Дварим 12:2 Мидраш: Sifra, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael & Sifrei Devarim

6) Similarly: (Devarim 12:2-3) "Destroy shall you destroy all the places … and you shall throw down their altars, etc." Now if of the places and the tree (used for idolatry), which cannot see and cannot hear and cannot speak, because they led to a man's undoing, Scripture writes "Destroy!" "Burn!" "Raze!" and "Remove (them) from the world!" then a man who leads his fellow to veer from the path of life to the path of death — how much more so should the Holy One remove him from the world! What is written of the righteous? (Devarim 20:19) "If you besiege a city many days to war upon it, to capture it, do not destroy its tree by lifting an axe against it, for from it shall you eat, but it shall you not cut down": Now does this not follow a fortiori: If trees, which do not see, and which do not hear, and which do not speak — because they grow fruits, the Holy One pitied them, not to remove them from the world, then a man who "grows" Torah and does the will of his Father in heaven — how much more so will the Holy One pity him against removing him from the world!

Others say: Torah was given with its signs (i.e., with its warnings), so that Israel not say: Though we are commanded against idolatry, it will not be held against us if we secrete the idols in the recesses of the earth. It is, therefore, written (Isaiah 2:14) "On all the high mountains and on all the lofty hills" (and in the recesses of the earth) — whether revealed or hidden, (idolatry is forbidden) — "only to the L–rd alone" (with no admixtures of idolatry)!

"in the land": I might think that all of the mitzvoth are to be performed outside of Eretz Yisrael. It is, therefore, written "to do in the land which the L-rd, the G-d of your fathers, gave you to inherit." I might then think that all of the mitzvoth are to be performed only in Eretz Yisrael. It is, therefore, written "all the days that you live upon the earth." Now that Scripture has included (viz. "all the days that you live upon the earth" [i.e., even outside Eretz Yisrael]) and excluded (viz. "to do in the land" [i.e., only in Eretz Yisrael]), derive the rule from what is stated in this regard, (viz. Ibid. 2) "Destroy shall you destroy all the places where the nations worshipped." Just as (the mitzvah to destroy) idolatry is characterized by its devolving upon the "body" (of the observer), is not dependent upon the land, and obtains both in the land and outside of it, so, all such mitzvoth obtain both in Eretz Yisrael and outside of it, with the exclusion of arlah (viz. Vayikra 19:23) and kilayim (viz. Vayikra 19:19), (which are also forbidden outside the land). R. Eliezer says: Also (forbidden is) chadash (viz. Vayikra 23:10-14).