Built into the Jewish relationship to the land of Israel is the commandment to periodically relinquish ownership. Every seven years the land is to be laid fallow, returned to its pristine state. And on the fiftieth year all ownership and debts are to be forfeited. The fruit of new trees cannot be eaten for the first three years; the corners of one’s field must be left for the poor. Those agricultural commandments apply only to the land of Israel. The message is that a holy land doesn’t belong to us but to God. The elusiveness of possession is an expression of the land’s holiness.
