The first aliyah discusses the Sabbatical year (also called Shmittah year) and the Jubilee year. For the Sabbatical year, we work our land for six years, but the seventh year is a Sabbath for the land, we don't sow it, nor harvest it, nor prune it. There are many laws governing what can and cannot be done and what to do with the fruit that grows by itself and how to be a consumer of produce in such a year. These agricultural laws apply only in the land of Israel, however everyone everywhere has to be careful about produce and canned goods produced in the land of Israel during a Shmittah year.

After seven sets of seven years we proclaim a Jubilee year with a blast of the shofar on Yom Kippur. In such a year all slaves are freed, and all land reverts to its former owner.

The first aliyah continues to say that if we sell to our neighbor, or buy from our neighbor we should not wrong one another. Rashi interprets this to mean that when we sell, we should sell to a Jew and when we buy, we should buy from a Jew. Also, we are warned here to take into account how many years are left until the Jubilee year when we buy or sell land, because the land will return to its former owner then. The end of the aliyah states that if we observe and do G-d's statues and ordinances we shall dwell in the land safely.