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Information about Holy Land

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The expression The Holy Land (Hebrew: ארץ הקודש, Standard Éreẓ haQodeš Tiberian ʾÉreṣ haqQāḏēš ; Latin: Terra Sancta ; Arabic: الأرض المقدسة, al-Arḍ ul-Muqaddasah) generally refers to Israel and sometimes adjacent territory. It concerns the areas that hold significant religious importance to the three monotheistic Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Part of its sanctity stems from the religious significance of Jerusalem and its importance as the Land of Israel.

The Crusades were started on the pretext of recovering the Holy Land for the religion of the New Testament. More recently, the region is at the center of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Judaism

Main articles: Four Holy Cities, Jerusalem in Judaism, and Zion


Judaism's holiest cities are Jerusalem, Hebron, Tzfat, and Tiberias. Jerusalem has been the holiest city in Judaism and the spiritual homeland of the Jewish people since the 10th century BCE.[1] Jerusalem has long been embedded into Jewish religious consciousness. Jews have studied and personalized the struggle by King David to capture Jerusalem and his desire to build the Jewish temple there, as described in the Book of Samuel and the Book of Psalms. Many of King David's yearnings about Jerusalem have been adapted into popular prayers and songs. Jerusalem appears in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) 669 times and Zion (which usually means Jerusalem, sometimes the Land of Israel) appears 154 times. The first section, the Torah, only mentions Moriah, the mountain range believed to be the location of the binding of Isaac and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and in later parts of the Tanakh the city is written explicitly. The Tanakh (or Old Testament), is a text sacred to both Judaism and Christianity. In Judaism it is considered the Written Law, the basis for the Oral Law (Mishnah, Talmud and Shulkhan Arukh) studied, practiced and treasured by Jews and Judaism for three millennia.[2] The Talmud elaborates in great depth the Jewish connection with the city.

The core reason why Jews view the land as holy is due to the special status that the Hebrew Bible gives it with regard to Jewish religious observance, the fact that Jerusalem was the site of the Temple, and most of all, the fact that the Hebrew Bible refers to it as a divine gift.

Jewish kingdoms and states existed intermittently in the region for over a millennium.

Under foreign conquests, Jewish presence in the province dwindled due to forced mass expulsions and persecution by Romans and, later, Christian Crusaders. In particular, the failure of the Bar Kokhba Revolt against the Roman Empire resulted in widescale expulsion of Jews. It was at this time that the Romans changed the name Syria Palaestina to the geographic area, in an attempt to erase Jewish ties to the land, even changing Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina, but with little success as it had had with changing Judea to Palestine. The Mishnah and Jerusalem Talmud, two of Judaism's most important religious texts, were composed in the region during this period.

Christianity

The Holy Land is significant in Christianity, mainly because it is the place of birth, ministry, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Saviour or Messiah to Christianity.

Holy cities for Christians of all denominations: During the Crusades, Christian pilgrims often sought out the Holy Places in the Outremer, especially early in the 12th century immediately after Jerusalem was captured. [3] The Holy Places included sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem as well as

Islam

See also: Religious significance of Jerusalem in Islam.


Sharing similar religious beliefs with Jews and Christians, Muslims consider the land west of (but not limited to) the Jordan River to be sacred as mentioned in the Qur'an, (5:20-21).

The Quran also says,
"And We rescued him and Lout (Lot) to the land which We have blessed for the 'Alamîn (mankind and jinns)."[21:71]
The "land which We have blessed", according to Abdullah Yusuf Ali refers to the land of Syria, which includes Palestine and the cities of Tyre and Sidon.[4]

Early Islamic tradition by Az-Zujaj describes Holy Land as "Damascus, Palestine, and a bit of Jordan", and by Qatada as "the Levant (ash-Sham)" and by Maad ibn Jabal as "the area between al-Arish and the Euphrates", and by Ibn Abbas as "the land of Jericho".

Muslims also consider the depression below Mount Sinai, also known as the Tuwa, to be sacred as mentioned in the Qur'an (20:12). This place is usually referred to as the "Holy Valley" (الوادي المقدس).

