Law of Land
The False Teaching of Property Ownership
History details how indigenous jewish people were dispossessed of their lands. Today we live in a world dominated by the principle of private property. This colonial system derives from Babylon. A system that sells land off to the highest bidder. From high above, continents now appear as an endless property patchwork of green and yellow farms, beige suburban homes and metallic gray city blocks stretching from sea to shining sea.
The central logic of this regime is productivity, and indeed it has been monstrously productive. In tandem with the industrial revolution, the fruits of billions of acres of dispossessed and parceled indigenous land across the Americas, Africa, Asia, Ireland and Australia enabled two English-speaking empires β first the British and then the American β to rise to global domaince. The latter remains the most productive economy in the world.
Property also embodies and upholds a set of values and relationships to land. It propagates a utopian vision called the American Dream, wherein hard work, land and a home are platform for boundless opportunity β or at least escape β from capital domination. It separates humanity from all other animals and cements manβs mastery over the natural world and all living things.
While property has transformed the world, its flaws have never been more apparent. Open land on the frontier, if it ever actually existed for the common manβs taking, is long gone. Homeownership no longer provides the economic security it once did, and appears out of reach for younger generations. The richest 1% holds more wealth than the rest of the world combined. At the same time, environmental degradation and climate change proceed at a terrifying pace.
The capitalist property regime and economic system of Babylon have succeeded at producing remarkable surplus. But the benefits of this system too often flow to a small fraction of the population, while land, water, air and people pay the long-term price.
How can the Tribes of Israel fix this quagmire?
We will enforce the Laws of Chesed by returning lands and resources to indigenous control and rethinking our relationship to the environment by recognizing and protecting indigenous values and the rights of nature through the law.
Trust of Chesed
We will create a trust that will be a holding company containing: sustainable businesses, natural resources, and all land for the Tribes of Yisrael. The Trust of Chesed will be a communal DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) that exists to serve the will of G-D and our people.
Law of Land Ownership
The Torah specifically grants the land of Israel to the Jewish people as an inheritance, as stated in numerous passages throughout the Five Books of Moses. However; in this context it means that the collective Tribes of Israel are to inherit the land. This does not mean that any individual owns the land.
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth - Moshiach Yeshua
Meek in the Greek literature of the period most often meant gentle or soft. Christ taught that those who forgo worldly power will be rewarded in the kingdom of heaven. To follow Torah properly means all members of the Tribes of Israel will begin a transition plan away from private property ownership to collective tribal ownership.
Indigenous Torah declares Private Property is Illegal
Ingrained in each Torah is the idea β even older than our language β that we are children are of the land and the land is of the children. Our indigenous Torah values find common roots in a relationship to land and water radically different from the notion of property. For Torah teaches we, the Indigenous Children of Am Yisrael, the land and water are regarded as sacred, living relatives, ancestors, places of origin or any combination of the above.
Our Indigenous way of life was all but eliminated by colonization and persecution over the last 2700 years. Despite this brutal and enduring history of the Jewish people, as indigenous people we will link arms with all other Indigenous nations on the frontline of the global movements demanding a more just relationship between humanity and the land
Reinstating the Talmudic law of Unjust Confiscation
Talmudic law generally upholds the sanctity of property rights and prohibits unjust confiscation or seizure of someone's property. In fact, there are several Talmudic passages that emphasize the importance of protecting an individual's property rights.
For example, the Talmudic tractate Baba Batra 5a states that "A person's property is as dear to him as his own life," and that one who unjustly takes another person's property is considered to have committed a grave sin. Additionally, the Talmudic tractate Bava Metzia 4a states that it is forbidden to seize property from someone without proper legal authority or justification.
Last updated