Where is Mount Sinai?

“Where is Mount Sinai?” Parashat Devarim 5784

Immediately after the exodus from Egypt, the Jewish people enter the Sinai Desert. Forty days later, they receive the Torah at Mount Sinai. While it is fair to assume that Mount Sinai is located somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula, its precise location is unknown. That said, there is an ancient tradition identifying it with Jebel Musa (Mount Moses), a seven-and-a-half-thousand-foot peak located in the southern Sinai Peninsula, about fifty kilometers due west of Dahab, a popular dive site on the Red Sea. At the foot of Jebel Musa lies Saint Catherine’s monastery, built in the sixth century, the world’s oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery. The tradition identifying Jebel Musa as biblical Mount Sinai goes back to the middle of the fourth century. While this is admittedly a fairly old tradition, there are still more than one thousand years between the fourth century and when the Torah was actually given.

The identification of Jebel Musa with Mount Sinai is not universally accepted. One reason is that while, admittedly, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, there is no archaeological evidence of a large group of people ever having lived there[1]. Another hypothesis championed by Harvard University professor Frank Moore Cross, who died in 2012, places Mount Sinai in ancient Midian, somewhere between modern northwestern Saudi Arabia and southern Jordan. Specifically, he identifies Mount Sinai with Jebel al-Lawz, the highest peak[2] in northwest Saudi Arabia, about one hundred kilometers northwest of Tabuk. For some reason, Jebel al-Lawz has been cordoned off by the Saudis. Ron Wyatt, a sort of “Indiana Jones” biblical archaeologist who died in 1999, tried to climb Jebel al-Lawz when he was caught by the Saudi authorities and jailed for 78 days for espionage. As if something of great value is hidden there… Perhaps the most amazing thing about Jebel al-Lawz is that the mountain top is visibly charred, befitting a mountain that during the revelation [Devarim 4:11] “Burned with fire to the heart of the heavens”. And as opposed to Jebel Musa, which lies in a mountainous area, Brian Schrauger, in describing his recent visit to Jebel al-Lawz, notes, “Looking down at the landscape below, it was easy to see how hundreds of thousands, maybe more, were able to assemble and witness [the revelation]”.

A number of prooftexts from the Torah add credence to a Midianite Mount Sinai. After Moshe kills an Egyptian taskmaster, his deed is discovered and he is forced to flee to Midian. In Midian, he has his first encounter with G-d at the burning bush. Moshe is tending the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro [Shemot 3:1]: “Moshe, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, drove the flock into the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the Mountain of G-d.” The medieval commentators are in general agreement that the “Mountain of G-d” is Mount Sinai. Well, if Moshe is living in Midian, why would he take his flock more than five-hundred kilometers into the Sinai Desert? But if Mount Sinai is located in Midian, and not in the Sinai Desert, than Moshe’s journey would have been much more reasonable.

A second prooftext: Years later, in preparation for entering the Land of Israel, Moshe sends spies to scout out the area. The Torah tells us [Bemidbar 13:22] “They spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin to Rechov, at the entrance of Hamat.” The Torah mentions some of these places in the context of the borders of Israel. The “Wilderness of Zin” is reported as being [Bemidbar 34:3] on the southern border “next to Edom,” in the southeast corner of the Land of Israel. Hamat is [Bemidbar 34:8] near the northwest corner of Israel. This would mean that that the spies took a north-westerly path. In fact, Rashi[3] explicitly asserts that the spies started at the southeast corner, cut due west to the Mediterranean Sea, and then trekked due north. The Sforno[4] explains that G-d told Moshe: “Enter from the side that we are encamped [so that] you will not have to move circuitously.” These explanations clearly indicate that the Jewish people were camped not in the Sinai Peninsula, to Israel’s southwest, but, rather, somewhere near Midian, to Israel’s southeast.

