Holy Land

The Holy Land

Part of the significance of the land stems from the religious significance of Jerusalem (the holiest city to Judaism, and the location of the First and Second Temples), as well as its historical significance as the setting for most of the Bible, the historical locale of Jesus' ministry, the location of the first Qibla before Kaaba in Mecca and the site of the Isra and Mi'raj event in Islam, and the site of the most revered pilgrimage sites in the Baháʼí Faith.

The holiness of the land as a destination of

Researchers consider that the concept of a land made holy by being the "earthly dwelling of the God of Israel" was present in Judaism at the latest by the time of Zechariah (6th century BCE).^[11]

Jews commonly refer to the

According to Eliezer Schweid:

The uniqueness of the Land of Israel is...'geo-theological' and not merely climatic. This is the land which faces the entrance of the spiritual world, that sphere of existence that lies beyond the physical world known to us through our senses. This is the key to the land's unique status with regard to prophecy and prayer, and also with regard to the commandments.^[18]

From the perspective of the 1906

According to Jewish tradition, Jerusalem is Mount Moriah, the location of the binding of Isaac. The Hebrew Bible mentions the name "Jerusalem" 669 times, often because many mitzvot can only be performed within its environs. The name "Zion", which usually refers to Jerusalem, but sometimes the Land of Israel, appears in the Hebrew Bible 154 times.

The Talmud mentions the religious duty of populating Israel.^[21] So significant in Judaism is the act of purchasing land in Israel, the Talmud allows for the lifting of certain religious restrictions of Sabbath observance to further its acquisition and settlement.^[22] Rabbi Johanan said that "Whoever walks four cubits in Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel] is guaranteed entrance to the World to Come".^[23][20] A story says that when R. Eleazar b. Shammua' and R. Johanan HaSandlar left Israel to study from R. Judah ben Bathyra, they only managed to reach Sidon when "the thought of the sanctity of Palestine overcame their resolution, and they shed tears, rent their garments, and turned back".^[20] Due to the Jewish population being concentrated in Israel, emigration was generally prevented, which resulted in a limiting of the amount of space available for Jewish learning. However, after suffering persecutions in Israel for centuries after the destruction of the Temple, Rabbis who had found it very difficult to retain their position moved to Babylon, which offered them better protection. Many Jews wanted Israel to be the place where they died, in order to be buried there. The sage Rabbi Anan said "To be buried in Israel is like being buried under the altar."^[8][9][10] The saying "His land will absolve His people" implies that burial in Israel will cause one to be absolved of all one's sins.^[20][24]

For

Christian books, including many editions of the Bible, often have maps of the Holy Land (considered to be Galilee, Samaria, and Judea). For instance, the Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae (lit. 'Travel book through Holy Scripture') of Heinrich Bünting (1545–1606), a German Protestant pastor, featured such a map.[25] His book was very popular, and it provided "the most complete available summary of biblical geography and described the geography of the Holy Land by tracing the travels of major figures from the Old and New testaments."^[25]

As a geographic term, the description "Holy Land" loosely encompasses modern-day

ascended to heaven

from there

See also:

Jerusalem in Islam and Syria (region)

In the

Children of Israel: "O my people! Enter the Holy Land which Allah has destined for you ˹to enter˺. And do not turn back or else you will become losers."^{[Quran 5:21]} The Quran also refers to the land as being 'Blessed'.^[26][27][28]

migration to Medina in 624; it thus became the qibla ('direction') that Muslims faced for prayer.^[33]

The exact region referred to as being 'blessed' in the Quran, in verses like 17:1, 21:71 and 34:18,

Arabic: الـشَّـام).^[35][36]

Baháʼí Faith

The holiest places for

Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh and the Shrine of the Báb, which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the coastal cities of Acre and Haifa, respectively.^[37]

The

Bahá'í World Centre was brought to its current state as the spiritual and administrative centre of the religion.^[38][39] Its gardens are highly popular places to visit^[40] and Mohsen Makhmalbaf's 2012 film The Gardener featured them.^[41]

See also

• Archaeological sites in Israel
• Crusader states
• History of Palestine
• History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel
• Holiest sites in Islam
• Holy places
• List of religious sites
• Laws and customs of the Land of Israel in Judaism
• Rivers of Paradise, sometimes associated with a religious concept of the Holy Land

