From the Rav’s Desk: Where is Har Sinai located?

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  1. Question: [Wednesday, 2nd Sivan, 5782]

Do we know today where Mount Sinai is located?

Answer:

The Torah was famously given on the mountain called Har Sinai or Har Choreiv. The tradition of its location became lost with the generations, and its last recorded whereabouts is recorded in Sefer Melachim regarding Eliyahu’s escape into a cave in the feet of the Sinai mountain. There is a tradition recorded in Poskim that the Sinai Mountain contains a bush shaped rock, although it is unclear where this mountain is found. Various non-Jewish traditions as to the location of this mountain have surfaced over the centuries, although none have conclusive evidence to provide to verify the location. Traditions, and historical speculation, vary from the Jebel Musa mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, to the Jabel Al Luz mountain in Saudi Arabia, all the way to the Kilimanjaro mountain in Tanzania. Practically, we do not have a tradition in this matter and any one of thousands of mountains in the Sinai and Arabian Peninsula can potentially be the Sinai mountain.

Sources: See Melachim 1:19-8; Yaavetz in Migdal Oz p. 240

About The Author

Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein is a 6th generation descendent of the famous Chief Rabbi of Izhmir, Rav Yehoshua Avraham Krispin, who authored a number of Sefarim, and was a colleague of Rav Chaim Falagi, and father in-law of the Pesach Hadvir. He currently lives with his wife Shayna, and twelve children K”H, in Tzfas, Israel. Rabbi Goldstein received Semicha from Rabbi Schneur Zalman Labkowski of the Tomchei Temimim headquarters in 2005 and served as a chaplain in the Lotar/Kalatz and K9 unit of the IDF from years 2005-2008. He is also a certified Shochet, and has performed Hashgacha work in slaughterhouses. Rabbi Goldstein is the director of Shulchanaruchharav.com, the world’s leading web-based Halacha database, and is the director of the Home Study Semicha Program, a self-study web-based Semicha program. He is a prolific author of over 50 Sefarim studied by a wide range of readers throughout the world, which is used regularly in Semicha programs around the globe. He is a world renowned Posek, answering questions to a web-based market, and serves as a local Posek, Rav, and Lecturer, in the Tzemach Tzedek community Shul in Tzefas, Israel. His many classes can be heard both from his website, Vimeo and YouTube channel. Students can join live to classes given in the Tzemach Tzedek Shul, through the “בית חבד צפת Chabad Tsfat” YouTube channel.

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