Unity Overcoming Hatred

And they departed from Rephidim and came to the wilderness of Sinai and there Israel encamped opposite the mountain. Exodus 19:2

          Our verse employs the singular form, vayiḥan (literally he encamped). Rashi, quoting our Sages, comments that at Mount Sinai Israel was united as a single person, with a single heart, hence the verse uses the singular.

          My saintly teacher, Rabbi Mordechai Rogov, notes that prior to the Israelites’ arrival at Mount Sinai, the Torah consistently uses the plural vayaḥanu (they encamped).

          One of the Midrashic interpretations of the origin of the name Sinai is that it is a derivative of the word sin’a (hatred). Our Sages tell us that hatred of Jews comes from Sinai, from the fact that we accepted the Torah, while other nations rejected it.

          Rabbi Rogov explains that the use of the singular form reflects Israel’s realization that its only defense against its hateful enemies is its unity.

          The Hebrew wording of the verse “they encamped opposite the mountain” can be understood to mean the unity with which Israel encamped served as the counter-balance to the hatred of Israel which descended from Sinai.