Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Religious significance of Jerusalem to the Jewish people and Holy Land


 Religious significance of Jerusalem 
The city of Jerusalem is significant in a number of religious traditions, including the Abrahamic religions Judaism,Christianity, and Islam, which consider it a holy city. Some of the most sacred places for each of these religions are found in Jerusalem and the one shared between all three is the Temple Mount.[1]
In Judaism
Jerusalem has been the holiest city in Judaism and the ancestral and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people since the 10th century BCE.[2] During classical antiquity, Jerusalem was considered the center of the world, where God resided.[3]
The city of Jerusalem is given special status in Jewish religious law. In particular, Jews outside Jerusalem pray facing its direction, and the maaser sheni, revai andFirst Fruits must be eaten in Jerusalem. Any expansion of the city for these purposes must be approved by the Sanhedrin. Also, when the Temple in Jerusalem was standing, Jerusalem observed special laws regarding the Four Species on Sukkot, and the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah.
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.[4] The Talmud elaborates in great depth the Jewish connection with the city.
According to the Hebrew Bible, the First Temple, at the site known as the Temple Mount today, was built by King Solomon and finished in 950 BC,[5] and Mount Moriah is where Abraham almost sacrificed his son and talked to God. When the Babylonians captured the city in 580 BC, they destroyed the temple and sent the Jews into exile.[6] That is, all worshiping was practiced in the temple and only the temple. From the Babylonian capture, Judaism was codified.[7] The Tanakh (Old Testament) laid the foundation for both Christianity and Islam.
In Christianity
In Christian tradition, Jerusalem's place in the life of Jesus gives it great importance, in addition to its place in the Old Testament. Jerusalem is the place where Jesus was brought as a child, to be "presented" at the Temple (Luke 2:22) and to attend festivals (Luke 2:41). According to the Gospels, Jesus preached and healed in Jerusalem, especially in the Temple courts. There is also an account of Jesus' "cleansing" of the Temple, chasing various traders out of the sacred precincts (Mark11:15). At the end of each of the Gospels, there are accounts of Jesus' Last Supper in an "upper room" in Jerusalem, his arrest in Gethsemane, his trial, his crucifixion atGolgotha, his burial nearby and his resurrection and ascension.
The earliest Christians were outcast and used the fish symbol to recognize one another to avoid being killed or reprimanded for being Christian by Roman rule.[8]Christianity became more popular over time, but made a huge expansion when the Roman Emperor Constantine claimed Christianity as his religion and thus the religion of the Roman Empire.[9] Jerusalem is mostly important to Christianity because that is where Jesus Christ was brought to occasionally as a child, preached to the poor in his adult life, crucified in the end of his life, and resurrected by God. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is said to have been built over the location where Jesus was crucified and where the tomb was buried.[10]
In Christianity, the Jewish connection with the city is considered as the account of God's relationship with His chosen people—the original covenant—and the essential prelude to the events narrated in the New Testament, including both universal commandments (e.g. the Ten Commandments) and obsolete or Judaism-specificones. In medieval times, Christians thought Jerusalem was the center of the world (Latin: umbilicus mundi, Greek: Omphalos), and was so represented in the so-calledT and O maps. Byzantine hymns speak of the Cross being "planted in the center of the earth," and the imagery is tied to the concept of the Death and resurrection of Jesus being for the benefit of all mankind. Medieval maps of Europe usually placed the east ("orient")—Jerusalem—at the top, and this arrangement led to the use of the term "to orient" to mean to align a map with actual compass directions.
In Islam
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Jerusalem is considered a sacred site in SunniIslamic tradition, along with Mecca and Medina. Islamic tradition holds that previous prophets were associated with the city, and that the Islamic prophet Muhammad visited the city on a nocturnal journey (Isra and Mi'raj). Due to such significance, it was the first Qibla (direction of prayer) for Muslims and the prophet Muhammad designated the Al-Aqsa for pilgrimage.
Born in 570 AD, Muhammad is believed by Muslims to be a messenger for God.[12]He reformed the perspective that God should be worshiped through prayer, reciting God's messages and only worshiping God.[13] Muhammad declared himself to be the last prophet of the Judaic-Christian Religions and he founded a third Abrahamic religion: Islam. The Dome of the Rock is an Islamic sacred shrine in Jerusalem, built on the Temple Mount. This is where Muhammad ascended into heaven and was given the second pillar of Islam, to pray five times a day, from Allah, which is still used today.[14] The Dome of the Rock is influenced by Byzantine Christian architecture, being of a Central Dome Plan.
