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The Mitzvah
The Mitzvah to settle the land is a commandment in the Torah "ובאתם וירשתם את הארץ אשר ה' אלוהי אבותיכם נותן לכם(דברים ד,א). . . "וירשתם את הארץ הטובה הזאת"(דברים ד,כב). . . " ארץ אשר ה' אלוהיך דורש אותה תמיד עיני ה' אלוהיך בה" ( דברים י"א,יב).
"that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, giveth you" (Deut. 4:1)… "ye are to go over, and possess that good land" (Deut. 4:22)… "a land which the Lord thy God careth for; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it" (Deut. 11:12).
Throughout our history, this mitzvah has held a special status in our tradition. Yet even more than the religious aspect of this mitzvah, it is an ideal way to demonstrate your connection with the Jewish nation- through the Jewish land. The extent to which our tradition places importance on this mitzvah can be viewed from the writing in the Tosephta where it says “Settling the Land of Israel is equal to all the other mitzvoth combined.”
There are few mitzvoth that are both national and private at the same time yet this is both a collective commandment on the Jewish people to settle the land and a requirement on each and every one of us as individual Jews.
It is also unique that there is both a physical and spiritual component to the mitzvah. While the commandment specifically entails making a physical acquisition of land, it has a deeply spiritual component focusing on our connection to Eretz Yisrael, that is like few other mitzvoth. With the EYAL Project all Jews now have the chance to establish that spiritual connection. To learn more CLICK HERE.
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