Holy Land#Christianity

File:المسجد الاقصى.jpg, like this one in Jerusalem, have intrinsic symbolism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.{{cite book |last=Angus |first=Julie |title=Olive Odyssey: Searching for the Secrets of the Fruit That Seduced the World |date= 2014 |publisher= Greystone Books |isbn=978-1-77100-006-2 |pages=127–129 |quote= The Olive Tree flourishes throughout Judaism, Islam and Christianity as a symbol of peace and prosperity, its oils cherished and its growers respected. |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=U0BgBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA128 |access-date=8 October 2020}}]]

File: 4 011.Cemetery of East Jerusalem with view to the City with Moshee2.jpg, Jerusalem. The holiness of Israel attracted Jews to be buried in its holy soil. The sage Rabbi Anan said "To be buried in Israel is like being buried under the altar."Ketubot (tractate) 111, quoted in [https://books.google.com/books?id=GGaTLhHBpwIC&pg=PA392 Ein Yaakov]{{cite book |author= Rodkinson, Michael L. (translator) |title=The Babylonian Talmud: all 20 volumes (Mobi Classics) |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=1vpQgnDJLzUC&pg=PT2234 |year=2010 |publisher=MobileReference |isbn=978-1-60778-618-4 |page= 2234}}{{cite book|author=Gil, Moshe |title=A history of Palestine, 634–1099|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M0wUKoMJeccC&pg=PA632|year=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-59984-9|page=632}}]]

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).{{cite journal |last= Magness |first= Jodi |author-link= Jodi Magness |title= Purity Observance among Diaspora Jews in the Roman World |pages= 39–65 |journal= Archaeology and Text |publisher=Ariel University and Lehigh University |volume= 1 |year= 2017 |doi= 10.21461/AT012017.39-66 |issn= 2521-8034 |url= https://www.ariel.ac.il/wp/archaeology-and-text/wp-content/uploads/sites/139/2019/03/39-65.pdf |access-date= 16 July 2021}}

Jews commonly refer to the Land of Israel as "The Holy Land" (Hebrew: {{lang|he|אֶרֶץ הַקוֹדֵשׁ}} {{transliteration|he|Eretz HaKodesh}}).{{cite journal |last1=Troen |first1=Ilan |last2=Troen |first2=Carol |title=Indigeneity |journal=Israel Studies |date=2019 |volume=24 |issue=2 |page=17 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.24.2.02 |publisher=Israel Studies, Vol. 24, No. 2 |doi=10.2979/israelstudies.24.2.02 |jstor=10.2979/israelstudies.24.2.02 |s2cid=262013035 |access-date=24 September 2023 |quote=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.| issn = 1084-9513|url-access=subscription }} The Tanakh explicitly refers to it as "holy land" in Zechariah 2:16.{{bibleverse|Zechariah|2:16|HE}} The term "holy land" is further used twice in the deuterocanonical books (Wisdom 12:3,{{bibleverse|Wisdom|12:3|NRSV}} 2 Maccabees 1:7).{{bibleverse|2 Maccabees|1:7|NRSV}} The holiness of the Land of Israel is generally implied by the Tanakh's claim that the Land was given to the Israelites by God, that is, it is the "Promised Land", an integral part of God's covenant.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}

In the Torah, many mitzvot commanded to the Israelites can only be performed in the Land of Israel,{{cite book |last= Ziegler |first= Aharon |title= Halakhic positions of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik |page= 173 |publisher=KTAV Publishing House |location= New York |volume= 4 |year= 2007 |isbn= 978-0-88125-937-7 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=XDzlvJ5zsfsC |access-date=21 April 2011}} which serves to differentiate it from other lands. For example, in the Land of Israel, "no land shall be sold permanently" (Leviticus 25:23).{{Bibleverse|Leviticus|25:23|HE}} Shmita is only observed with respect to the Land of Israel, and the observance of many holy days is different, as an extra day is observed in the Jewish diaspora.

According to Eliezer Schweid:

{{blockquote|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.Schweid, Eliezer (1985). The Land of Israel: National Home Or Land of Destiny. Translated by Deborah Greniman. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, {{ISBN|978-0-8386-3234-5}}, p. 56.}}

From the perspective of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, the holiness of Israel had been concentrated since the sixteenth century, especially for burial, in the "Four Holy Cities": Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Tiberias – as Judaism's holiest cities. Jerusalem, as the site of the Temple, is considered especially significant.Feintuch, Yossi (1987). U.S. Policy on Jerusalem, Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 1. {{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.]." Sacred burials are still undertaken for diaspora Jews who wish to lie buried in the holy soil of Israel.{{cite encyclopedia |last1= Jacobs |first1= Joseph |last2= Eisenstein |first2= Judah David |author-link2= Julius Eisenstein |title= Palestine, holiness of |encyclopedia=The Jewish Encyclopedia |year= 1906 |via= JewishEncyclopedia.com |url= http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11867-palestine-holiness-of |access-date=30 July 2021}}

