Fire, Water and Wilderness: Giving the Body Over to Torah

1“Hashem spoke to Moshe in the Wilderness of Sinai.”¹ The Midrash says: “Why ‘in the Wilderness of Sinai’? From here the Sages taught that the Torah was given through three things: through fire, through water and through the wilderness. Through fire, from where? ‘And Mount Sinai was all in smoke …’ Through water, from where? As it says, ‘The heavens also dripped, the clouds also dripped water.’ Through the wilderness, from where? ‘Hashem spoke to Moshe in the Wilderness of Sinai.’ And why was it given through these three things? Just as these are free to all who come into the world, so the words of Torah are free, as it says, ‘Ho, all who are thirsty, go to the water.’ Another explanation of ‘Hashem spoke to Moshe in the Wilderness of Sinai’: whoever does not make himself ownerless like a wilderness cannot acquire wisdom and Torah. That is why it says ‘in the Wilderness of Sinai.’”² But why was the Torah given through these three things in particular?

2It seems we can explain it this way. Before we learn Torah or do a mitzvah, we say the blessing “Who has sanctified us with His commandments,” because the Torah and the mitzvos bestow holiness on a person's body. This is the sense of “We will do,” na'aseh:³ through the Torah the body is “made,” na'aseh, whole and rectified, for the Torah changes a person's very form. But this happens only when a person toils hard at Torah study; through this toil he is privileged to bend his body to the honor of the Creator. That is what Chazal meant by saying that a person must make himself ownerless like a wilderness. He must hand his body over, like something ownerless, to avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem, laboring with all his strength, mind and heart, so that his whole body is subject to the Creator. We find this in the Gemara's discussion of the giving of the Torah. A certain Sadducee saw that while Rava was deep in his learning, blood flowed from his body.⁴ For a person must give over his whole body when he engages in Torah.

3In this light we can explain what Chazal said: “All agree that on Atzeres we also require ‘for you.’”⁵ But why, at the very time the Torah was received, is “for you,” physical enjoyment, required as well? We may say, by way of hint, that a person must bring the physical side of life into the Torah too, giving his body over like an ownerless wilderness.

4This lets us explain the Midrash: “The Torah was given through three things: through fire, through water and through the wilderness.” “Through fire” hints at the holy fire that flows down upon a person when he engages in Torah and mitzvos. “Through water” hints at the good middos that the power of the Torah earns him, the character traits of lowliness and humility. As Chazal said: “Why are words of Torah compared to water? To tell you: just as water leaves a high place and flows to a low place, so the words of Torah endure only in one whose mind is lowly.”⁶ And “through the wilderness” hints that he must give his body over to avodas Hashem, like an ownerless wilderness.

5May the Holy One, blessed be He, help us receive the Torah with both hands. Amen, may it be His will.