When G-d promises the land of Israel/Canaan to the Jewish people, He does not call the land holy.
G-d does not even give us the land – he set it before us, using the same word used in Gen 1:17 for setting the sun and the moon in the sky.
Our possession of the land is entirely conditional on our behavior, on whether we make good choices.
So why do we call Israel holy?
But! What About…
The holiest place in the world for Jews, the Temple Mount, is not even named in the Torah! Instead, it is referred to repeatedly as “the place where the Lord your G-d will choose.”
Can we explain why the text is coy about the location?
Might It Be About G-d’s Choice?
We know that the place G-d chose is Jerusalem. We know it was the same place the Binding of Isaac took place, and where Jacob dreamed of angels on a ladder… and yet the Torah declines to name it. Why?
Could it be because the purpose of Judaism is not, unlike with pagan religions, tied to any specific place, or even to a specific land? Our connection to the Land of Israel and to the Temple Mount are not because they are intrinsically holy places, but only because G-d chose them. Might it be the choice, not the actual location, that matters?
In other words: the Temple Mount is important because it is the gateway to a relationship – not because the place is itself meant to be a shrine?!
Similarly, is Moses’ burial place not named because our path to a relationship with G-d is through His Torah, not through His servant?
If this is correct, then does it mean that we are each meant to find a way to connect that does not rely on any holy relic, or prayer at any given place?
In that sense, then, are the Jewish people uniquely equipped to exist anywhere, unconnected from any specific place? G-d is not found in a certain mountain or seashore or canyon. He is found where we connect with Him.
Perhaps this is why the Torah commands that pagan faiths must be rejected:
You must destroy all the sites at which the nations you are to dispossess worshipped their gods, whether on lofty mountains and on hills or under any luxuriant tree. Tear down their altars, smash their pillars, put their sacred posts to the fire, and cut down the images of their gods, obliterating their name from that site. (D. 12:2-3)
Is the Torah telling us that a connection to a god who is synonymous with a specific place is inherently wrong?! G-d is not in or of the natural world, and religions that worship Mother Earth or any of the forces contained within nature (mountain, wind, sun, or sea, etc.) are opposed by Judaism, root and branch.
In this way Judaism is quite distinct from every pagan faith.
Consider that pagan cultures are connected to the deities they create and rely upon: a sea god is central in a Viking society, but not relevant to someone living on the Snake or Salmon River. Similarly, mountains (which are invariably deified in primitive and modern societies alike – see “Denali”) can only be important if they are close enough to be seen. So a nation anchored to a certain deity loses its moorings if it is dispossessed and moves away from that same deity.
What is the Jewish touchstone, the anchor to our god?! It is not the land! Instead, surely it is the Torah itself, a portable text that lives in the mind instead of in any one holy place?!
Is the Torah how our people survived without landmarks or specific shrines or sacred relics?
Might the above explanation help explain the miracle of the Jewish people? Help us understand why, while every other minority in the world that was removed from their host lands, went on to shed their cultures, and eventually assimilated – while we Jews have lived for thousands of years as strangers in strange lands, lands that were often hostile? When expelled from one nation we would move to others, somehow retaining whatever it is that allows us to remain distinct?
But… But.. The Temple Mount!
Nevertheless, the Torah’s silence on the subject notwithstanding, the Temple Mount today resonates with enormous spiritual power. How can we explain it?
Could it be because that place has absorbed millennia of prayers from Jews both in that place and around the world? Might har habayis (The Temple Mount) be special not because it was created that way by G-d, but because we invested in it after G-d chose it?!
After all, doesn’t the Torah make it clear that the things that man and G-d both invest in are the things that become holy as a result of our investment? (Note that the only things in the Torah called kodesh kodeshim (most holy) are things that both man and G-d invest in.)
Israel is Still Holy … Right?
It is undeniable that Israel has remained in the prayers and dreams of the Jewish people ever since we were first expelled, over 2,500 years ago. But that may not be because Israel was created holy: what makes Israel special is that the land is a gateway to a full relationship with G-d (and each other). We made it holy together!
Because Judaism is grounded in texts and not places, it has been possible to live – and even thrive – in strange lands with inhospitable hosts. You may not know any Hittites, but thanks to the power of the text of the Torah, you certainly might know some Jews!