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.{{cite book|author=Herzog, Isaac|title=The Main Institutions of Jewish Law: The law of obligations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eq3XAAAAMAAJ|year=1967|publisher=Soncino Press|page=51}} 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.{{cite book|last=Zahavi|first=Yosef|title=Eretz Israel in rabbinic lore (Midreshei Eretz Israel): an anthology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yK7hAAAAMAAJ|year=1962|publisher=Tehilla Institute|page=28|quote=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.}} Rabbi Johanan said that "Whoever walks four cubits in Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel] is guaranteed entrance to the World to Come".{{cite book |author= Rabbi Nathan Shapira |title= Chapter Eleven, Part 1: Footsteps in the Land |work= Tuv Ha'aretz ["The Goodness of the Land", translation & commentary by David Slavin] |location= Venice |via= chabad.org |year= 1655 |url= https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/380830/jewish/Footsteps-in-the-Land-111.htm |access-date= 30 October 2018 }} 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". 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." The saying "His land will absolve His people" implies that burial in Israel will cause one to be absolved of all one's sins.{{Cite web|url=https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3364937/jewish/Why-Do-Jews-Fly-Their-Dead-to-Israel-for-Burial.htm|title=Why Do Jews Fly Their Dead to Israel for Burial?|website=www.chabad.org|access-date=2018-10-30}}

{{see also|Christian pilgrimage|Travelogues of Palestine|Jerusalem in Christianity|List of Christian holy sites in the Holy Land}}

File:Holy sepulchre mass.jpg is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Christianity, as it is the purported site of Christ's resurrection.]]

For Christians, the Holy Land is considered holy because of its association with the birth, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, whom Christians regard as the incarnation of God and the Messiah.

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 {{lang|la|Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae}} ({{Lit|Travel book through Holy Scripture}}) of Heinrich Bünting (1545–1606), a German Protestant pastor, featured such a map.{{cite web|title=Description of the Holy Land|url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2891/|website=World Digital Library|date=1585|language=de|author1=Bünting, Heinrich}} 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."

As a geographic term, the description "Holy Land" loosely encompasses modern-day Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, western Jordan and south-western Syria.

==Islam==

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{{See also|Jerusalem in Islam|Syria (region)}}

In the Quran, the term {{transliteration|ar|Al-Ard Al-Muqaddasah}} ({{langx|ar|الأرض المقدسة}}, {{langx|en|'Holy Land'}}) is used in a passage about Musa (Moses) proclaiming to 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."{{qref|5|21|b=y|s=y}} The Quran also refers to the land as being 'Blessed'.{{qref|17|1–16|b=y}}{{qref|21|51–82|b=y}}{{qref|34|10–18|b=y}}

Jerusalem (referred to as {{transliteration|ar|Al-Quds}}, {{langx|ar|الـقُـدس}}, 'The Holy') has particular significance in Islam. The Quran refers to Muhammad's experiencing the Isra and Mi'raj as "Glory be to the One Who took His servant ˹Muḥammad˺ by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We may show him some of Our signs".{{qref|17|1|b=y|s=y}} {{transliteration|ar|Ahadith}} infer that the "Farthest Masjid" is in Al-Quds; for example, as narrated by Abu Hurairah: "On the night journey of the Apostle of Allah, two cups, one containing wine and the other containing milk, were presented to him at Al-Quds (Jerusalem). He looked at them and took the cup of milk. Angel Gabriel said, 'Praise be to Allah, who guided you to Al-Fitrah (the right path); if you had taken (the cup of) wine, your {{transliteration|ar|Ummah}} would have gone astray'." Jerusalem was Islam's first {{transliteration|ar|Qiblah}} (direction of prayer) in Muhammad's lifetime, however, this was later changed to the Kaaba in the Hijazi city of Mecca, following a revelation to Muhammad by the Archangel Jibril.{{qref|2|142–177|b=y}} The current construction of the Al-Aqsa mosque, which lies on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, is dated to the early Umayyad period of rule in Palestine. Architectural historian K. A. C. Creswell, referring to a testimony by Arculf, a Gallic monk, during his pilgrimage to Palestine in 679–82, notes the possibility that the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, Umar ibn al-Khattab, erected a primitive quadrangular building for a capacity of 3,000 worshipers somewhere on the Haram ash-Sharif. However, Arculf visited Palestine during the reign of Mu'awiyah I, and it is possible that Mu'awiyah ordered the construction, not Umar. This latter claim is explicitly supported by the early Muslim scholar al-Muthahhar bin Tahir.{{Cite book|last=Elad, Amikam.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/30399668|title=Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic worship : holy places, ceremonies, pilgrimage|date=1995|publisher=E.J. Brill|isbn=978-90-04-10010-7|location=Leiden|pages=29–43|oclc=30399668}} According to the Quran and Islamic traditions, Al-Aqsa Mosque is the place from which Muhammad went on a night journey ({{transliteration|ar|al-isra}}) during which he rode on Buraq, who took him from Mecca to al-Aqsa.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52178942|title=Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim world|date=2004|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|others=Martin, Richard C.|isbn=978-0-02-865603-8|location=New York|pages=482|oclc=52178942}} Muhammad tethered Buraq to the Western Wall and prayed at al-Aqsa Mosque and after he finished his prayers, the angel Jibril (Gabriel) traveled with him to heaven, where he met several other prophets and led them in prayer.{{Cite book|last=Vuckovic, Brooke Olson.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/61428375|title=Heavenly journeys, earthly concerns: the legacy of the mi'raj in the formation of Islam|date=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-203-48747-1|location=New York|oclc=61428375}} The historical significance of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Islam is further emphasized by the fact that Muslims turned towards al-Aqsa when they prayed for a period of 16 or 17 months after migration to Medina in 624; it thus became the {{transliteration|ar|qibla}} ('direction') that Muslims faced for prayer.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/252506070|title=States, nations, and borders: the ethics of making boundaries|date=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|editor-last=Buchanan|editor-first=Allen E.|editor-last2=Moore|editor-first2=Margaret|isbn=978-0-511-06159-2|location=Cambridge|oclc=252506070}}

