Land, Blood, & Covenant: A Story of How the World Gained Its Lands — And How the Torah Says Land Should Be Held

Honorable Rabbi Yosef Edery
16 minutes ago
9 min read

An Academic–Narrative Essay With Primary Sources, Josephus Quotations, and Torah Foundations

I. The Land We Stand On: A World Built on Conquest

Every map is a storybook of violence.

We look at borders as if they were drawn by nature — mountains, rivers, coastlines — but the truth is that most borders were written by swords, cannons, and imperial signatures inked in someone else’s blood.

Today:

• 1% of the U.K. population owns more than 50% of the land (U.K. Land Registry & Country Landowners Association, 2023).(1)

• The top 0.01% of estates in England originate overwhelmingly from a single event: the Norman Conquest of 1066, when William the Conqueror seized virtually the entire country and redistributed it to 150 of his French knights and barons (Domesday Book, 1086).(2)

• More than 90% of Indigenous nations worldwide were dispossessed between 1500–1900 by European military expansion (UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 2020). (3)

In other words:

Modern land ownership is usually the last chapter of a much older story of death and displacement.

And the Torah predicted this.

II. Rome: The Empire That Replaced a Kingdom Built on Prophecy

To understand how the world learned to justify this kind of conquest, one must begin with Rome, the empire that shaped the West.

Rome expanded not through moral legitimacy, but through organized violence, enslaving entire nations and institutionalizing imperial domination.

The prophet Hoshea describes such systems:

“They set up kings, but not by Me; they established princes, but I did not know.”

(Hoshea 8:4)

Josephus — the most important Jewish historian - outside the Jewish Rabbinical works - of the Second Temple era — lived as Rome destroyed the Jewish world. He describes Roman domination in blunt terms:

“It was impossible for the Jews to escape Roman power… for Rome had subdued nearly all the nations of the world by force of arms.”

Josephus, The Jewish War, 2.388 (4)

Rome conquered Judea and replaced the 420-year Davidic commonwealth with puppet kings. Josephus again:

“Herod was no king by the laws of our nation… but a slave raised to the throne by the Romans.”

Josephus, Antiquities 15.6 (5)

This is historically precise:

• The Davidic kingdom lasted approximately 420 years from King David to the destruction of the First Temple.

• Rome installed Herod, an Idumean whose ancestors had been forcibly converted, as a Roman client king.

• The Sanhedrin and priesthood were politically manipulated by Roman governors.

The Torah’s order — a kingdom rooted in covenant — was replaced by a military-appointed slave-king.

III. The British Empire: Industry as a Weapon

If Rome represents ancient imperial conquest, the British Empire represents industrial conquest.

Between 1760–1940, Britain gained global dominance not through spiritual mandate but through:

• mechanized production,

• naval superiority,

• mass artillery, and

• economic coercion.

Historian Niall Ferguson writes:

“The British Empire was not built on ideals but on competitive advantage… an empire built because it could be built.”

Ferguson, Empire, 2003 (6)

This is precisely what the Torah calls “kochi v’otzem yadi” — “My strength and the might of my hand” (Devarim 8:17) — power without moral purpose.

At its height, Britain controlled 23% of the world’s land and 25% of its population. Much of that ownership is still reflected today in aristocratic estates whose original title comes from feudal land seizures or colonial extraction.

The Torah calls this structure:

“Ir built on blood and a city established on violence.”

(Chavakuk 2:12)

IV. Even Israel’s Knesset Sits on Land Taken From Jews Centuries Ago

The irony of history is that even the modern State of Israel sits on land that, during exile, passed through foreign hands due to earlier conquests.

The hill on which the Knesset now stands was once:

• conquered by Romans,

• ruled by Byzantines,

• controlled by Arab caliphates,

• seized by Crusaders,

• administered by Mamluks,

• absorbed into the Ottoman Empire,

• sold and resold by Christian institutions — including the Greek Catholic Church, which held large tracts in Jerusalem.

None of this was original ownership.

It was the long domino effect of Rome removing the Israelites from their land.

Josephus describes that removal:

“Jerusalem was entirely leveled… and the nation dispersed into every land.”

Josephus, War 7.3 (7)

From that moment, foreign structures were built atop what had been Jewish homes, fields, vineyards, and institutions.

