Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Ki Tisa Exodus 30:11 – 34:35

Efrat, Israel — “Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, lest they be a snare in your midst. . . lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and stray after their gods, you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters go astray after their gods, and entice your sons to stray after their gods” (Exodus 34:12-16).

Last year, a widely publicized letter signed by 40 prominent Israeli Religious-Zionist rabbis stated that, “It is Biblically forbidden to sell or rent houses or fields in Israel to a Gentile (nakhri, Hebrew), as it is written, ‘You shall not give them a resting place on our land’ (Deut. 7:2).” The Bible warns against this several times, maintaining that it causes evil occurrences and the sinfulness of the multitudes regarding religious intermarriages, as it is written, “Because (the idolaters) will take away your sons from Me’ (Deut. 7:4) and: ‘They shall not dwell in your land , lest they cause you to sin against Me’ (Ex 23:33).’ And the sin of such sales to Gentiles and the evil that follows from them redounds to the shoulders of the seller…”

The letter goes on to speak of the “great dangers” that such sales to Gentiles bring upon the Jewish neighbors, since “the lifestyles (of the Gentiles) are different from the lifestyles of the Jews, the real estate value of the Jewish homes will go down and some of these Gentiles may cause damage even to the point of endangering lives.”

I must admit that upon reading these last arguments, I thought of Haman’s complaint against the Jews “whose customs are different from those of all other nations” and of the anti-Semitic signs on “exclusively” WASP-oriented dwelling areas of yesteryear America, “Dogs and Jews Not Welcome Here”—precisely because it was thought that the Jews would lower the value of the houses.

A careful reading of the sources would hardly justify a blanket prohibition of selling or renting homes in Israel to Gentiles. The Talmudic Tractate Gerim (Proselytes) begins its third chapter with defining a Ger Toshav or a resident alien. According to most authorities including Maimonides, Nahmanides and the Shulhan Arukh—this  is an individual who accepts the Seven Noahide laws of morality: not murdering, not stealing, not committing rape or adultery, not serving idols, not blaspheming G-d, not eating the limb of a living animal, and establishing law courts to bring transgressors of these six offenses to justice.

The tractate obligates Jews to fair business practices—no undue pressure, no charging of interest and no withholding payment for hire beyond the day of labor— when dealing with resident aliens. It also stipulates that Jews may not intermarry with Gentiles who have not fully converted to Judaism. Nevertheless, despite the prohibition against intermarriage with these resident aliens, they must have the option of acquiring good homes in the midst of the land of Israel where they have good business opportunities. (See Deut. 23: 16, BT Gerim 1-4).

Indeed, Maimonides explains that the very term “resident alien” (Ger Toshav) is derived from the fact that we may “allow them to reside anywhere they wish in the Land of Israel” (Laws of Prohibited Sexual relationships 14:7). Only those Gentiles who do not keep the Seven Laws of Morality may not rent or purchase land or homes in Israel (Laws of Idolatry Chapter 10).

It is important to note that Islam is considered to be a Monotheistic religion by just about all the decisors and most normative authorities do not consider Christianity to be idolatrous for Christians (Rabbenu Tam the Shakh and Rav Yaakov Emden to name a few).

While Maimonides, at the end of the 10th chapter of his Laws of Idolatry, limits the acceptance of a Ger Toshav to the period when the Jubilee Year is in force, no less eminent an authority than Rav Yosef Karo insists that this only refers to the automatic transmission of the status of Ger Toshav and his residency rights to his descendants. However, every individual who accepts the seven Noachide laws is permitted (on a case by case basis) to live and purchase land in Israel. This view is accepted both by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (Mishpat Kohen Laws of Sabbatical and Jubilee) as well as by Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog (Thukah LeYisrael, Part 1 pages 14-16). All of this is an expression of “You shall love stranger, for you were strangers in the Land of Egypt;” we dare not oppress the minorities in our midst.

Just one caveat. If the Arabs who wish to purchase the land are not doing so in order to better their living conditions, but in order to remove the Jewish majority and turn Israel into an Arab majority state, then to protect our self-interest and to maintain our Jewish State, we must not sell them land. There are such real estate corporations largely funded by Saudi Arabia who are in this category. They are totally transparent and we ought not to do business with them.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone

Chief Rabbi — Efrat Israel