citizen oleh, with no income or income below NIS 688 a month as of 1 January 2026, is exempt from health insurance contributions for six months from the day of aliyah, extendable to twelve only where the Ministry of Absorption pays dmei kiyum (subsistence benefit), only for the months actually paid, and only on production of a recipient certificate 16.
That produces a timing quirk unique to newcomers. A teenager who makes aliyah at 17 and turns 18 inside that six-month window is exempt from the health contribution while the national-insurance side runs, so the first demand can be smaller than the standing rate and then grow when the window closes. How much smaller is not published in English for a student: Bituach Leumi splits the non-working minimum into NIS 143 national and NIS 123 health 5, but publishes the student and yeshiva minimum of NIS 171 only as a combined figure 4 25. Ask your branch what the exempt months actually cost, and budget the post-window number.
Wider mechanics of the system sit in Bituach Leumi coverage for olim and qualifying periods. There is also a separate five-year exemption from the national-insurance contribution for olim who are obligated to pay US Social Security, set out in the five-year exemption. It is keyed to that US obligation, so check whether a non-earning 18-year-old qualifies at all before counting on it.
What the contributions buy is not nothing. Yeshiva students may be entitled to children's, old-age, reserve-service, accident-injury, disability, attendance, mobility, long-term-care and survivors' benefits, among others 15, which is the machinery behind disability allowances for olim.
NIS 171 or NIS 266: what actually decides which bill arrives?
The insured category the institution registers your child under, and for a family two months into aliyah that is more fragile than it sounds. A native eighteen-year-old comes off a Bituach Leumi file that has existed since birth. Your child's file may be younger than the gap year itself, which is exactly the situation in which an automatic data transfer has the least to match against.
Start with what the categories are built on. Both are defined by Israeli residency, not by citizenship and not by Jewish status, which is why they reach your child the month aliyah makes them resident and never reach the classmate sitting next to them on a Masa visa. Bituach Leumi's entire English definition of the yeshiva-student category is one sentence: "An Israeli resident registered as a student of a religious institute" 1. The academic-student category requires "an Israeli resident who studies in Israel for eight consecutive monts at least during the academic year, in an institution acknowledge as an academic establishment according to the National Insurance Law" 2. The spelling is Bituach Leumi's own.
Notice what neither sentence does. Neither names qualifying institutions. So whether a women's midrasha or a pre-military mechina sits inside the religious-institute category, inside the academic-establishment category, or in neither and therefore at NIS 266, is not answerable from the English pages. Put that question to the institution and to your local Bituach Leumi branch before the year starts, not after the first demand arrives.
The lever you do control is paperwork, and it is the lever a newcomer household is most likely to need. Registration as a yeshiva student "is made automatically by transferring information to Torani institutions", and where the information is not automatically received, a certificate of studies signed by the yeshiva and mentioning the student's details and the period of studies must be sent to the Insurance and Collection Department through the Bituach Leumi website or a local branch 3. The gap between the two rates is NIS 95 a month, about NIS 1,140 across a full twelve months of liability 4 5 25.
One exception is worth knowing before the year turns into service. For a soldier in the "Yeshiva Esder" framework who spends part of the period in active military service and part studying in yeshiva, the army pays insurance contributions on his behalf even during the yeshiva study periods 25. If the gap year leads into the army, the lone soldier guide covers the ground after it.
Does Israeli health cover follow the passport or the address?
The address. Bituach Leumi states that under the State Health Insurance Law, effective from 1 January 1995, every Israeli resident has health insurance coverage and must be registered with a kupat cholim (health fund), which must provide the standard health basket specified by law 18; the statute itself is the National Health Insurance Law, 5754-1994 21. The other side is put just as plainly: "A non-resident person (such as foreign workers) - is not covered with public health insurance, but one may arrange private insurance on his behalf" 18.
So a diaspora teenager on a Masa A-2 visa spending the year in Jerusalem is outside the public basket, which is why Masa lists insurance among the things it subsidises for its fellows, alongside housing, visa and placement 13. A non-Masa program leaves the family to buy cover privately, and pre-existing conditions are the usual sticking point (see pre-existing conditions and aliyah cover).
Once your child is an oleh, registration is the whole game and it is time-boxed. Register with a kupat cholim at the Ministry of Integration bureaus at the airport on arrival; failing that, at any Israel Post branch; after three weeks, once Interior Ministry data reaches Bituach Leumi, online; and if 90 days pass without registration, only in person at the Bituach Leumi branch nearest your home 16 17. If your child moves straight into a dormitory away from the rest of the family, that 90-day line is the one to put in the diary on landing day.
