The Obligation of Living in Israel

                                           Based on shiur given by HRHG Shmuel  Eliyahu

In many passages in the Torah the land of Israel is related to in three ways.

1-The fulfillment of the covenant between Hashem  and the patriarchs..

2-The commandment to obey the mitzvot when you come to possess the land

3-The commandment to conquer the land and settle it

 There is a commandment to conquer the land and to conquer its inhabitants..

Dev.1:5See I have set before you the Land, the Land which was sworn by Hashem to your fathers,....

Baidbar 33:51-And you will disposess all the inhabitants thereof.

On this commandment the RMBN wrote(lacunae to Sefer Ha mitzvot laRMBM 5)

"We are commanded to possess(inherit)  the Land....not to leave it to anyone else or a wasteland as it  is written "possess the Land and settle it for I have given it to you as an inheritance.

The commandment of  conquest and settlement and the promise of the land are one and the  same.While there can be some interpretation of the individual passages, taken together the promise and the commandment are clear.

The obligation of settling the Land of Israel is also clear in Halacha.

The source is the Mishna

which states Ketubot 13-11 "all are brought up(to Israel) and none are taken away and why? Elsewhere the Gemarra states that he who dwells outside of Israeli is as if he 

has no G-d.Both the RIF and the ROSH Write this in the halacha.

The RMBM paskens in Hil. Melachim3,4That one should always live in Eretz Yisrael even in a city of mostly Gentiles.Because he who goes abroad is  likened to an idolater

The ShulchanAruch (Even HaEzer 75-3,4)rules according to the RMBM..The Pitchei Tshuva explains that the RMBN  counted this mitzvah as a positive Torah commandment which according to the Sifri is worth all of the  mitzvot together.RMBM doesn't disagree, but  since the mitzvah is so all encompassing he did  

 notlist it seperately.

Here I rest my case.A simple one really no chiddushim. If Shabbat is important to you or tefillin or tzizit,or any of the mitzvot,then Aliya and living in Israel should be just as important

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