Shabbos Parashas Yisro - 5779

Shabbos Parashas Yisro - 5779

Rabbi Hal Miller

They journeyed from Rephidim and arrived at the wilderness of Sinai and encamped in the

wilderness, and Israel encamped there, opposite the mountain. [Shemos 19:2]

The Torah told us that Israel encamped in the wilderness of Sinai. Why does it repeat the

same word and say that they encamped there opposite the mountain? Most commentators on

this verse concentrate on the repetition of the journeying from Rephidim, which is mentioned

in a couple other verses as well, but clearly the Torah has some additional lesson in this repeat.

As usual, Rashi is brief. "As one man, with one heart, but all the other encampments were with

complaints and argumentation." While certainly a valid point, it seems that the Torah could have

worded it in a more clear fashion.

Rav Hirsch notes that at each of the other places of encampment, the Israelites moved into an

area, then scouted around for the best site to pitch the camp. Here, with Sinai being their

actual destination, they knew immediately to just stop and build their tents without further need

of delay. This follows Ramban, who added that here Israel stopped in the desolate wasteland

before the mountain, not even bothering to look around for water or protection against the

elements.

Ramban added a second alternative, that they separated out from the "rabble", the non-Jews who

had followed them out of Egypt and had a lot of practice causing Israel trouble. Here, the first use

of the word was for this rabble, and the second applied to Israel who had gone on closer to the

mountain, from which this mixed multitude was banned.

Onkelos supports both Ramban/Hirsch and Rashi. He looks at the tense of the language. The

first 'encamped' is in the plural, but the second one is in the singular, which would explain the

mixed multitude-Israel separation into two camps and the "with one heart".

Perhaps we can also understand it that regular camps during the travel all fit under the class of

the first use of the word here, tied to Rephidim, which was one of the parts of the itinerary. The

second use of the word is something special, a side trip from the overall journey to the land of

Canaan, where Israel stopped to meet God. This fits well with Onkelos and the singular nature

of the word, with Rashi and the "one heart", with Ramban and the split camp, as well as acts as

a designation of a special event outside of merely traveling, which clearly is what is coming up

as Israel becomes the only nation ever to meet God face to face, each and every citizen as an

individual, not just one representative who claims to have done so.