The Torah portion כִּי-תָבוֹא (Ki Tavo – When you enter)1 addresses the themes of offerings and ceremonies associated with entering the Promised Land. This portion highlights the importance of committing to God and respecting His commandments in order to merit His blessings.
Verse 26:2 designates the place dedicated to offerings:
וְלָקַחְתָּ מֵרֵאשִׁית כָּל-פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר תָּבִיא מֵאַרְצְךָ אֲשֶׁר יי אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ וְשַׂמְתָּ בַּטֵּנֶא וְהָלַכְתָּ אֶל-הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר יי אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְשַׁכֵּן שְׁמוֹ שָׁם
You shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses to make His name dwell there.
This chosen place is Jerusalem. The two Temples were erected there before being destroyed. At the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, near the Knesset and the Supreme Court, an outstanding 1:50 scale model2 of the city during the time of the Second Temple is exhibited. Spanning over 2,000 square meters, it was meticulously designed under the supervision of the Israeli historian and geographer Michael Avi-Yonah3 for the Holyland Hotel4. Inaugurated in 1966, it was transferred to the Israel Museum in 2006. This 1:50 scale model accurately represents the Second Temple and the entire Old City of Jerusalem..
1 Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8
2 Elaborated primarily based on the writings of Flavius Josephus.
3 Michael Avi-Yonah (1904 in Lviv, Ukraine – 1974 in Jerusalem) was an Israeli archaeologist and historian. In 1919, during the Third Aliyah, he immigrated with his parents to Mandatory Palestine.
4 This initiative came to fruition in 1966 through the commission of banker Hans Kroch (1887-1970), owner of the Holyland Hotel, who had it constructed in memory of his son Yaakov, who fell in combat during the 1948 War of Independence.