The land changed hands not through inheritance but through invasion after invasion.

This proves a painful truth:

Even when Jews return, they often inherit land that others themselves obtained through earlier theft.

This is the global pattern.

V. The Torah’s Counter-Model: Land Allocated, Not Seized

Against this entire backdrop, the Torah presents a radical alternative.

When Hashem commands Yehoshua:

“You shall divide the land for an inheritance to the tribes of Israel.”

(Yehoshua 11:23)

He introduces the only land system in human history with moral legitimacy at its foundation.

1. Land belongs to Hashem

“LaHashem ha’aretz u’mlo’ah.”

(Psalm 24:1)

Humans cannot manufacture title through violence.

2. Land is allocated through divine process

The Sifrei teaches that the division involved:

• prophecy,

• Urim v’Tumim,

• the sacred lot (goral),

• public verification.

This prevented aristocratic concentration of land.

3. Land cannot be permanently accumulated

The laws of Yovel cancel debt, reset ownership, and return land to its original family.

The Rambam writes:

“The Torah established Yovel so that the strong should not swallow the land of the weak.”

Mishneh Torah, Shemitah v’Yovel 10:17 (8)

This is the opposite of every empire.

Britain’s estates, Rome’s latifundia, and Europe’s feudal manors are exactly what the Torah sought to prevent.

4. Land is a covenant, not a commodity

Avraham is told:

“And you shall be a blessing to all the families of the earth.”

(Bereshit 12:3)

Israel receives land not for dominance but for creating a society built on justice, holiness, courts, and kindness — a model for humanity.

VI. The Moral Contrast: Torah vs. the Laws of Empire

Empires say:

“We conquered, therefore we own.”

Torah says:

“Hashem created, therefore He grants.”

Empires say:

“The strong decide, the weak obey.”

Torah says:

“The land shall not be sold forever, for it is Mine.”

(Vayikra 25:23)

Empires say:

“We hold the land because we can.”

Torah says:

“We hold the land because we are commanded.”

VII. Conclusion: Yehoshua’s Map vs. the World Map

When Yehoshua divided the land, he was doing more than distributing territory.

He was introducing a political philosophy radically different from every empire before and after.

He established that:

• Land is not a trophy of war.

• Land is not an aristocrat’s inheritance of conquest.

• Land is not legitimized by time or power.

• True land ownership requires covenant, justice, moral purpose, and divine mandate.

This is why the Torah begins with Creation — as Rashi cites from Rabbi Yitzchak:

“If the nations say to Israel: ‘You are robbers,’

Israel answers: ‘The whole earth belongs to Hashem;

He gave it to whom He saw fit.’”

Rashi to Bereshit 1:1 (9)

The Torah knew that the nations would measure legitimacy by the sword.

So it begins with the Creator of the sword.

It knew that empires would claim moral superiority through conquest.

So it begins with the Author of morality.

And it knew that the world would forget how lands were taken.

So it offers a different story — the only story in human history where land is not the outcome of violence, but the beginning of holiness.

Below is a polished outro that blends Tanach, Midrash, Chazal, Josephus-era historical context, and modern political insight — matching the same academic–narrative tone as the article. It flows naturally from the previous sections and closes the piece with power, clarity, and meaning.

You can copy–paste this directly under the article as the final section.

VIII. Outro: Esav, Yaakov, and the Battle Over Land, Power, and Purpose

If we zoom out beyond Rome, beyond Britain, beyond the aristocracies of Europe and the colonial empires of the modern era, we find that the struggle over land in our world repeats a much older pattern — a pattern the Torah describes in the life of Esav and Yaakov.

The Midrash says that Esav made it his life’s mission “to kill Yaakov his brother.”

(Bereishit Rabbah 67:8)

Chazal add an astonishing detail:

“Esav sought allies among the nations to destroy Yaakov; he went from people to people saying: ‘Join me.’”

Midrash Tanchuma, Vayishlach 4

This is the same Esavian impulse that built Rome, the same spirit that later animated European Christendom, and the same cultural inheritance that influences antisemitism today.

Josephus writes that Rome saw the Jewish people as a “nation stubbornly attached to its own laws” and therefore a threat to imperial unity. (1)

This tension — Esavian power versus Yaakov’s covenant — is woven into history.

The Torah says:

“Two nations are in your womb… and the might of one will rise as the other falls.”

