The Smallest of all Mountains
The Torah was not given on the tallest mountain, says the Midrash, in order to symbolize that to receive the Torah we must be humble, like Mount Sinai, which was the “smallest of all mountains”.
If humility is so important, why was the Torah given on a mountain altogether? Would it not be better for the Torah to be given in a plain or a valley?
In the Kabbalah, humility is synonymous with wisdom. That’s because the key ingredient to wisdom is the humility to recognize that our own perspective is not sufficient, the recognition that we must seek deeper and higher understanding. Every intellectual breakthrough is dependent on someone having the courage to tell himself or herself, “although everyone, myself included, has a deep rooted perspective on this issue, I know that I may be completely wrong”. Without this humility no new wisdom is possible.
This is true about all wisdom, and is even more true about the divine wisdom, the wisdom of the Torah.
To receive the Torah, we must be humble and small like Sinai. To receive the Torah we must be open to a completely radical shift of viewpoint. To grasp the divine logic, we must be open to a new a perspective that is not self centered but that is spiritually centered.
And that is why Moses, was chosen to be the one through whom G-d gave us the Torah. Moses was chosen not because he was the smartest, or the brightest, or the best teacher, or the best communicator. Moses was chosen because “this man Moses was exceedingly humble, more so than any person on the face of the earth.[1]” What was the greatness of Moses? What was the quality that made him the appropriate conveyer of the Torah? It was his humility, his ability to put his perspective aside and view reality from G-d’s perspective.
And yet, being Sinai-small is not enough. One must also be a mountain.
For the Torah was given on a mountain not in a valley, because to learn and live the Torah, we must be humble on the one hand, but proud on the other.
Absolute humility is dangerous.
To learn and live the Torah we must be fully aware of our immense worth in the eyes of G-d. The attitude most devastating to spiritual growth is the one that says “G-d does not care what I do”, it’s the one that says “I am insignificant to the creator of such a vast universe”.
To follow the Torah is to understand how valuable we are in the eyes of G-d. To live the Torah is to feel how the purpose of the entire universe's creation is in our hands.
To receive the Torah we must be a Sinai, we must be both “small” and “mountain”, humble yet proud[2].
[1] Numbers 11:3.
[2] Based on Lekutey Torah Bamidbar page 15.