Jerusalem

Jerusalem — Yerushalayim in Hebrew — is considered the holiest city in the Jewish textual tradition. Although it is not mentioned explicitly in the Torah, the book of Deuteronomy refers numerous times to "the place that God will choose," a phrase later sources understood to refer to Jerusalem. In the book of Samuel, King David captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites, and the book of Kings recounts that King Solomon built the Temple there. Jerusalem is a central focus of many Jewish prayers, customs, and texts.