Temple mount, the place that G-d has chosen

The instructions given to the generation entering the land of Canaan are clear: “Do away with all the places where the nations whom you are driving out worship their gods, [whether they are,] on the high mountains, on the hills, or under any luxuriant tree. You must tear down their altars, break up their sacred pillars, burn their Asherah trees, and chop down the statues of their gods, obliterating their names from that place.”

This follows a theme in the Torah to eradicate paganism and idolatry in order to advance monotheism.

In modern times, such a guiding principle would be viewed as extremely radical, and as a stain on the morality of those bringing about the destruction. At a minimum it is politically incorrect. Shrines and places of worship, regardless of purpose, are generally viewed as “untouchables.” Particularly on a world stage, the removal of a single brick, even from an abandoned house of worship, is at times a call for activists to stage a protest.

But the concept of eradicating all these places of worship to advance monotheism in “the place that G-d has chosen” (a phrase that repeats several times in Chapter 12) is a fundamental tenet of the Jewish faith. That place, as we all know, is what even the Arabs call “The Temple Mount” as it is unquestionably the place where King Solomon built the first Temple (destroyed by Babylonians), and where the second Temple was built in the time of Ezra and beautified in the time of Herod (destroyed later by the Romans).

Were the Romans living today, I think they would have been hammered by world media for destroying a centuries old edifice that had been the central Temple of the Jewish faith.

If this location were so significant, why is it referred to in the Torah by way of hints? Why doesn’t the Torah say, “It is Har HaMoriah?”