In Parshat Re’eh, we find some enigmatic verses concerning the future location of the Holy Temple:

But only to the place which the L-rd your G‑d shall choose from all your tribes, to set His Name there; you shall inquire after His dwelling and come there. And there you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the separation by your hand, and your vows and your donations, and the firstborn of your cattle and of your sheep.1

And a few verses later:

And it will be, that the place the L-rd, your G‑d, will choose in which to establish His Name, there you shall bring all that I am commanding you: Your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the separation by your hand, and the choice of vows which you will vow to the L-rd.2

For some reason, this Divinely chosen place is not named—a striking omission, given how central it is to Israel’s worship. Only much later is Jerusalem identified as “the city which I chose for Myself to place My name there,”3 when King David purchases the land on which the Temple will be constructed—a mountain adjacent to Jerusalem.

This raises several questions: Why does the Torah not name Jerusalem outright? Was the location not yet chosen, or did G‑d choose to deliberately keep it hidden? Or could it be that the verse is not referring to Jerusalem at all, but to Shiloh, the site of the Tabernacle for many years? And what does it mean to “inquire after His dwelling”?

It Was Not Yet Chosen

Seemingly, the most basic and obvious explanation is that the location of the Temple had yet to be determined. These verses therefore outline the requirement to centralize worship somewhere in the Land of Israel, wherever that would be. Upon settling the land, the Israelites are commanded to destroy all local idolatrous altars and not to bring offerings anywhere other than “to the place which the L-rd your G‑d will choose … to place His Name there.” The plain intent is that there will be one sanctified site for the Tabernacle or Temple, chosen by G‑d, where His Name and presence reside. However, the exact location is not mentioned as it had not yet been determined.

Shiloh First, Jerusalem Next

This explanation is not entirely satisfactory, however, since we know that the site of the Temple was the location of several much earlier monumental events. In the words of Maimonides:

According to accepted tradition, the place on which David and Solomon built the altar, the threshing floor of Aravnah, is the location where Abraham built the altar on which he prepared Isaac for sacrifice. Noah built an altar on that location when he left the ark. It was also [the place] of the altar on which Cain and Abel brought sacrifices. Similarly, Adam, the first man, offered a sacrifice there and was created at that very spot, as our sages said: “Man was created from the place where he would find atonement.”4

So if the site was already set aside, why not mention it?

Rashi5 cites the Midrash6 and explains that this verse does not refer exclusively to Jerusalem, but to whichever centralized location G‑d’s service had moved to—first Shiloh and then Jerusalem. In his view, the Torah’s phrase “the place which He will choose” applies generically to the one authorized sacred site at any given time. First, G‑d chose Shiloh as the resting place for the Sanctuary, and later He chose Jerusalem as the permanent site of the First and Second Temples. The Torah doesn’t name Jerusalem yet because, in Rashi’s reading, while the final destination may have been set, it would not settle there until quite some time after the land had been settled.

G‑d Chooses, Not Us

The Kli Yakar rejects this view, arguing that “Only to the place that G‑d will choose from all your tribes to put His Name there” refers to the permanent Temple in Jerusalem, for which contributions were collected equally from all twelve Tribes.

According to Kli Yakar, the final location was entirely G‑d’s prerogative. In contrast to idolaters who select sites for their natural beauty or prominence, Israel was forbidden to determine the Sanctuary’s site on their own. G‑d’s honor sanctifies a place — not the other way around — so “seeking His dwelling” means pursuing His Presence, not the physical site for its own sake.

Although the ultimate location had long been set, its revelation was delayed to preserve the dignity of the temporary sanctuaries, such as Shiloh and Nob.7

Concealing the Chosen Place

In a similar vein, Maimonides, in his Guide for the Perplexed,8 addresses this difficulty and provides three possible explanations:

1. To prevent enemy interference: Had the nations known that this site would become the center of the highest spiritual truths, they might have seized it or fiercely fought over it to prevent Israel from sanctifying it.

2. To avoid preemptive desecration: Those who controlled the land at the time could have defiled or destroyed the site in advance. Some suggest the Jebusites in Jerusalem tried exactly that, hinted at in II Samuel 5:6, where “the blind and the lame” are said to have blocked David — possibly meaning they placed idolatry there. Aware of this risk, G‑d concealed the site’s true purpose.

3. To prevent tribal discord: Each of the Twelve Tribes might have claimed the honor of hosting the site, leading to rivalry and division — much like the disputes over the Priesthood — especially in the era before a united monarchy.

G‑d Wants Us to Seek It Out

Nachmanides cites the Sifrei, who reads the verse “you shall inquire after His dwelling and come there” as a command to actively seek the place G‑d will choose, not wait passively for revelation. The Sifrei teaches: search for it yourselves, then a prophet will confirm it. Nachmanides cites King David as an example. Though guided by prophets, he personally pursued the Temple site, vowing not to rest until he found it, which he ultimately did with prophetic confirmation. Nachmanides further explains that “His dwelling” means G‑d’s very presence. Thus, the verse calls us not only to locate a physical site, but to yearn for and pursue the Shechinah itself.

The Rebbe expands on this idea, noting that the Torah calls the Temple the Beit HaBechirah (“Chosen House”) only after it stood in Jerusalem, not during the Tabernacle’s wanderings. He explains that Divine “choice” can be twofold: a negative choice—rejecting all other sites—or a positive choice—expressing an intrinsic desire for a specific site. In the case of temporary sanctuaries like Shiloh, the Torah’s emphasis is largely negative: sacrifices may be brought only there, to exclude other locations. This suggests that Shiloh was chosen chiefly to centralize worship, not out of essential love for the site itself. By contrast, the verses about the Jerusalem Temple highlight the site’s own unique sanctity—“the place which G‑d will choose to cause His Name to rest there”—indicating a positive, enduring desire.

Only Jerusalem was chosen as G‑d’s permanent dwelling, so much so that G‑d Divine Presence never departed from the Western Wall. For this reason, says the Rebbe, only the Jerusalem Temple is called the Beit HaBechirah in the fullest sense.9

In another talk analyzing Rambam’s Hilchot Beit HaBechirah, the Rebbe explains that the sanctity of the Temple site contains two distinct elements:

On the one hand, since Adam, Noach, and Avraham offered sacrifices there (ibid. 2:2), the site already possessed a degree of holiness. Yet this holiness was inherently limited, because it was bound up with the place’s natural history and therefore defined by the finite qualities of that place.

On the other hand, through G‑d’s choice of this location, the site attained a level of holiness that is unlimited and eternal, for it does not derive from the place’s qualities at all, but solely from the act of Divine chosenness.

Ultimately, the Temple Mount possesses both the quality of inherent holiness — rooted in its history as the site where Adam, Noach, and Avraham offered sacrifices — and the quality of eternal holiness — stemming from G‑d’s choice, which is unlimited and unchanging.10

In this vein, we can suggest that the verse refers to Jerusalem as “the place which the L-rd your G‑d shall choose” to highlight that the site’s most profound and essential holiness does not stem from its natural qualities or historical associations, but solely from the fact that G‑d chose it.