Jerusalem was the first qibla (direction of prayer) in Islam, before the Kaaba in Mecca. In Islam it is considered the third holiest city. In Arabic, the city of Jerusalem is commonly known as "al-Quds", meaning "the Holy".

Muslims believe that prophet Muhammad have been taken by the flying steed Buraq to visit Jerusalem, where he prayed, and then to visit heaven, in a single night in the year 620. The Qur'anic verse (17:1) is interpreted by all widely used tafsirs (commentaries) as referring to this journey, with the term "the farthest Mosque" (al-masjid al-Aqsa) which lies in the Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem.

The term "Holy Land" is also sometimes used by Muslims (although not in the Qur'an) in reference to the Hijaz, land of the holy cities Mecca and Medina.

Notes

1. ^ Since the 10th century BCE:
  • "Israel was first forged into a unified nation from Jerusalem some three thousand years ago, when King David seized the crown and united the twelve tribes from this city... For a thousand years Jerusalem was the seat of Jewish sovereignty, the household site of kings, the location of its legislative councils and courts. In exile, the Jewish nation came to be identified with the city that had been the site of its ancient capital. Jews, wherever they were, prayed for its restoration." Roger Friedland, Richard D. Hecht. To Rule Jerusalem, University of California Press, 2000, p. 8. ISBN 0520220927
  • "The Jewish bond to Jerusalem was never broken. For three millennia, Jerusalem has been the center of the Jewish faith, retaining its symbolic value throughout the generations." Jerusalem- the Holy City, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, February 23, 2003. Accessed March 24, 2007.
  • "The centrality of Jerusalem to Judaism is so strong that even secular Jews express their devotion and attachment to the city and cannot conceive of a modern State of Israel without it... For Jews Jerusalem is sacred simply because it exists... Though Jerusalem's sacred character goes back three millennia...". Leslie J. Hoppe. The Holy City:Jerusalem in the theology of the Old Testament, Liturgical Press, 2000, p. 6. ISBN 0814650813
  • "Ever since King David made Jerusalem the capital of Israel 3,000 years ago, the city has played a central role in Jewish existence." Mitchell Geoffrey Bard, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Middle East Conflict, Alpha Books, 2002, p. 330. ISBN 0028644107
  • "For Jews the city has been the pre-eminent focus of their spiritual, cultural, and national life throughout three millennia." Yossi Feintuch, U.S. Policy on Jerusalem, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1987, p. 1. ISBN 0313257000
  • "Jerusalem became the center of the Jewish people some 3,000 years ago" Moshe Maʻoz, Sari Nusseibeh, Jerusalem: Points of Friction - And Beyond, Brill Academic Publishers, 2000, p. 1. ISBN 9041188436
  • "The Jewish people are inextricably bound to the city of Jerusalem. No other city has played such a dominant role in the history, politics, culture, religion, national life and consciousness of a people as has Jerusalem in the life of Jewry and Judaism. Since King David established the city as the capital of the Jewish state circa 1000 BCE, it has served as the symbol and most profound expression of the Jewish people's identity as a nation." Basic Facts you should know: Jerusalem, Anti-Defamation League, 2007. Accessed March 28, 2007.
    2. ^ List of Jewish prayers and blessings
    3. ^ Sean Martin, The Knights Templar: The History & Myths of the Legendary Military Order, 2005. ISBN 1-56025-645-1
    4. ^ Ali (1991), p.934

References

  • Ali, Abdullah Yusuf (1991). The Holy Quran. Medina: King Fahd Holy Qur-an Printing Complex. 
  • Hanan Isachar, Ceremonies in the Holy Land, Melzer 2005
Hebrew}}} 
Writing system: Alefbet Ivri abjad 
Official status
Official language of:  Israel
Regulated by: Academy of the Hebrew Language

