The Torah in Parashat Behar (Vayikra 25:29) introduces the unique law relevant to the sale of “Bateh Areh Homa” – homes situated in walled cities. After the sale of such a house, the seller has precisely one year to buy it back. If he does not buy it back within a year, then he is not entitled to demand the right to buy it back thereafter. It does not even return to him on Yobel (the jubilee year), when other lands are returned to their original owners. The Sefer Ha’hinuch explains that due to the special importance of the Land of Israel, the Torah wanted to encourage homeowners who sell their properties to buy them back quickly. It therefore imposed a one-year deadline, so that those who find it necessary to sell a home will be incentivized to repurchase it as soon as possible. When the seller buys back the home, he must pay the full price. Normally, such an arrangement would constitute Ribit (forbidden interest on a loan), because the buyer has, in effect, lent the seller the value of the home, and in exchange received the house rent-free during the interim period. Free access to the home during the interim period, in principle, qualifies as Ribit and is forbidden by Torah law. However, the Torah makes an exception in this case, allowing the seller to buy back the home for full price, without deducting the amount he would have charged to rent the home. A “Bet Areh Homa” may be bought back within a year only by the seller; nobody else can purchase the home from the buyer. The seller must buy it with money he earns or receives in exchange for his possessions; he cannot buy it back with borrowed money. The price must be paid in full all at once, and not in installments. If the buyer dies within the first year after the purchase, the seller can buy the home back from the buyer’s inheritors. Likewise, if the seller dies, his inheritors may buy the home back from the buyer until a year has passed since the time of the transaction. This Misva applies to both males and females, and only in the Land of Israel. It is binding only in periods when the laws of Yobel apply – meaning, when the majority of the Jewish People live in the Land of Israel, and the tribes are living in their allotted territories.