How do the five situations compare side by side?
| Status | Public health cover | The 18-year-old's own monthly Bituach Leumi minimum | Child allowance and state deposit | Masa grant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diaspora teen on an A-2 visa, no aliyah | Outside the statutory basket; Masa lists insurance among what it subsidises for fellows 13 18 | Not applicable; both insured categories are defined by Israeli residency 1 2 | None; entitlement runs from the day of aliyah 7 | Open, if every published condition is met 12 |
| Oleh child, 17 or under | Inside the basket from kupat cholim registration 16 17 | Not yet in play | Running, from the day of aliyah 7 10 | Citizenship condition applies; settle it with Masa in writing before any deposit 12 |
| Oleh who has turned 18, registered as a yeshiva or non-working academic student | Inside the basket; the health contribution may be exempt inside the six-month new-oleh window, on income under NIS 688 as of 1 Jan 2026 16 | NIS 171 combined, as of 1 Jan 2026 4 25 | Allowance stopped at the end of the month of the 18th birthday; deposit stopped at 18 6 9 | Same citizenship question 12 |
| Oleh who has turned 18, in neither student category | Same as above | NIS 143 national + NIS 123 health = NIS 266, as of 1 Jan 2026 5 | Stopped 6 9 | Same 12 |
| Oleh, still an Israeli resident, doing the year abroad | Basket retained, but health-contribution arrears while abroad may affect entitlement 19; an oleh under the Law of Return is listed among those exempt from the waiting period 20 | NIS 266 as of 1 Jan 2026 for a resident abroad without income 19 | Stopped 6 9 | Not applicable |
What can a US 529 actually pay for here? (US olim only)
Only an institution that clears a specifically American test. The IRS states that qualified higher education expenses "generally include expenses required for the enrollment or attendance of the designated beneficiary at any college, university, vocational school, or other postsecondary educational institution eligible to participate in a student aid program administered by the Department of Education" 22. That is not "is it a real school", and it is not "is it accredited in Israel". It is whether that particular institution participates in US federal student aid and therefore holds a Federal School Code. Participation is decided institution by institution. Ask the institution in writing for its code before you take a distribution, and treat "we have had American students before" as not an answer. The elementary and secondary expansion in the same topic, limited to $20,000 per year from all of the beneficiary's plans and $10,000 before 31 December 2025, runs kindergarten through grade 12 and so does not reach a post-high-school year 22.
PFIC belongs on this page rather than off it, because the gap year is usually the withdrawal year. The Israeli savings account your child is about to draw on sits with a provident fund or a bank at the parents' choice 10, and the provident-fund track is a non-US pooled vehicle, which raises Passive Foreign Investment Company and Form 8621 questions for a child who is also a US citizen. Settle the track question before the withdrawal year, not during it. Distribution mechanics after aliyah are covered in 529 and HSA accounts after aliyah, and the full PFIC analysis is in your Israeli-born child is a US citizen and the PFIC problem.
Two more American-only items land at 18. Your child now holds an Israeli account in their own name, and a US person must file an FBAR where "the aggregate value of those foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year reported" 27. And the United States has social security totalization agreements with 30 countries, a list that does not include Israel 26, so the NIS 171 a month cannot be counted toward US Social Security the way a totalization agreement would allow; reaching 40 US Social Security credits works that through.
What if your passport is British, Canadian or South African?
Then the two paragraphs above are not yours. The 529 test, the PFIC question and the FBAR question all attach to US persons, so unless somebody in the household is one, skip them entirely rather than half-applying them. The natural funding pot is more likely a Junior ISA maturing at 18 or an RESP, and your home-country child benefit has its own non-residence rules, which live where they belong: UK child benefit after aliyah and the Canada Child Benefit on aliyah.
One Israeli rule does turn on where you came from. An Israeli resident who is insured in a convention country and pays insurance contributions in that convention state is liable for the health insurance contribution alone 19, which is worth checking if the family still has live contributions in the home system.
Everything else Israeli applies to you identically: Masa's citizenship condition and its three companions 12, the residency-based health basket 18, the age-18 cutoff on the allowance and the deposit 6 9, the registration ladder and its 90-day cliff 16 17, and the NIS 171 versus NIS 266 question as of 1 January 2026 4 5 25. Do not read this page as an American page with a British footnote. The Israeli sections are fully yours.
What changes if the gap year happens abroad instead?
Less than families fear, provided the contributions keep being paid, and here the newcomer angle runs the opposite way to everywhere else on this page: your child's recent aliyah works in their favour.
