Q&A: Settling the Land
Settling the Land
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I wanted to ask why the commandment of settling the Land of Israel was not clearly ruled on by the halakhic decisors such as Maimonides and the Shulchan Arukh, but only incidentally, if at all.
Answer
Several responsa have been written about this, some of them plainly mistaken. For example, some later authorities (Acharonim) claimed that this is a general commandment and therefore it is not counted. That reflects a misunderstanding of the concept of a “general commandment” that appears in the fourth principle of Maimonides. Beyond that, to the best of my understanding there is no hint in Maimonides to the very fundamental status of the commandment of settling the Land of Israel. Usually that interpretation stems from the agenda of those commentators.
It is worth remembering that even the commandment of faith is counted by him as a commandment, despite all the difficulties.
I think that perhaps he did not count this as a commandment because he saw it as an instrumental value and not a commandment. Living in the Land obligates you in many other commandments (those dependent on the Land), but in and of itself it is not a commandment.
Discussion on Answer
In principle that is possible, but it doesn’t seem likely to me in the context of the commandment of settling the Land of Israel. With respect to morality and Torah study, there is a rationale for preferring to leave them without an explicit command. But regarding settling the Land of Israel, I don’t see such an advantage, especially according to Maimonides’ approach.
Settling the Land is the result of reward and punishment:
“And let the land not vomit you out.”
And just as there is no commandment to get to the Garden of Eden, so too there is no commandment to settle in the Land.
“For you have not as yet come to the resting place and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. And you shall cross the Jordan and dwell in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He will give you rest from all your enemies round about, and you shall dwell securely.”
A reward.
In my opinion, the fact that in the Mishnah (Ketubot 13:11) the Land of Israel and Jerusalem are mentioned together can show that the attitude toward them is similar. They are holier places, of course, and that has practical implications, but there is no real obligation to live there.
I don’t see proof from there. There is indeed a hierarchy of holiness, but that does not prevent there from being a commandment to live in the Land of Israel. In the words of the Sages there is an expression of the commandment of settling the Land of Israel (such as the permission to write a deed for it on the Sabbath).
One of the roles of the Messiah king according to Maimonides is the ingathering of the exiles of Israel. I don’t know whether that is a Torah commandment, a prophetic ordinance, or preparation for a commandment for commandments that require all its inhabitants to be upon it, such as the Jubilee year and the like.
Maybe it is like the fact that he does not count the commandment of repentance? There are binding values even though they are not commandments.
(Like the distinction the Rabbi makes between Torah study, which anyone who understands its value is obligated in, and the commandment of Torah study, which is only to recite the Shema morning and evening.)