3,799. The Prohibition Against Selling Land in Perpetuity

Hilchos Shemittah v’Yoveil 11:1

The parts of Israel that were apportioned to the Tribes can never be sold in perpetuity, as per Leviticus 25:23: “The land may not be sold forever.” If one did sell land in perpetuity, the buyer and the seller each violate a prohibition. Their actions, however, are ineffective and the land reverts to its ancestral owner in yoveil.

Hilchos Shemittah v’Yoveil 11:2

If someone sells his field for sixty years, it doesn’t revert to its owner in yoveil; the only land that reverts in yoveil is land that was sold unconditionally or in perpetuity.