Deuteronomy 12:5

Deuteronomy 12:5

But unto the place which the Lord your God
The Targum of Jonathan is, that the Word of the Lord your God:

shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there;
to place his tabernacle, set up his worship, take up his residence, and cause the Shechinah, or his divine Majesty, to dwell there, as the next clause explains it; out of what tribe it should be chosen, and where it should be, is not said. Maimomides F2 gives three reasons for it; he says there are three great mysteries why the place is not clearly, but obscurely mentioned;

1) lest the Gentiles should seize upon it, and make war for the sake of it, supposing this place to be the end of the law; 2) lest they in whose hands the place then was should by all means waste and destroy it; 3) which is the chief, lest every tribe should desire to have it in its own lot and jurisdiction; and so strifes might arise among them on account of it, as happened to the priesthood:

[even] unto his habitation shall ye seek;
the temple at Jerusalem is meant, where the Lord took up his dwelling, and whither men were to come and seek unto him by prayer and supplication for whatsoever they needed, and to inquire of him in matters doubtful, and they wanted counsel in:

and thither thou shall come:
with sacrifices of every sort, where they were to be slain and offered to the Lord, and become acceptable to him, as is more largely declared in the following part of this chapter.


F2 Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 45. p. 475.