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Article: The place of "place" in Jewish tradition.(Report)
- Article from:
- CrossCurrents - The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health
- Article date:
- June 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Association for Religion and Intellectual Life. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Since the beginning of time, humans have had a problem with land. The first dilemma, of course, was the very mystery of land. That is, how did land itself, the ground we walk on, come into being? All relationship with and attitude toward the land would flow from this answer. The Torah addresses that problem with its opening line: God created the heavens and the earth.
That being the case, we can then conclude that God owns the land. All human claims to the land, therefore, are grounded in this basic knowledge. God first owned the land. It did not originally belong to us. Therefore, we must justify somehow any subsequent claim to use or ownership we may profess. ...