Rabbi, what do the halachic sources say about making aliyah and living in Israel today? Is it a biblical mitzvah, a rabbinic mitzvah, or not an obligation? Is a Jew living outside Israel obligated to move there if they have the opportunity, or is it a personal choice? I’m curious how the Rambam, Ramban, and Shulchan Aruch approach this and what the practical halacha is today.
Living in Eretz Yisrael can be a mitzvah from the Torah without necessarily being an obligation for every Jew living abroad to move there. Those are two separate questions, and the poskim don’t all answer the second one the same way.
The Ramban counts settling and living in Eretz Yisrael as a mitzvah from the Torah, based on ״והורשתם את הארץ וישבתם בה״ (Bamidbar 33:53). He says explicitly that it applies to the individual ״ואפילו בזמן גלות״ — even in exile. The Rambam doesn’t count it as a separate mitzvah in his Sefer HaMitzvot, but he writes ״לעולם ידור אדם בארץ ישראל״ and limits when someone already living there may leave to settle abroad (Hilchot Melachim 5:9–12, standard numbering). His omission from the count doesn’t mean he dismisses the mitzvah or that he necessarily considers it only rabbinic.
The Shulchan Aruch gives aliyah practical weight. If one spouse wants to move to Eretz Yisrael and the other refuses, that can affect who is entitled to the ketubah or who must pay it. The Shulchan Aruch also brings the qualification that this applies when the journey can be made safely (Even HaEzer 75:3–5). That tells us what one spouse can demand of the other. It does not, by itself, settle whether every Jew abroad is obligated to move.
The Me’il Tzedakah (siman 26) brings this down to earth. Three friends wanted to move to Eretz Yisrael with their wives and children, some only two or three years old. Their local beit din wanted to stop them from taking the children because it thought the voyage was too dangerous. R. Yonah Landsofer opens his answer with ״בתחילה נבאר אם יש מצוה בעליה זאת בזה״ז״ — first, let’s clarify whether making aliyah is a mitzvah in our time. He follows the Ramban and agrees with the Maharit that the statement attributed to Rabbeinu Chaim Cohen in Tosafot, that the mitzvah no longer applies, is not reliable. He takes genuine danger seriously, but in this case he says the families could rely on rabbis who had seen young children routinely make such voyages.
What he does insist on is thinking through parnassah. He praises someone who can support himself in Eretz Yisrael even if life there is harder. But what if a family can earn its own living abroad and would have to depend on charity after moving? On that question he ends ״והדבר שקול ואין לי בו הכרע״ — there are considerations on both sides, and he does not reach a definitive ruling.
So, practically, making aliyah is not merely a personal preference, but it is not a blanket obligation according to all poskim. Rav Moshe Feinstein (Igrot Moshe, Even HaEzer I:102) holds that someone who lives in Eretz Yisrael fulfills a mitzvah, but that someone already living abroad is not personally obligated to move, even if the opportunity is there. Other poskim, including Rav Ovadia Yosef, understand it as an obligation when a person can reasonably move. If you’re in a position to make aliyah, it’s a mitzvah worth taking seriously. But as the Me’il Tzedakah shows, what is realistically possible for you and your family is part of the halachic question itself.