Bermidba, egalitarianism, Jewish style.

The parashah of Bermidba is generally read.

On the Shabbat before Shvo at Zman, Matan Toratainu, the time of the giving of our law, the revelation at Sinai.

So the sages, believing that nothing is coincidental, search for some connection between

the two. To find one isn't easy. There's nothing in the parasha about the giving of the Torah.

Instead, it's about a census of the Israelites, nor is its setting helpful. We're told at the beginning that the events about to be described took place

amid Barra Sinai in the wilderness of Sinai,

whereas when the Torah speaks about the great revelation,

it speaks about Har Sinai, Mount Sinai.

One is a general region, the other a specific mountain within that

region. Nor are the Israelites at this stage walking towards Mount Sinai to the contrary they are

preparing to leave. They're about to begin the second part of their journey from Sinai to the

promised land. The sages did nonetheless make a connection and it's a surprising one.

And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai wilderness, that's the opening of our Parishah.

Why the Sinai wilderness?

From here the sages taught that the Torah was given through three things,

fire, water and wilderness.

How do we know it was given through fire?

Because Exodus 1918 says,

and Mount Sinai was all in smoke as God had come down on it in fire.

How do we know it was given through water? As it says in Judges 5'4, the heavens dripped and the clouds dripped water. How do we know it was given through wilderness? As it says, and God spoke to Moses in the

Sinai wilderness. And why was the Torah given through these three things? Just as fire, water,

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