Muhammad is believed to have been taken by the miraculous steed Buraq to visit Jerusalem, where he prayed, and then to visit heaven, in a single night in the year 610. Jerusalem is not directly mentioned by name in the Qur'an, nor is it mentioned by its Arabic translation (Al Quds). However, the Qur'anic verse (17:1) is interpreted by Islamic tafsirs (commentaries) as referring to this journey, with the term "the farthest Mosque" (al-masjid al-Aqsa) referring to the Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem, where the mosque stands. There he meets other prophets (in particular, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus).[16]
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is specified of being in Jerusalem as per numerous hadith:
Narrated Jabir bin 'Abdullah: "Then he heard Allah's Apostle saying, "When the people of Quraish did not believe me (i.e. the story of my Night Journey), I stood up in Al-Hijr and Allah displayed Jerusalem in front of me, and I began describing Jerusalem to them while I was looking at it." Sahih Bukhari: Volume 5, Book 58, Number 226.[17]
Part of Jerusalem's significance and holiness to Muslims derives from its strong association with Abraham, David, Solomon, and Jesus. They are all regarded asProphets of Islam and their stories are mentioned in the Qur'an.
Jerusalem served as the first qibla (direction of prayer) for Muslims. Whilst Muslims were in Mecca, and also for 17–18 months in Medina, Muslims prayed towards Jerusalem. Early mosques in Medina were built to face Jerusalem. In 625, The qibla was changed to the Kaaba in Mecca.[18] [Quran 2:142–151]
After Muhammad, many of his Companions lived in Jerusalem, and upon their death they were buried there.[19]
In Mandaeism
In Mandaeism (an ancient Gnostic-like non-Christian religion, once significant in numbers but now a small group found primarily in parts of southern Iran and Iraq), Jerusalem is considered a city of wickedness, dedicated to the god of Judaism, whom they call Adunay (Adonai) or Yurba (possibly YHWH) and consider to be an evil spirit. According to Sidra d-Yahia 54, Jerusalem is "the stronghold that Adunay built ... [he] brought to it falsehood in plenty, and it meant persecution against my tarmidia (Manda d-Hiia's disciples)." In the Ginza Rba (15.11), it is said to have come into being as a result of the incestuous union of the seven planets with their evil mother Ruha d-Qudsha, who "left lewdness, perversion, and fornication in it. They said: 'Whoever lives in the city of Jerusalem will not mention the name of God.'" (Elsewhere, however, it more prosaically says the city was built by Solomon.) However, Yahya (John the Baptist), an important figure in the religion, is said to have been born there.
See also
Notes
  1. “Temple Mount, The.” GoJerusalem.com
  2. 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 0-520-22092-7
    • "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 0-8146-5081-3
    • "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 0-02-864410-7
    • "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 0-313-25700-0
    • "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 90-411-8843-6
    • "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 c. 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.
  3. Korb, Scott. Life in Year One. New York: Riverhead books, 2010. print, 155. ISBN 978-1-59448-899-3.
  4. List of Jewish prayers and blessings
  5. Lacey, Ian. "Judaism as a Religious Tradition - Israel & Judaism Studies" Israel and Judaism Studies.
  6. "Temple Mount, The," GoJerusalem.com.
  7. Lacey, Ian. "Judaism as a Religious Tradition - Israel & Judaism Studies" Israel and Judaism Studies.
  8. "Christian Fish Symbol, The." Religion Facts.
  9. "One-Page Overview of Christian History, A" Religious Facts
  10. "Holy Sepulchre." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition.
  11. Bargil Pixner, The Church of the Apostles found on Mount Zion, Biblical Archaeology Review 16.3 May/June 1990 [1]
  12. "Muhammad." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition.
  13. "Islamic world." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition.
  14. "Dome of the Rock." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition.
