Gentile Land Ownership in the Land of Israel The Palestinian Talmud in Light of Biblical Models and Roman Law

THE SUBJECT OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL in rabbinic literature, specifically its treatment as Jewish territory, is essential for understanding the Jewish community’s self-definition and its complex identity struggle in Roman Palestine during the early centuries of the Common Era.¹ Though these Jews continued to reside in the land of Israel (or Land), to traverse its byways, and to cultivate its soil, centuries had passed since Jews held political control over it, and the Land’s status as distinctly Jewish territory gradually.