The mitzvah of settling the land of Israel TB Baba Kama 80

Anti-Israel propaganda promulgates the lie that Jews are not indigenous to the land of Israel. Yesterday and today’s daf TB Baba Kama 80 is another proof that Jews have in in the land of Israel and protected it 500 years before the rise of Islam.

The Mishna on daf TB Baba Kama 79b shows the special relationship the Jews have always had with the land of Israel.  “The One may not raise small domesticated animals, i.e., sheep and goats, in settled areas of Eretz Yisrael, as they graze on people’s crops. But one may raise them in Syria, despite the fact that with regard to many other halakhot Syria is treated like Eretz Yisrael, and in the wilderness of Eretz Yisrael.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Most commentators say the reason one may not raise small domestic animals in the land of Israel is thievery. They were concerned that these animals were graze in other people’s property. Rashi explains why Moses “drove the flock into the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.” (Exodus 3:1) “INTO THE DESERT — in order to keep them away from private property (גֶזֵל i. e. things which can be appropriated only as the result of “robbery”) — that they should not graze in other people’s fields (Exodus Rabbah 2:3)” Nevertheless, others like the Kaftor Uferakh explain that the settling of the land of Israel is so important that small domestic animals are forbidden because they would destroy the land by overgrazing it or trodden on it.

The sons of Rav Pappa (the chain of traditional is broken in the Gemara gives three different possibilities of who said what) said three things and the third statement was “with regard to one who purchases a house in Eretz Yisrael, one writes a bill of sale for this transaction even on Shabbat.

“The Gemara turns its attention to the third statement: And with regard to one who purchases a house in Eretz Yisrael, one writes a bill of sale for this transaction even on Shabbat. The Gemara asks: Can it enter your mind that one may write this bill of sale on Shabbat? Writing on Shabbat is a prohibited labor for which one is liable to receive the death penalty.

“The Gemara explains: Rather, this is as Rava said there, with regard to a similar issue, that one tells a gentile to do it, and he does so. Here, too, it is referring to a situation where he tells a gentile to write a bill of sale for the house, and he does it. And even though telling a gentile to perform an action that is prohibited for a Jew on Shabbat is generally a violation of a rabbinic decree, as the Sages prohibited telling a gentile to perform prohibited labor on behalf of a Jew on Shabbat, here the Sages did not impose this decree, due to the mitzva of settling Eretz Yisrael.” (Sefaria.org translation) Settling the land of Israel was as important if not sometimes more important than observing Shabbat.