  15. IslamQA.info website "Does the multiplied reward for prayers apply only to the mosque of the Ka’bah or does it include the entire Haram (sanctuary)?"IslamQA.info retrieved June 22, 2013
  16. Brooke Olson Vuckovic. Heavenly journeys, earthly concerns (2004). Routledge.
  17. Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:58:226
  18. Buchanan, Allen (2004), States, Nations, and Borders: The Ethics of Making Boundaries, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-52575-6, retrieved 9 June2008
  19. Significance of Jerusalem to Jews and Christians, IslamOnline, July 10, 2002.
References
  • Ali, Abdullah Yusuf (1991). The Holy Quran. Medina: King Fahd Holy Qur-an Printing Complex.

 Holy Land 
Sidon's Sea Castle, built by thecrusaders as a fortress of the holy landin Sidon, Lebanon
The Holy Land (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ הַקוֹדֵשׁEretz HaKodesh, Latin: Terra Sancta; Arabic: الأرض المقدسة Al-Arḍ Al-Muqaddasah) is an area roughly located between the Jordan River and theMediterranean Sea that also includes the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River. Historically, it is synonymous with both the Land of Israel andPalestine, and the Lebanese Republic, theSyrian Arab Republic and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It is considered holy byJews, Christians, and Muslims.
Part of the significance of the land stems from the religious significance of Jerusalem, the holiest city to Judaism, the historical region ofJesus' ministry, and the Isra and Mi'raj event inIslam and Mount Nebo, where Mosespresumably died. The perceived holiness of the land to Christianity was part of the motivation for the Crusades, as European Christians sought to win the Holy Land back from the Muslim Seljuk Turks. The Turks had taken over the Holy Land after defeating the Muslim Arabs, who had in turn conquered the areafrom the Christian Byzantine Empire.
Many sites in the Holy Land have long been pilgrimage destinations for adherents of the Abrahamic religions, including Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Bahá'ís. Pilgrimsvisit the Holy Land to touch and see physical manifestations of their faith, confirm their beliefs in the holy context with collective excitation, and connect personally to the Holy Land.[1]
Judaism
Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, 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."[2] [3]
Olives trees, like this one in Qefin, have intrinsic holiness in Judaism, especially during the Sabbatical Year. This "seventh year holiness" carries with it many religious laws.[4]
Jews do not commonly refer to the Land of Israel as "Holy Land" (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ הַקוֹדֵשׁ Eretz HaKodesh). The Tanakh explicitly refers to it as "holy land" in only one passage, in Zechariah 2:16. The holiness of the Land of Israel is generally implied in the Tanakh by the Land being given to the Israelites by God, that is, it is the "promised land", an integral part of God's covenant. In the Torah many mitzvotcommanded to the Israelites can only be performed in the Land of Israel,[5] which serves to differentiate it from other lands. For example, in the Land of Israel, "no land shall be sold permanently" (Lev. 25:23). 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:
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[6]
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.[7] Sacred burials are still undertaken for diaspora Jews who wish to lie buried in the holy soil of Israel.[8]
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 colonising Israel.[9] 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.[10] Rabbi Johanan said that "one who walks a distance of 4 cubits in Israel may be confident of a share in the future world". 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 Israel 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 protecion. Many Jews wanted Israel to be the place where they died. R. 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.
Christianity
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Christianity, as it is the purported site of Christ's resurrection.
Crusader Castle in the village of Toron,Lebanon
For Christians, the Land of Israel is considered holy because of its association with the birth, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, whom Christians regard as the Savior or Messiah, and because it is the land of his people, the Jews (according to the Bible). Christian books, including editions of the Bible, often had maps of the Holy Land (considered to be Galilee, Samaria, Judea). For instance, the Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae (Travel book through Holy Scripture) of Heinrich Bünting (1545-1606), a German Protestant pastor, featured such a map.[11] 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."[11]
As a geographic term, the description "Holy Land" loosely encompasses modern-day Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, westernJordan and south-western Syria.
Islam
Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem
In the Qur'an, the term الأرض المقدسة (Al-Ard Al-Muqaddasah, English: "Holy Land") is mentioned at least seven times, once when Mosesproclaims to the Children of Israel: "O my people! Enter the holy land which Allah hath assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin." (Surah 5:21)
Jerusalem (referred to as Al-Quds, meaning the "Holy") has particular significance in Islam. The Qur'an refers to Muhammad's experiencing the Isra and Mi'raj as "a Journey by night from the Sacred (Mecca) Mosque to the Farthest (al-Aqsa) Mosque, whose precincts We did bless" (17:1). Ahadith associate the "Farthest Mosque" as Al-Quds; for example, as narrated by Abu Huraira: "On the night journey of Allah's Apostle, 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 Ummah would have gone astray". However, some modern scholars argue that the 'Farthest Mosque' (al-Masjid al-Aqsa) was a building or prayer site just outside Medina.[12] [13] The present mosque of that name had not been built in Muhammad's day, nor does the Qur'an contain any reference to Jerusalem, apart from the reference to the change of the qibla from Jerusalem to Mecca. Jerusalem was Islam's first Qibla (direction of prayer), however, this was later changed to the Kaaba in Mecca following a revelation to Muhammad by the Archangel Gabriel, by which it is understood by scholars that it was in answer to the rejection by the Jews of Muhammed's prophetship.