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Tiberian Hebrew is an extinct oral tradition of pronunciation for ancient Hebrew, especially the Hebrew of the Tanakh, that was given written form by masoretic scholars in the Jewish community at Tiberias in the early Middle Ages, beginning in the 8th century.
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Latin}}} 
Official status
Official language of: Vatican City
Used for official purposes, but not spoken in everyday speech
Regulated by: Opus Fundatum Latinitas
Roman Catholic Church
Language codes
ISO 639-1: la
ISO 639-2: lat
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al-‘Arabiyyah in written Arabic (Kufic script):  
Pronunciation: /alˌʕa.raˈbij.ja/
Spoken in: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman,
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Anthem
Hatikvah
The Hope


Capital
(and largest city) Jerusalem

Official languages Hebrew, Arabic
Demonym Israeli
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God

General approaches
Agnosticism Atheism
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Henotheism Ignosticism
Monism Monotheism
Natural theology Nontheism
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Theism Theology
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Specific conceptions
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Abraham (Hebrew: אַבְרָהָם, Standard  
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Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people, based on principles and ethics embodied in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the Talmud. According to Jewish tradition, the history of Judaism begins with the Covenant between God and Abraham (ca.
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Christianity

Foundations
Jesus Christ
Church Theology
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Bible
Old Testament New Testament
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The city of Jerusalem, located in modern-day Israel, is significant in a number of religious traditions, including the Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
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The Land of Israel (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל, Masoretic: ʼẸreṣ Yiśrāēl, Hebrew Academy: Éreẓ Yisrael, Yiddish:
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Crusades were a series of military conflicts of a religious character waged by much of Christian Europe during 1095–1291, most of which were sanctioned by the Pope in the name
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New Testament (Greek: Καινή Διαθήκη, Kainē Diathēkē) is the name given to the final portion of the Christian Bible, written after the Old Testament.
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Four Holy Cities is the collective term in Jewish tradition applied to the cities of Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, and Safed: "Since the sixteenth century the holiness of Palestine, especially for burial, has been almost wholly transferred to four cities—Jerusalem, Hebron,
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Jerusalem has been the holiest city in Judaism and the spiritual homeland of the Jewish people since the 10th century BCE.[1] Jerusalem has long been embedded into Jewish religious consciousness.
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Zion (Hebrew: צִיּוֹן, tziyyon; Tiberian vocalization: tsiyyôn; transliterated Zion or Sion) is a term that most often designates the Land of Israel and its capital, Jerusalem.
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Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people, based on principles and ethics embodied in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the Talmud. According to Jewish tradition, the history of Judaism begins with the Covenant between God and Abraham (ca.
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Jerusalem (Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם   (help info ) , Yerushaláyim; Arabic:
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Hebron.
חֶבְרוֹן
الخلي?
Downtown Hebron

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Safed (Hebrew: צְפַת; Tiberian: Ṣəp̄ạṯ; Hebrew Academy: Ẕefat; Common Israeli: Tsfat; Common Ashkenazi: Tzfas
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Tiberias (British English: /taɪˈbɪəriæs, -əs/; American English: /taɪˈbɪriəs/;
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Historical Jewish languages
Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, others
Liturgical languages:
Hebrew and Aramaic
Predominant spoken languages:
The vernacular language of the home nation in the Diaspora, significantly including English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and
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Century means 100. The 10th century BC started the first day of 1000 BC and ended the last day of 901 BC.

Overview

The Early Iron Age in the Near East, the period following the Bronze Age collapse.
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David(c.1005–970 BC) (Hebrew: דָּוִד, Standard  
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Jewish temple:
  • Jewish temple or The Jewish Temple, may refer to the original two ancient Jewish Temples in Jerusalem. The first one was destroyed by the ancient Babylonians in 586 BCE, and the second was destroyed by Rome in 70 CE.

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Tanakh
Torah | Nevi'im | Ketuvim
Books of Nevi'im
First Prophets
1. Joshua
2. Judges
3. Samuel
4. Kings
Later Prophets
5. Isaiah
6. Jeremiah
7.
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Tanakh
Torah | Nevi'im | Ketuvim
Books of Ketuvim
Three Poetic Books
1. Psalms
2. Proverbs
3. Job
Five Megillot
4. Song of Songs
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For the musical collective, see .


Tanakh (Hebrew: תנ״ך‎) (also Tanach, IPA: [taˈnax]
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