(Bereishit 25:23)

Chazal explain:

“When Rome rises, Jerusalem falls; when Jerusalem rises, Rome falls.”

Megillah 6a

They cannot both succeed simultaneously because they represent opposite worldviews:

Rome stands for conquest, force, and self-worship;

Jerusalem stands for covenant, holiness, justice, and the presence of Hashem.

This duality also appears in the personality of Esav himself.

On a good day — Chazal say — Esav loved Yaakov and embraced him.

On a bad day — he hunted him.

He is the brother who admires Yaakov’s spiritual power yet fears what it demands.

This is the paradox of Western civilization to this very day:

fascination with Jews and the Jewish story, paired with resentment and hatred.

The world loves Jewish ethics and Jewish genius — yet despises Jewish chosenness and Jewish survival.

This is the unfinished inner conflict of Esav.

Yaakov’s Responsibility:

Teaching Esav and the World the Oneness of Hashem

The Torah places an enormous responsibility on Yaakov not just to survive Esav — but to teach him.

The Ramban explains that Avraham’s universal mission shifts to Yaakov in full form:

to reveal to humanity that Hashem is One, that morality comes from above, and that freedom comes not from rejecting God but from accepting Him.

This is why Hashem introduces Himself at Sinai not as a cosmic force, but as a liberator:

“I am Hashem your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

(Shemot 20:2)

Hashem is not the god of slavery —

He is the God who destroys slavery.

He is not the god of empires —

He is the God who overthrows empires.

He is not the god of aristocrats —

He is the God who returns land to the weak.

If Esav’s path is running from God and worshiping human power,

Yaakov’s path is returning the world to God and exposing the emptiness of power without morality.

Why This Matters Today

At this point a modern reader may ask:

Why does any of this matter today?

What does Yaakov and Esav, Rome and Jerusalem, have to do with our world of real estate, elites, and corruption?

The answer is simple:

Because the struggle over land is the struggle over legitimacy, justice, and the moral foundation of society.

You already know that today we are working intensely on the Sanhedrin Initiative,

including:

• establishing courts of covenantal justice,

• restoring Torah leadership,

• preparing for the coronation of a king, and

• fulfilling the mitzvah of eradicating Amalek — hatred born of Esav’s resentment.

But one of the most central steps — done simultaneously with kingship — is the same step Yehoshua undertook:

the true allocation of the land.

And here is the uncomfortable truth:

This topic is taboo across global media.

It terrifies governments.

It humiliates empires.

And it exposes the nakedness of modern wealth.

Because if the nations honestly confronted the origins of their land ownership,

they would have to admit:

• their aristocracies sit on stolen ground,

• their wealth is built on colonized soil,

• and their elites benefit from injustices never corrected.

That is why the world avoids this conversation.

That is why the West deflects the topic whenever Jews speak of covenantal land.

That is why antisemitism spikes whenever Jews talk about sovereignty, redemption, or Moshiach.

Because land is power —

and power reveals truth —

and truth reveals moral illegitimacy.

The Global Crisis: Billionaires on One Side, the Hungry on the Other

This is not theoretical.

Today you have:

• individuals worth tens of billions,

• owning land larger than entire nations,

• while millions cannot pay rent or buy food.

This suffering does not come from “the market.”

It comes from centuries-old sins of conquest and dispossession.

The Torah warned us of this.

And the Torah offered the only solution ever attempted in human history:

Yovel, Shemitah, prophetic allocation, and divine inheritance.

This may not fix the immediate suffering of next month’s rent —

but addressing this truth is essential for any real healing of civilization.

Especially in Israel.

Today, the government and the younger generation speak publicly about fighting corruption, draining the swamp, and turning a new page.

But no society can turn a page unless it faces the root problem:

ownership and legitimacy.

And no society can heal unless it learns the Torah’s message:

that land belongs not to the strong,

but to Hashem —

and He gives it with purpose, morality, responsibility,

and the mission of redemption.

This is the message the world fears most,

the message Esav resisted,

the message Rome fought,

and the message Britain ignored —

but it is also the message that will one day heal all nations.

Because when Jerusalem rises, Rome falls, and when covenant rises, empire collapses, and when Moshiach comes, the world finally learns that holiness — not conquest — is the true foundation of land.