The holiness of the land as a destination of Christian pilgrimage contributed to launching the Crusades, as European Christians sought to win back the Holy Land from Muslims, who had conquered it from the Christian Eastern Roman Empire in the 630s.
Pilgrims visit the Holy Land to touch and see physical manifestations of their faith, to confirm their beliefs in the holy context with collective excitation, and to connect personally to the Holy Land.
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 (1st century BCE).Jews commonly refer to the Land of Israel as “The Holy Land” (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ הַקוֹדֵשׁ Eretz HaKodesh).
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 mitzvot commanded to the Israelites can only be performed in the Land of Israel, which serves to differentiate it from other lands.
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.
CHUKA KEN MINISTRY 