This year I came across a third prooftext. The Book of Devarim begins with a litany of places in which the Jewish people misbehaved during their sojourn in the desert. One of their greatest sins was believing the evil report of the spies, for which they were condemned to spend forty years wandering in the desert. Moshe chides them [Devarim 1:2]: “It [should have taken] only eleven days from Horeb to Kadesh-Barnea via Mount Seir.” Archaeologists assert that biblical Kadesh-Barnea is located on the modern Israel-Egypt border, about twenty-five kilometers west of Mitzpe Ramon. Mount Seir is located in ancient Edom[5], near modern-day Petra, Jordan. Why would a person travelling from south-central Sinai to northeastern Sinai travel via Petra? It is completely out of the way and increases the length of the journey by more than thirty percent. But a person traveling from a Mount Sinai in Midian to Mitzpe Ramon would go right past Petra, probably stopping to take pictures.

These three prooftexts offer great credence to a Saudi Mount Sinai. Slam dunk. But then Google Maps came along and destroyed the last two of my prooftexts. I asked myself a question: Had the Jewish people left Egypt last Wednesday, how would they have travelled? I opened Google Maps, set the starting point as “Cairo” and the destination as “Mitzpe Ramon.” To my great surprise, Google’s recommended route did not head to the northeast. Instead, it went east through the city of Suez and the Mitla Pass, took the Nekhel-Taba Road, through the Sinai Peninsula, where it hit the Red Sea at Taba, south of Eilat. From there the route turned northwards, passing, you guessed it, Mount Seir, and up into the Negev until Mitzpe Ramon. The reason the convoluted route was the preferred route is that the topography of the Sinai Peninsula makes a direct route too treacherous. The upshot is that whether Mount Sinai was in the Sinai Peninsula or in Midian, the most direct way to Israel goes past Petra[6]. And so the location of Mount Sinai remains an enigma, at least for now.

But why is this so? The answer lies in the ephemeral holiness of Mount Sinai. After the Torah was given [Shemot 19:13], a ram’s horn sounded and the mountain became no different than any other mountain, such that its location is just a factoid. Compare this with Mount Moriah (Har HaBayit), where the Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash) stood. In order to go up to Har HaBayit, a person must first purify himself in a ritual bath (mikvah), he must not wear leather shoes, and he must have the proper reverence as codified in Jewish law. Even then, there are still areas on Har HaBayit that one may not enter. Mount Sinai lost its holiness after the Torah was given because it was the Torah that lent the mountain its holiness. Once the Torah was given, its holiness resided in each and every Jew. Har Habayit, on the other hand, retains its holiness eternally because it serves as a metaphysical bridge between finite man and an infinite G-d. The Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of the Hassidic movement, summarises [Keter Shem Tov]: “G-d, the Torah, and Israel are one.” And that is all that really matters, isn’t it?

Ari Sacher, Moreshet, 5784

Please daven for a Refu’a Shelema for Shlomo ben Esther, Sheindel Devorah bat Rina, Esther Sharon bat Chana Raizel, and Meir ben Drora.

[1] 600,000 men between the ages of 20 and 60 stood at the foot of the mountain. Adding women and children, about 3 million people were in attendance.

[2] Jebel Musa is the 3^rd highest peak in the Sinai Peninsula. At 2,285 meters, it is only about 350 meters shorter than Jebel Katherina, the highest peak. Our Sages in the Midrash tell a story of how Mount Sinai was chosen as the mountain upon which the Torah would be given, specifically because it was not the tallest peak. According to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, this teaches the importance of humility. When hearing an instruction from the Torah, we need the ability to listen so that we can understand. Regardless of whether Mount Sinai is in the Sinai Peninsula or in Midian, our Sages in the Midrash would have disqualified both Jebel Musa and Jebel al-Lawz.

[3] Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, known by his acronym “Rashi,” was the most eminent of the medieval commentators. He lived in northern France in the 11^th century.

[4] Rabbi Ovadia ben Jacob Seforno, known as “The Seforno,” lived in Italy at the turn of the 16^th century.

[5] See Bereishit [36:8] “So Esau settled in Mount Seir, Esau being Edom.”

[6] A potential refutation of the first prooftext is found here: https://www.genesisforordinarypeople.com/exodus-faq/why-would-moses-be-on-the-far-side-of-the-wilderness