Q: Is every Jew in the world obligated to immigrate to Israel?
A: The mitzvah of Yishuv Ha’Aretz (settling the Land of Israel) is a general mitzvah that obligates the entire nation of Israel to inherit the Land, namely, to apply sovereignty over it, and settle it best in all respects. As it is written (Numbers 33: 53-54): ” You shall dispossess the inhabitants of the Land and dwell in it, for I have given the Land to you to possess it…to inherit the Land…” or as Ramban defined the mitzvah: “We were commanded to take possession of the Land which the Almighty, Blessed Be He, gave to our forefathers, to Avraham, to Yitzhak, and to Yaacov; and to not abandon it to other nations, or to leave it desolate” (Addendum to Sefer Hamitzvot of the Rambam, Positive Commandment 4).
The Mitzvah of the Klal Depends on the Individual
From the mitzvah of Klal Yisrael (the Jewish people as a whole) to settle the Land, stems the mitzvah obligating every individual Jew to live in the country, since it is impossible for Klal Yisrael to fulfill the mitzvah of settling the Land, Yishuv Ha’Aretz, without each individual being fully compliant with the obligation of the mitzvah - that is, unless practically all Jews actually reside in the country.
Also, we learned that from the Torah, the obligation to fulfill the category of mitzvot -dependent-on-the-Land which concern the public, such as challah, tithes - terumot and ma’asrot - depends on the majority of Jews residing in the Land, as it is written (Numbers 15:18): “When you come to the land to which I am bringing you.” Our Sages taught (Ketubot 25a): “‘When you come’ – I have spoken of the coming of all, and not of the coming of a portion of you,” and thus when Israel went up to Eretz Yisrael in the days of Ezra – their obligation in mitzvot was not from the Torah, but only rabbinic, Divrei Chachamim, since only a few came to Eretz Yisrael (Rambam, Hilchot Terumot 1:1-3; 26; Bikurim 5:5; Peninei Halakha: Kashrut 12: 10-11).
In the mitzvot of Shevi’it and Yovel (letting land lie fallow n the seventh year and the jubilee year), it is not enough for the majority of Jews to reside in the Land, but they also need to reside in their inheritances according to their tribes, as it is written (Leviticus 25:10): “Declare emancipation of slaves for the land and all who live on it” – ‘and all who live on it’ – only at the time when its inhabitants are there as where they should be, but not when they are intermingled” (Arachin 32b). The same is said of yovel, and the law of Shevi’it (also called shmitta) depends on the Yovel (Gittin 36a; Peninei Halakha: Shevi’it 5:3; 11:5).
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