The exact region referred to as "Blessed Land" in the Qur'an verse [21:71] 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"; Qatada claims it to be, "the Levant"; Muadh ibn Jabal as, "the area between al-Arish and the Euphrates"; andIbn Abbas as, "the land of Jericho".[14]
Bahá'í Faith
Bahá'ís consider Acre and Haifa sacred as Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, was exiled to the prison of Acre from 1868 and spent his life in its surroundings till his death in 1892. In his writings he set the slope of Mount Carmel to host theShrine 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 Justicecontinued the work until the Bahá'í World Centre was brought to its current state as the spiritual and administrative centre of the religion.[15] [16] Its gardens are highly popular places to visit[17] and Mohsen Makhmalbaf's 2012 film The Gardenerfeatured them.[18] The holiest places currently for Bahá'í pilgrimage are the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh in Acre and the Shrine of the Báb in Haifa which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.[19]
See also
References
  1. Metti, Michael Sebastian (2011-06-01). "Jerusalem - the most powerful brand in history" (PDF). Stockholm University School of Business. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  2. Michael L. Rodkinson (Translator) (2010). The Babylonian Talmud: all 20 volumes (Mobi Classics). MobileReference. p. 2234. ISBN 978-1-60778-618-4. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
  3. Moshe Gil (1997). A history of Palestine, 634-1099. Cambridge University Press. p. 632. ISBN 978-0-521-59984-9. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
  4. Seasons in Halacha, Pinchos Yehoshua Ellis, pg. 74.
  5. Aharon Ziegler, Halakhic positions of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik: Volume 4, KTAV Publishing House, 2007, p.173
  6. The Land of Israel: National Home Or Land of Destiny, By Eliezer Schweid, Translated by Deborah Greniman, Published 1985 Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press,ISBN 0-8386-3234-3, p.56.
  7. Since the 10th century BCE. "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 0-313-25700-0
  8. Joseph Jacobs, Judah David Eisenstein. "PALESTINE, HOLINESS OF". JewishEncyclopedia.com. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
  9. Isaac Herzog (1967). The Main Institutions of Jewish Law: The law of obligations. Soncino Press. p. 51. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  10. Yosef Zahavi (1962). Eretz Israel in rabbinic lore (Midreshei Eretz Israel): an anthology. Tehilla Institute. p. 28. Retrieved 19 June 2011. 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.
  11. Bünting, Heinrich (1585). "Description of the Holy Land". World Digital Library (in German).
  12. Mordechai Kedar (15 Sep 2008). "The myth of al-Aqsa:Holiness of Jerusalem to Islam has always been politically motivated". Ynetnews.
  13. Martin Kramer. "The Jewish Temples: The Temples of Jerusalem in Islam". Jewish Virtual Library.
  14. Ali (1991), p. 934
  15. Jay D. Gatrella; Noga Collins-Kreinerb (September 2006). "Negotiated space: Tourists, pilgrims, and the Bahá'í terraced gardens in Haifa". Geoforum 37 (5): 765–778. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2006.01.002. ISSN 0016-7185. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  16. Smith, Peter (2000). "Arc-buildings of; Bahá'í World Centre". A concise encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. pp. 45–46;71–72.ISBN 1-85168-184-1.
  17. Leichman, Abigail Klein (7 September 2011). "Israel's top 10 public gardens". Israel21c.org. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  18. Dargis, Mahohla (8 August 2013). "The Cultivation of Belief - 'The Gardener,' Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Inquiry Into Religion". New York Times. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  19. UNESCO World Heritage Centre (2008-07-08). "Three new sites inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List". Retrieved 2008-07-08.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Holy Land.
 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Palestine, Holiness of". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.
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