Transitioning from Har Sinai to Midbar Sinai

Torah Thoughts on Parshas Bamidbar by Rabbi Harvey Well

"וַיְדַבֵּר ה' אֶל מֹשֶׁה בְּמִדְבַּר סִינַי בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ הַשֵׁנִי בַּשָׁנָה הַשֵׁנִית לְצֵאתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם לֵאמֹר" בְּמִדְבַּר א':א'

“And God spoke to Moshe in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first of the second month, in the second year after the exodus from the land of Egypt, saying.” BeMidbar 1:1

The transition between the end of Sefer Vayikra and the beginning of Sefer BeMidbar is both interesting and instructive. At the very end of Vayikra the Torah states the following: “These are the commandments that God commanded Moshe for Bnei Yisrael at Har Sinai.” At the beginning of Sefer BeMidbar, however, the Torah refers to that very place by a different name, מִדְבַּר סִינַי – the Wilderness of Sinai. Why is that? Why the change in the name?

One possible reason is that the name reflects the subject matter of the two sefarim being discussed. Sefer Vayikra is primarily a sefer of Halachah, of Avodah, of how to maintain our spiritual identity, and the Chumash relates and connects the sefer to Har Sinai. This was the source of our Torah and mitzvos, where our essence as a spiritual people was defined. Sefer BeMidbar, on the other hand, describes our physical journey through the desert and the challenges we faced. Therefore, the Chumash uses the term BeMidbar Sinai, to emphasize this point. But perhaps the Chumash is also teaching and telling us how we must lead our lives as Torah Jews. We must first build our lives on Torah and mitzvos and allow them to be our guides as we prepare to go out into the world. This represents the stage we experienced at Har Sinai. Then, in order to remain shomrei mitzvos we need a strong foundation. In lacking such a foundation, we face the threat of being overcome by "the midbar", the cultures and societies in which we find ourselves.

And perhaps on an even deeper level, this describes the function of a yeshiva – and specifically our yeshiva, the Hebrew Theological College. When the Yeshiva was founded one hundred years ago, it literally established a bastion of Torah, not only in Chicago but throughout America. It brought Har Sinai, most especially, to the Chicago community. And with that foundation, its talmidim went out into the desert, spreading the knowledge of Torah near and far. Our Yeshiva brought Yiddishkeit to the masses and built Torah Judaism in Chicago and throughout America.

Hashem should give those who guide and teach within the Yeshiva the strength to continue with their melachas hakodesh for many years to come.

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Rabbi Harvey Well earned a B.H.L. at HTC (1965), and Semichah in 1968. He then attended Loyola Univ., earning a B.A. in Psychology, and an M.A. and a PhD in Educational Administration. He was Program Director at Camp Moshava (1965-66), an Instructor in Education Psychology (1968-70), Principal of Akiba Jewish Day School (1969-77), Superintendent of Schools for Assoc. Talmud Torahs of Chicago (1978-2009), Acting Principal of ICJA (1989-91), & Rabbi of Cong. Or Torah (1989-2009). He is the author of publications in the areas of Jewish Thought and Jewish Education. Rabbi Well and his wife now live in Israel.