The core source is the Gemara's statement that anyone who merely walks four cubits in Eretz Yisrael is assured a place in the World-to-Come, derived from the pasuk "and spirit to they who walk there" (Ketubot 111a:20). This establishes that the act of being present in the Land, even briefly, carries independent spiritual weight apart from permanent settlement.
Tehillim describes the pilgrim's very journey toward Zion as a source of blessing, picturing those whose minds are set on the roads leading there finding springs even in a dry valley as they go "from rampart to rampart" to appear before God (Tehillim 84:6-8). This frames the travel itself, not only arrival, as spiritually charged.
Avraham's original journey to Canaan in response to the divine command "Go forth from your native land" (Bereishit 12:1-9) stands as the foundational model of such a journey, and the Sifrei records that the Sages who were themselves leaving the Land wept and tore their garments upon recalling it, declaring that settling the Land of Israel outweighs all the commandments of the Torah (Sifrei Devarim 80:2).
Berakhot lists Eretz Yisrael, alongside Torah and Olam HaBa, as one of three good gifts given to Israel only through suffering (Berakhot 5a:20), underscoring that the Land itself—not merely residence in it—is treated as a precious spiritual acquisition.
Later authorities explicitly debate whether this reward of "four cubits" applies even to one who comes only to visit and intends to return, rather than to settle. Rav Mordechai Eliyahu cites the Pesach HaDevir's view that the Rambam holds even a visitor without intent to settle fulfills the mitzvah, since all that is required is the mere act of walking in the Land (Maamar Mordechai Hilchot Shabbat, Chelek 1 4:6; Maamar Mordechai Hilchot Shabbat, Chelek 5 108:28), and the Mishnah Berurah similarly records the opinion that even one who intends to return fulfills a mitzvah merely by walking there (Mishnah Berurah 248:29).
Modern thought adds that the spiritual atmosphere of the Land itself shapes a person who comes into contact with it: Rav Kook writes that a Jew's thoughts and inner faculties cannot attain the same purity and fidelity outside the Land as within it, since the sanctity hovering over Eretz Yisrael refines the thoughts of one bound to it (Orot, Lights from Darkness, Land of Israel 1-4), and Peninei Halakhah recounts how the Sages, upon reaching the border of the Land, would kiss its stones and roll in its dust out of sheer love for it, fulfilling the verse about God's servants cherishing her stones and dust (Rav Eliezer Melamed (Peninei Halakhah, The Nation and the Land 3:10)).
Be'er Moshe takes up directly whether traveling to Eretz Yisrael merely for a visit constitutes a mitzvah, pointing the reader to further discussions in the Sadei Chemed, Vayoel Moshe, and Mordechai on this question (the Debrecener Rav (Be'er Moshe 1:57)).
Tzitz Eliezer likewise acknowledges that traveling to Eretz Yisrael constitutes an important and distinctive mitzvah in its own right, sufficient to permit undertaking the journey, drawing on the views of later authorities even regarding travel undertaken with the intention of returning (Tzitz Eliezer 4:5).
Mishneh Halachos argues, following the Ramban and the Chatam Sofer, that the mitzvah of dwelling in the Land begins to be fulfilled from the moment of entry, so that even a brief visit involving eating, sleeping, commerce, or similar activity contributing to its settlement fulfills part of the mitzvah even if one intends to return (Rav Menashe Klein (Mishneh Halachos 2:56)).
