Exchanging Land?
‘Nor Shall You Show Them Favor’
(Avodah Zara 20a)
Many years ago there was a commotion in Yerushalayim concerning a hospital, when the rabbanim referred to our sugya. A number of honorable people collected a large sum and bought a building from a gentile to be used as a hospital. A judicial order stopped the preparations when neighbors complained that they did not want a hospital in their area. At the same time, a non-Jew offered a huge amount for the building.
Selling the property was problematic because of our sugya that states that when the Jews received Eretz Yisrael from Hashem, it was given only to them. Further, one must not bestow it to gentiles, as our Gemara seeks to derive from the following verse: “Nor shall you show them favor” (“Lo techoneim,” Devarim 7:2) – we may also interpret this according to the root of the word techoneim, which could mean: that one should not give them the land to live on (chanaya).
Indeed this question has great relevance in our current situation, where there is constant talk of a two-state solution that would obviously entail so-called “land for peace.”
The Lost Responsum
The author of Toras Chesed came to live in Yerushalayim in his old age and indeed he devoted much attention to this question. Until today, his long responsum serves as a source for halachic discussion among the poskim. The responsum was lost for many years and the discussion about it was conducted according to memory until it was found in the notebook of his father-in-law, Rabbi Simcha Bamberger, zt”l, and published in Responsa Zecher Simcha (215).
Lo Techoneim: A Prohibition From The Torah
The Toras Chesed notes from the Rishonim that the prohibition of lo techoneim is from the Torah and should therefore not be treated leniently. Only according to Rabbi Ishtori HaParchi, author of Kaftor Vaferach and a pupil of the Rosh (Ch. 10, p. 28), may one behave leniently in case of a loss, but this is an individual opinion and many question him (see Pe’as HaShulchan 1:19).
Among other matters, the Toras Chesed discusses the matter of the 20 towns in the Galilee that King Solomon gave Hiram in exchange for cedars, cypresses, and gold that were needed for the building of the Temple (Melachim 1:9:11). According to Abrabanel and the Malbim, Solomon did not give him the towns themselves but only their produce, as he promised (ibid. 5:25) to repay 20,000 kor of wheat and 20 kor of olive oil each year (and see further ibid. as for his explanation of the passages in Divrei HaYamim and see Tosafos, Yevamos 23a, s.v. Hahu, which explain that perhaps Hiram was a ger toshav).
Land For Land: Permitted By Some, Prohibited By Others
The Toras Chesed concludes his responsum with an ingenious solution: one may not sell a building in Eretz Yisrael to a gentile, but one may exchange one building for another, providing the areas of land for exchange are the same size. The Chazon Ish nevertheless disagreed and wrote: “I find no permission to sell the lot to a gentile or to a Jew suspected of intending to sell it to a gentile, neither for money nor in exchange” (cited by Responsa Tzitz Eli’ezer 6:31).
