Why is Jerusalem important to Jews?
Jerusalem has been the holiest city in Judaism and the ancestral and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people since the 10th century BCE.
“And God said: 'Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains (Temple Mount) which I will tell thee of.”—Genesis 22:2
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 studied, practiced and treasured by Jews and Judaism for three millennia. The Talmud elaborates in great depth the Jewish connection with the city.
Additionally, before Muslims settled in Jerusalem, the Jewish people believed, and still believe, the rock in the center of the Dome of the Rock to be the place where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. The Jewish people also believe the Dome of the Rock stands directly over the site of the Holy of Holies of both Solomon's Temples- the most holy and sacred place within Jewish temples.
Jerusalem has been the holiest city in Judaism and the ancestral and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people since the 10th century BCE.
“And God said: 'Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains (Temple Mount) which I will tell thee of.”—Genesis 22:2
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 studied, practiced and treasured by Jews and Judaism for three millennia. The Talmud elaborates in great depth the Jewish connection with the city.
Additionally, before Muslims settled in Jerusalem, the Jewish people believed, and still believe, the rock in the center of the Dome of the Rock to be the place where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. The Jewish people also believe the Dome of the Rock stands directly over the site of the Holy of Holies of both Solomon's Temples- the most holy and sacred place within Jewish temples.