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Mount Sinai's Location


Question:

I know the Torah was given on Mount Sinai. Do we know which mountain that is? If not, how could the Jewish people have lost the identity of such a holy place?



AskTheRabbi.org answered:

Mount Sinai, where the Torah and Ten Commandments were given, is not a holy place nowadays. Some 3,300 years ago when the Torah was given to us there it had a holiness, but afterwards it lost its holiness. It is not even part of the historical Land of Israel promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

There are theories as to where it is located, but interest in its location is purely for historical information and lacking any religious significance.

The message that we learn from the Torah being given in the desert - a place open to anyone - and on a mountain that wasn't special in any way, is that the event of the Giving of the Torah to us by God is a central event in our nation’s existence.


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