3,800. Not Selling Land Unnecessarily

Hilchos Shemittah v’Yoveil 11:3

Even though land reverts to its original owner in yoveil, one may not sell his house or hereditary land except from great financial need, as per Leviticus 25:25: “If your brother becomes poor and sells his hereditary property….” One may not sell his hereditary property and pocket the money, do business with it, or use it to buy furniture, servants or animals; one may only sell such property to support himself. Nevertheless, if one violated the law and sold his hereditary property, the sale is valid.

Hilchos Shemittah v’Yoveil 11:4

Sales of houses fall under the rubric of the laws of a walled city, while a field falls under the rubric of the laws of ancestral fields. One who sells an ancestral field must calculate the number of years until yoveil. If the original owner wants to redeem the field, he and the buyer assess the number of years the buyer benefited from it. They subtract that amount from the purchase price and the original owner pays the buyer the difference.