Tafsiran Ulangan 12:5: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi, Chizkuni & Ramban

“But look only to the site that the Lord your God will choose” [12:5]. The Holy One said that you should bring no sacrifice except in the city where God will show you. For three reasons, the Torah did not explicitly write how this place where one should bring the sacrifice is called, Mount Moriah or Jerusalem. If the Torah had explicitly written the place, the nations would have fought with each other. Each one would have wanted to have that place, because it was holy, and would have killed each other because of it. Secondly, if the nations knew that Israel would bring sacrifices to Jerusalem, they would have destroyed and devastated it. Third, if Israel had known that Jerusalem was a holy place, they would have argued with each other. Each one would have wanted this holy place, just like they argued in the incident of Korah; each one wanted to be a priest. Therefore, even Israel did not know the place where the sacrifices would be brought, and how much more so the gentiles.³Bahya, Deuteronomy, 12:5.

לשכנו תדרשו AFTER HIS RESIDENCE SHALL YE INQUIRE — This refers to the Tabernacle at Shiloh. (Sifrei Devarim 62:3)

כי אם אל המקום אשר יבחר, “except at a place of His choosing.” Moses did not spell out the name of that place, seeing that at different times G-d’s Presence decides to accept homage at different locations. [but never at more than one place at a given time. Ed.]