Laws and Customs of The Land of Israel in Judaism

Laws and customs of the Land of Israel in Judaism (Hebrew: מצוות התלויות בארץ; translit. Mitzvot Ha'teluyot Be'aretz) are special Jewish laws that apply only to the Land of Israel. According to a standard view, 26 of the 613 mitzvot apply only in the Land of Israel. Overall, the laws and customs may be classified as follows:

  • Laws that were in force at the time of the Temple in Jerusalem and in connection with the Temple service. These relate to the Paschal lamb during the Passover festival, the bringing of the First fruits to Jerusalem, the tri-annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem; the test applied to the wife suspected of faithlessness ("sotah"); all the sacrifices, and the priestly Levitical services.
  • Laws in connection with Jewish civil and military government, as those relating to the king, to covenants with foreign countries, to taking the census, and to military affairs.
  • Laws concerning the products of the land: the heave-offering for the priests; the tithes to the Levites; the poor man's right to the gleanings, the forgotten sheaf, and the unreaped grain in the corners of the field; the use of young trees (prohibited during the first three years); the mixing of different kinds of vegetables (kil'ayim); the Sabbatical year.
  • Health laws: the quarantine regulations; the defilement and purification of persons, dwellings, and garments, and their examination by a qualified priest.
  • Laws connected with the functions of the Sanhedrin in the Jewish state: Ordination; Sanctification of the New Moon and the arrangement of the calendar; the laws of the Jubilee and the blowing of the shofar on Yom Kippur to announce the Jubilee; the laws of Jewish servants; the right to sell a thief should he fail to make restitution for his theft; the regulations for the cities of refuge; corporal punishments and fines (capital punishment ceased seventy years prior to the destruction of the Second Temple, owing to the encroachments of the Roman rule, which began to assert its influence in Judea).

Read more about Laws And Customs Of The Land Of Israel In Judaism:  Rabbinical Distinctions, Agricultural Restrictions, Settlement in The Land of Israel, Customs

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