A mishnah that began on the bottom of yesterday’s daf addresses the prohibition of selling or renting property to idol worshipers:
One may not rent a house to a gentile in the land of Israel, and needless to say one may not rent fields to them. And in Syria one may rent houses to gentiles, but one may not rent fields. And outside the land of Israel one may sell houses and rent fields to gentiles. — This is the statement of Rabbi Meir.
Rabbi Yosei says: In the land of Israel one may rent houses to gentiles but one may not rent fields. And in Syria one may sell houses to them and rent fields, and outside of the land of Israel one may sell both these (houses) and those (fields). Even in a place with regard to which the sages said that it is permitted for a Jew to rent a house to a gentile, they did not say that one may rent it for use as a residence, because the gentile will bring objects of idol worship into it, as it is stated: You shall not bring an abomination into your house. (Deuteronomy 7:26)
The mishnah here distinguishes between selling and renting houses and fields. It also distinguishes between these transactions in the land of Israel, in the adjacent territory of Syria and in the diaspora. Although the sages differ on the details, as a general rule, renting and selling property to gentiles becomes less problematic the farther one is from the land of Israel.
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Why are the rules different for the land of Israel? There are two reasons for treating the promised land differently. First, in the land of Israel Jews are obligated to tithe produce from the land. If the land is worked by a non-Jewish tenant farmer, or indeed owned by a gentile, tithing is far less likely to take place. The second problem is that Jews are prohibited from giving gentiles a holding in the land of Israel. This is the rabbinic understanding of Moses’ adjuration in Deuteronomy 7:2 to “grant them no terms and give them no quarter.” In its immediate biblical context, this applies to the seven nations that God commanded the Israelites to dislodge from the land: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. In rabbinic hands, this is expanded into an obligation to keep idolaters from gaining a foothold in God’s promised land.
Outside the land of Israel, however, neither of these two mitzvot apply. Accordingly, nearly everyone agrees that renting and selling land to idol worshipers is allowed.
Homes have their own set of complications. According to the mishnah, even where a Jew is permitted to rent houses to gentiles, they’re not allowed to do so if the gentile intends to actually live in it — because we assume they will fill it with idols and then a Jew will own a home that has idols in it. Selling homes to gentiles is, in this way, less concerning because then any idolatry that takes place within is unconnected to a Jewish owner. However, there is a different concern about selling homes to gentiles, as the Gemara explains:
Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: The halakhah is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yosei, that it is permitted to sell houses outside of the land of Israel to gentiles. Rav Yosef says: And this is the halakhah provided that one does not make it into a gentile settlement. And how many people constitute a settlement? The sage taught: There is no settlement that consists of fewer than three people.
The sages are concerned that if a Jew sells a house to a gentile, it opens the possibility of more gentiles moving into the neighborhood, which is a problem for the rabbis. When it comes to idolatry, neighborhood integration is considered a threat. Several commentators, including Tosafot, make this concern more concrete: If an enclave of idolaters forms in proximity to a Jewish neighborhood, they could band together and attack.
None of this is simple, and from the mishnah to the Gemara, the rabbis disagree over many details. In our own day, in which housing discrimination is a news-worthy scourge, and unfounded fears of “other people” moving in and changing the character of a neighborhood smacks of racism, these can be difficult texts to read. For that reason especially, it’s always helpful to understand why the rabbis rule in the ways they do. Are they countenancing discrimination? Or are they motivated by concerns for fulfilling God’s commandments? Or for Jewish safety? Do these concerns amount to discrimination even if that is not the intent? Only after we’ve honestly assessed these difficult questions can we understand how the rabbis might think about the same questions in the modern world.
Read all of Avodah Zarah 21 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on July 9, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
