D’var Torah V’etchanan

Please let me cross the Jordan River so that I may see the good Land on the other side of the Jordan, the beautiful mountains and the Lebanon. (Deuteronomy 3:25)
“The beautiful mountains” refers to Jerusalem; "the Lebanon" refers to the Temple. (Rashi)
Based upon a midrash, Rashi comments that the Master of All Prophets desired not only to enter the Holy Land, but to reach the Holy City and the Temple.
Similarly, the journeys of Abraham within the Promised Land are described as “continuing towards the south;” [Genesis 12:9] and there as well, Rashi quotes the midrashic understanding that Abraham’s destination was Mount Moriah, the Temple Mount. (Breishit Rabba [39:15] defines Abraham’s destination more exactly as the site of the Temple, on Mount Moriah.)
Our Sages taught that there are ten levels of sanctity within the Holy Land, with Jerusalem holier than other walled cities within the Land, the Temple holier, with the Holy of Holies of the Temple being the epitome of sanctity on our planet. [Keilim 1:6-9]
Without, God forbid, in any way denigrating the sanctity of the Land of Israel, it is not surprising that Abraham our father and Moses our teacher yearned to reach the higher level of sanctity of Jerusalem. Even more, the consistent approach of Maharal of Prague is that the sanctity of the Land derives from the presence of the Temple within her. As Rabbi Yehoshua David Hartman phrases the point: “the sanctity of the Land is the sanctity of Jerusalem, and the sanctity of Jerusalem is the sanctity of the Temple.” As such, on some level it is not possible to fully experience the sanctity of the Land without experiencing the sanctity of Jerusalem, and thus it Is quite natural that two of our nation’s greatest men sought to reach the Holy City.
Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch [commentary on 8:10] phrases the point thus:
The spiritual calling of the Land of Israel is stamped on the whole Land by Jerusalem-Zion … indeed, above [3:25] similarly expresses that the spiritual calling of the whole country is concentrated in Mount Zion.
It is appropriate to note the significance of the fact that the parasha which is always read on Shabbat Naḥamu, the Shabbat of Consolation, which follows Tisha b'av, emphasizes the centrality of Jerusalem.
(David Magence)
Shabbat Shalom!
The Va’ad