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The study of the importance of the Land of Israel usually revolves around the writings of the Zionist thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries. This leads to the false impression that Israel only assumed a central role in Jewish history since the inception of the Zionist movement and the emergence of the State of Israel. This first lesson aims to correct that false impression by showing that the Land of Israel played a vital role in shaping our identity as a people from the very moment that we began to describe ourselves as a people.