Notes

1. Arabic: الأرض المقدسة, romanized
   : al-Arḍ al-Muqaddasah, or الديار المقدسة, ad-Diyār al-Muqaddasah.

References

1. ^ Nordenskiöld, Adolf Erik (1889). Facsimile-atlas to the Early History of Cartography: With Reproductions of the Most Important Maps Printed in the XV and XVI Centuries. Kraus. pp. 51, 64.
2. ^ "Bahá'i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee".
3. ^ "Palestine | History, People, & Religion | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
4. ^ "Religion and the Israel-Palestinian Conflict: Cause, Consequence, and Cure". washingtoninstitute.org. Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
5. ISBN 978-0-7619-7057-6. Retrieved 9 March 2019. Tourism frequently deploys metaphors such [as] pilgrimage
    [...] Religious ceremonies reinforce social bonds between believers in the form of rituals, and in their ecstatic early forms, they produced a worship of the social, using social processes ('collective excitation').
6. Stockholm University School of Business
   . Archived from the original on 26 January 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
7. ISBN 978-1-77100-006-2
   . Retrieved 8 October 2020. The Olive Tree flourishes throughout Judaism, Islam and Christianity as a symbol of peace and prosperity, its oils cherished and its growers respected.
8. ^ ^{a b} Ketubot (tractate) 111, quoted in Ein Yaakov
9. ^
   ISBN 978-1-60778-618-4. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help
   )
10. ^
    ISBN 978-0-521-59984-9
    .
11. ISSN 2521-8034
    . Retrieved 16 July 2021.
12. S2CID 262013035
    . Retrieved 24 September 2023. For Jews, Christians, and Muslims, the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean is not just a place. It is the Holy Land or Eretz HaKodesh, Terra Sancta, and Al-Ard. Al-Muqaddasah.
13. ^ Zechariah 2:16
14. ^ Wisdom 12:3
15. ^ 2 Maccabees 1:7
16. ISBN 978-0-88125-937-7
    . Retrieved 21 April 2011.
17. ^ Leviticus 25:23
18. ISBN 978-0-8386-3234-5
    , p. 56.
19. ISBN 978-0-313-25700-1
    . Quote: "For the Jews the city has been the pre-eminent focus of their spiritual, cultural, and national life throughout three millennia [i.e. since the 10th century BCE.]."
20. ^ ^{a b c d} Jacobs, Joseph; Eisenstein, Judah David (1906). "Palestine, holiness of". The Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved 30 July 2021 – via JewishEncyclopedia.com.
21. ^ Herzog, Isaac (1967). The Main Institutions of Jewish Law: The law of obligations. Soncino Press. p. 51.
22. ^ Zahavi, Yosef (1962). Eretz Israel in rabbinic lore (Midreshei Eretz Israel): an anthology. Tehilla Institute. p. 28. If one buys a house from a non-Jew in Israel, the title deed may be written for him even on the Sabbath. On the Sabbath!? Is that possible? But as Rava explained, he may order a non-Jew to write it, even though instructing a non-Jew to do a work prohibited to Jews on the Sabbath is forbidden by rabbinic ordination, the rabbis waived their decree on account of the settlement of Palestine.
23. ^ Rabbi Nathan Shapira (1655). Chapter Eleven, Part 1: Footsteps in the Land. Venice. Retrieved 30 October 2018 – via chabad.org. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
24. ^ "Why Do Jews Fly Their Dead to Israel for Burial?". www.chabad.org. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
25. ^ ^{a b} Bünting, Heinrich (1585). "Description of the Holy Land". World Digital Library (in German).
26. ^ ^{a b} Quran 17:1–16
27. ^ ^{a b} Quran 21:51–82
28. ^ ^{a b} Quran 34:10–18
29. ^ Quran 2:142–177
30. OCLC 30399668
    .
31. OCLC 52178942.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link
    )
32. OCLC 61428375
    .
33. OCLC 252506070
    .
34. ^ Ali (1991), p. 934
35. ^ Bosworth, C.E. (1997). "Al-Shām". Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. 9. p. 261.
36. ISBN 978-1-86064-912-7
    . To the Arabs, this same territory, which the Romans considered Arabian, formed part of what they called Bilad al-Sham, which was their own name for Syria.
37. ^ UNESCO World Heritage Centre (8 July 2008). "Three new sites inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List". Retrieved 8 July 2008.
38. ISSN 0016-7185
    .
39. ISBN 978-1-85168-184-6
    .
40. ^ Leichman, Abigail Klein (7 September 2011). "Israel's top 10 public gardens". Israel21c.org. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
41. ^ Dargis, Manohla (8 August 2013). "The Cultivation of Belief – 'The Gardener,' Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Inquiry into Religion". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 March 2014.

External links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Holy Land.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Holy Land.

• Manuscripts from the Holy Land Shapell Manuscript Foundation
• "Description of the Holy Land", 1585 map depicting the Holy Land at the time of Jesus, World Digital Library

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Palestine, Holiness of". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.