Jerusalem: God’s Holy CitySample

Where Heaven Meets Earth

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” — GENESIS 28:16-17

Since the beginning of time, Jerusalem has been the meeting place of heaven and earth. Jewish tradition teaches that Creation began in Jerusalem and that Adam was created from the dust of the earth in Jerusalem. It was the place where Abraham took his son Isaac to be sacrificed. David later purchased that same site to build an altar to God. David’s land eventually became the Temple Mount, and the Temple would officially serve as the connection between God and man for nearly 1,000 years.

Jerusalem is like no other city in the world. According to the Bible, there are many commandments that could only be fulfilled within the walls of God’s city. The special status of Jerusalem was derived from the Holy Temple. And yet, the holiness of Jerusalem existed before the construction of the Temple and remains after its destruction. This is why thousands of years after the destruction of the Temple, all Jews face Jerusalem when they pray.

The patriarch Jacob expressed it best after he awoke from his famous dream of a ladder that spanned heaven and earth. Upon awakening, Jacob exclaimed: “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:17).

The sages explain that Jacob had fallen asleep in the place where Jerusalem one day would be built, specifically, at the very location where the world began and the Temple would stand. He had stumbled upon the very “gate of heaven.”

Under the leadership of Moses, the people were first instructed to build a sanctuary in which God would dwell (Exodus 25:8), but this structure (the tabernacle, a movable tent) would only be temporary. The ultimate plan was to build a permanent structure in a place that God would choose. The chosen place was revealed to King David as Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, and the Temple was built by his son, King Solomon.

Solomon prayed these words at the Temple dedication ceremony: “May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place” (2 Chronicles 6:20). To this very day, Judaism maintains that all prayers ascend to heaven through Jerusalem. Similarly, all blessings pass through Jerusalem to the rest of the world.

In the messianic era, the third and final Temple is prophesied to be built in Jerusalem. In the extensive vision of the new Temple given to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 40–48), which includes detailed descriptions of the restoration of the Temple, the altar, the priesthood, and the land of Israel, he is told that the name of the new city from then on will be “the LORD is there.”