Why the Wilderness?
The Torah states, “On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai (bamidbar sinai).” (Numbers 1) Why the added emphasis on the midbar—wilderness? It is a stark place. In the wilderness of Sinai there is little rainfall, but unlike a desert, the Sinai offers episodic rivulets of water where shrubs grow that can support livestock.
Why is the Torah not revealed in a lush forest, teeming with life or a rainforest for that matter that offers countless plant and animal species? Why not on top of the world’s tallest mountain or at least on top of a mountain that climbs higher than neighboring mountains? The rabbis respond and say that the Torah was revealed in the wilderness precisely because it is a wild and untamed place.
Midbar sinai is accessible to all. It is a place that belongs to everyone.
The Talmud continues: “One should be as open as a wilderness to receive the Torah.” The sages explain that the wilderness provides a contrast to Egypt, a place that was dominated by monuments fashioned by human hands. The midbar contained only monuments fashioned by God. Having hiked through the Sinai I can report that although it is a place of hardship and struggle—it is unbearably hot during the day and uncomfortably cold at night—there is a majesty to its wildness.
Rabbi Menahem Mendl of Kotzk, the Hasidic master, adds: “Only people who are willing to make nothing of themselves, who think of themselves as a midbar, are worthy of having the divine presence rest on them and of attaining the true light of Torah.” We must be empty like the wilderness in order to receive the Torah.
Perhaps this is why the Torah was revealed in this seemingly inhospitable place. Revelation is connected to a place that is not easy, a place that is synonymous with struggle and difficulty. We receive God’s revelation amidst hardship.
We receive the word when traversing a place of difficulty and struggle.