An Israeli resident must pay national and health insurance contributions even while staying outside the country, and arrears in payment of health insurance contributions during a stay abroad may affect entitlement to receive health services 19. A resident abroad without income pays the minimum, NIS 266 a month as of 1 January 2026, and any single day of work in a month counts as a full working month 19.
The waiting period everyone worries about needs both of two things: 18 consecutive months or more abroad and at least 12 months of unpaid health contributions, or loss of resident status. It is capped at six months and floored at two, and one month of it is discharged by 25 consecutive days of residence in Israel 20. A single ten-month year meets neither limb. A gap year that becomes a shana bet and then a foreign degree can meet both. Redemption by a special payment exists, after which services resume immediately except for care provided abroad and fertility treatments, and contributions are still owed during the waiting period 20. Treat it as a repair, not a plan.
Two facts here exist only for a household like yours. First, Bituach Leumi lists an immigrant (oleh) under the Law of Return, a person recognised by the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption as a "Resident Immigrant", and a person recognised as a "Returning Minor" among those exempt from the waiting period 20. The same list also exempts a minor up to 18 and a soldier for 24 months after discharge from compulsory or regular service 20, which happens to bracket the gap-year window on both sides. The page states these exemptions without stating a shelf life, so confirm with your branch how one interacts with a later absence rather than assuming it travels. Second, the convention-country rule above 19 can change what a year spent back in the country you came from actually costs.
One caution on the concessional category for an Israeli resident studying at a recognised establishment overseas. The category exists, but Bituach Leumi's English definition page still describes it as "An Israeli resident, who was a student in 2022 and 2023, studying in an academic establishment overseas, according to a list of recognized establishments" 24, and its companion rate page publishes no figure at all, only the notice that "this page is currently update in accordance to changes in the legislation" 29. Do not plan around an English-language figure for that category, because there is none. Confirm the current position at a branch. Trip cover for the travel itself is a separate purchase (see travel insurance for olim).
What does the year actually cost, and what can nobody tell you?
The cost structure is knowable. The price is not, at least not from any source this page can cite. Program fees, room and board, and the gap between a dollar-quoted or pound-quoted diaspora rate and a shekel-quoted Israeli one are set institution by institution and published, if at all, by the institution itself. Ask for the fee schedule in writing, in the currency you will actually pay in, and ask separately what it includes and what it does not.
A family mid-aliyah is the one most exposed to that currency question, because the income funding the year may still be earned abroad while the bills arrive in shekels. What you can budget with confidence is the shape: program fee, room and board, flights, private cover before aliyah or the Bituach Leumi floor after it, spending money, and the two Israeli lines that stop in the birthday month rather than starting.
Two adjacent pages carry the rest of the arc: education costs in Israel for the years before this one, and higher education savings for the degree after it. And because a gap year is usually funded out of a parent's earnings rather than a pot, the parent-side risk is worth checking at the same time, in income protection for olim and critical illness cover.
Do this first: write down three dates side by side, your child's 18th birthday, your aliyah date, and the program start date. Then send two written questions, both before you pay anything. Ask the institution which Bituach Leumi category it registers students under and whether it will issue a certificate of studies. And ask Masa where your child stands against every published eligibility condition. Those two answers move more of this budget than the program fee does.
Frequently asked questions
Your aliyah date, not the program start, decides who funds a gap year in Israel. Before aliyah, a Masa grant is open and the student sits outside Israel's health basket; after aliyah, Masa's citizenship condition puts the grant in question. Either way, child allowance and the state savings deposit stop the month your child turns 18.
It puts it in question, and Masa is the only body that can answer. Masa's published eligibility requires that you "not have Israeli citizenship OR if you do, you must have left Israel before the age of 14 and have lived outside of Israel for at least four consecutive years prior to receiving your grant" [[12]]. That carve-out is written for someone who emigrated as a young child, not for a family in the middle of an aliyah file. Three further conditions bear on a family mid-aliyah: no organised post-high school program of more than four months in Israel since September 2004, no four consecutive months or longer in Israel in the 24 months before the program start after age 18, and funding must be applied for before the program start date [[12]]. Masa's list also carries conditions on being Jewish and on age [[12]]. Israeli citizenship is governed by the Nationality Law, 5712-1952 [[28]], and status is administered by the Population and Immigration Authority. Get both answers in writing before you pay a deposit, and budget as though no grant is coming.