The exact region referred to as being 'blessed' in the Quran, in verses like {{qref|17|1}}, {{qref|21|71}} and {{qref|34|18}}, has been interpreted differently by various scholars. Abdullah Yusuf Ali likens it to a wide land-range including Syria and Lebanon, especially the cities of Tyre and Sidon; Az-Zujaj describes it as "Damascus, Palestine, and a bit of Jordan"; Muadh ibn Jabal as "the area between al-Arish and the Euphrates"; and Ibn Abbas as "the land of Jericho".Ali (1991), p. 934 This overall region is referred to as "Ash-Shām" ({{langx|ar|الـشَّـام}}).{{cite encyclopedia |last= Bosworth |first= C.E. |author-link= Clifford Edmund Bosworth |title= Al-Shām |page= 261 |encyclopedia= Encyclopaedia of Islam |volume= 9 |year= 1997}}{{cite book|last=Salibi|first=Kamal S.|author-link=Kamal Salibi|title=A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t_amYLJq4SQC|year=2003|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=978-1-86064-912-7|pages=61–62|quote=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.}}

The holiest places for Baháʼí pilgrimage are the 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.{{cite web |author=UNESCO World Heritage Centre |date=2008-07-08 |title=Three new sites inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/452 |access-date=2008-07-08}}

The Baháʼí Faith's founder, Bahá'u'lláh, was exiled to Acre Prison from 1868 and spent his life in its surroundings until his death in 1892. In his writings he set the slope of Mount Carmel to host the Shrine of the Báb which his appointed successor 'Abdu'l-Bahá erected in 1909 as a beginning of the terraced gardens there. The Head of the religion after him, Shoghi Effendi, began building other structures and the Universal House of Justice continued the work until the Bahá'í World Centre was brought to its current state as the spiritual and administrative centre of the religion.{{cite journal| first = Jay D. | last = Gatrella | author2=Noga Collins-Kreinerb | title =Negotiated space: Tourists, pilgrims, and the Baháʼí terraced gardens in Haifa | journal =Geoforum | volume =37 | issue =5 | pages =765–778 | date =September 2006 | issn =0016-7185 | doi =10.1016/j.geoforum.2006.01.002}}{{cite encyclopedia |last= Smith |first= Peter |encyclopedia= A concise encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith |title= Arc-buildings of; Bahá'í World Centre |year= 2000 |publisher= Oneworld Publications |location= Oxford |isbn= 978-1-85168-184-6 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/conciseencyclope0000smit/page/45 45–46, 71–72] |url= https://archive.org/details/conciseencyclope0000smit/page/45 }} Its gardens are highly popular places to visit{{cite web |last= Leichman |first= Abigail Klein |title= Israel's top 10 public gardens |publisher= Israel21c.org |date= 7 September 2011 |url= http://israel21c.org/travel/israels-top-10-public-gardens/ |access-date = 30 March 2014}} and Mohsen Makhmalbaf's 2012 film The Gardener featured them.{{cite news| last =Dargis | first =Manohla | title =The Cultivation of Belief – 'The Gardener,' Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Inquiry into Religion | newspaper =The New York Times| date =8 August 2013 | url =https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/09/movies/the-gardener-mohsen-makhmalbafs-inquiry-into-religion.html?_r=0 | access-date = 30 March 2014}}

• 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

{{Notelist}}

{{reflist}}

{{Wikivoyage}}

{{Commons category|Holy Land}}

• [https://www.shapell.org/collection/?collection=7&featured=7 Manuscripts from the Holy Land] Shapell Manuscript Foundation
• [http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2891 "Description of the Holy Land"], 1585 map depicting the Holy Land at the time of Jesus, World Digital Library

{{Jewish Encyclopedia|article=Palestine, Holiness of|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11867-palestine-holiness-of}}

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{{Characters and names in the Quran}}

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