Rabbiner Samson Raphael Hirsch sel. A.:

The Jewish people and the Torah are different from any other people and any other set of laws. They are the only people in history to have laws before it had a land, and this is the only legal code that was not instituted to enrich the life of a people and to establish their prosperity on their national soil. Just the opposite! The Torah is itself the purpose towards which everything else is directed. Every other nation first became a people because it had a land, abnnd then fashioned laws in order to keep its land. But you become a people by virtue of the Torah, and only when you received it were you given a land for its sake. Other nations' laws reflect their unique national character as shaped by their geography and the ebb and flow of their history; while the man through whose hands you received the Torah (Moses) never set foot on the soil of your land in his life.... The Torah is absolute and eternal, while you and the land are relative and temporary. Its laws do not fluctuate with your fortunes and those of the land, rather you and the land rise and fall according to your devotion to the Torah. You await eagerly the moment when the gates of the land will be opened before you, the land you are given in order to keep the Torah. You are the people of the Torah - not the people of the land, and the land is the land of the Torah - without the Torah it is not the Land of Israel.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch - Architect of Torah Judaism for the Modern World, page 274. Deutscher Originaltext: Pentateuch-Kommentare, Devarim 4:5; Gesammelte Schriften I, S. 114; II, S. 4; VI, S. 64; VII, S. 96; VIII, S. 293; Die Neunzehn Briefe, Briefe 8, 9, 16; Kommentare, Shemos 25:13; Kommentare, Psalmen 78:54