From the day of aliyah, because the deposit follows child-allowance eligibility. Bituach Leumi opens the plan "for each one of your children who is eligible for a child allowance until they reach the age of 18" [[10]], and for a family that made aliyah, allowance entitlement runs from the day of aliyah [[7]]. The deposit is NIS 58 a month as of 1 January 2026, or NIS 116 if parents divert the matching amount out of the allowance [[9]]. A child who arrives at 15 has room for roughly three years of eligible months, where the same rules run from a birth month give about eighteen years of them [[6]] [[9]]. Those are counts of eligible months, not a balance: the monthly figure is restated each January [[9]] [[10]], and the fund or bank managing the account is who can tell you what is actually in it [[10]] [[11]].
At the end of the month in which the child reaches the age of 18 [[6]]. The NIS 58 monthly state deposit runs alongside it only until 18 [[9]] [[10]]. For a gap year taken straight after twelfth grade that falls during or just before the program year, which is why the cash flow reverses so abruptly.
It depends on the insured category the institution registers them under. A yeshiva student pays his own national and health insurance contributions at minimum rates, NIS 171 a month as of 1 January 2026 [[25]], and an academic student who does not work pays the same minimum [[4]]. A resident who does not work, has no income and is in neither category pays NIS 143 national plus NIS 123 health, NIS 266 a month as of 1 January 2026 [[5]]. Bituach Leumi's English definitions name no qualifying institutions [[1]] [[2]], so whether a midrasha or a pre-military mechina falls inside the religious-institute category is not answerable from those pages. Ask the institution and your local branch.
Send a certificate of studies yourself. Registration as a yeshiva student is made automatically by transferring information from Torani institutions, and where the information is not automatically received, a certificate of studies signed by the yeshiva and mentioning the student's details and the period of studies must be sent to the Insurance and Collection Department through the Bituach Leumi website or a local branch [[3]]. Getting into the right category is what stands between NIS 171 and NIS 266 a month as of 1 January 2026, about NIS 95 a month or NIS 1,140 across a full year of liability [[4]] [[5]] [[25]].
No. Israeli public health cover follows residency, not citizenship or Jewish status. Under the State Health Insurance Law, effective from 1 January 1995, every Israeli resident has coverage and must be registered with an HMO [[18]], and Bituach Leumi states that "a non-resident person (such as foreign workers) - is not covered with public health insurance, but one may arrange private insurance on his behalf" [[18]]. A student on a Masa A-2 visa is outside the basket, which is why Masa lists insurance among what it subsidises for its fellows [[13]]. A non-Masa program leaves the family to buy cover privately.
Only if that specific institution is "eligible to participate in a student aid program administered by the Department of Education", which is the test IRS Topic 313 sets for qualified higher education expenses [[22]]. Israeli accreditation is not the test, and participation is decided institution by institution. Ask the institution in writing for its Federal School Code before you take a distribution. The elementary and secondary expansion in the same topic, limited to $20,000 per year from all of the beneficiary's plans and $10,000 before 31 December 2025, covers kindergarten through grade 12 and does not reach a post-high-school year [[22]].
A single ten-month year does not, because the waiting period requires both conditions: 18 consecutive months or more abroad and at least 12 months of unpaid health contributions, or loss of resident status, capped at six months [[20]]. Bituach Leumi also lists an immigrant (oleh) under the Law of Return, a recognised "Resident Immigrant", a recognised "Returning Minor", a minor up to 18 and a soldier for 24 months after discharge among those exempt from the waiting period, though the page does not state how those exemptions interact with a later absence, so confirm at a branch [[20]]. What does continue is payment. An Israeli resident must pay national and health contributions even while abroad, at NIS 266 a month as of 1 January 2026 for someone without income, and arrears in health contributions during a stay abroad may affect entitlement to health services [[19]].
It can, if the birthday falls inside the window. A new oleh, including a returning minor or a citizen oleh, with no income or income below NIS 688 a month as of 1 January 2026, is exempt from health insurance contributions for six months from the day of aliyah [[16]]. A teenager who makes aliyah at 17 and turns 18 inside that window is exempt from the health contribution while the national-insurance side still runs. How much that saves a student is not published in English: the NIS 143 and NIS 123 split is given only for the non-working category [[5]], while the student and yeshiva minimum of NIS 171 is published as one combined figure [[4]] [[25]]. Ask your branch, and budget the post-window number. A further six months is available only where the Ministry of Absorption pays subsistence benefits, only for the months actually paid, and only on production of a recipient certificate [[16]].
Yes. Bituach Leumi states that for a soldier in the "Yeshiva Esder" framework who spends part of the period in active military service and another part studying in yeshiva, the army will pay insurance contributions on his behalf even during his yeshiva studies [[25]]. That is a specific exception on the same page that sets the NIS 171 a month a yeshiva student otherwise pays for himself as of 1 January 2026 [[25]].