This course offers insights from the Bible into the importance of the Land of Israel in Jewish life. Dealing with many of the issues and ideas that have played a pivotal role in shaping Jewish identity, it sheds light on some of the key moral and political problems that Israel faces today. This text-based course focuses on aspects of the very first journeys to the Land of Israel as described in the earliest books of the Bible. The lessons revolve around problems that arose as a result of the tension between the promise of the Land and the reality, both within the community of Israel and in its dealings with the nations within and along the way to the Land.