Why God Chose the Smallest Mountain & Uncle Moishy

Have you ever caught yourself dismissing the Jewish lessons you learned as a child? Those Uncle Moishe songs and "simple" Torah stories might contain more wisdom than we give them credit for.

The mountains competed for God's attention. Mount Tabor and Mount Carmel—majestic, impressive peaks—proudly proclaimed their worthiness to host the giving of the Torah. They boasted of their grandeur and demanded recognition. Yet God chose neither. Instead, the humble, unassuming Mount Sinai—which made no claims about its importance—was selected for the most momentous event in Jewish history. This wasn't coincidence but divine instruction: true honor finds those who don't chase it.

The Medrash Rabbah teaches us that humility isn't just a nice character trait—it's so essential that God designed the very staging of the Torah revelation to demonstrate it. Similarly, when God says "Let us make man" in Genesis, the Creator of the universe models the importance of consulting with those perceived as lesser, even at the risk of the text being misinterpreted. These seemingly simple stories contain profound wisdom about how we should move through the world—listening more than speaking, valuing others' perspectives, and recognizing our own limitations.

As adults, we have the capacity to engage with these teachings at a deeper level than we could as children. Instead of dismissing them as stories we've outgrown, what if we approached them with fresh eyes? The melodies may have introduced us to these concepts, but our mature minds can now appreciate their profound implications for our relationships and spiritual development. Take a moment today to reconsider a Jewish teaching from your childhood—its wisdom might be exactly what you need most right now.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Overlooked Wisdom of Uncle Moishe
• 0:54 Mountains of Pride: The Medrash Rabbah
• 1:20 Mount Sinai: Humility's Great Reward
• 2:17 The Genesis Lesson: "Let Us Make Man"
• 4:18 The Power of Listening with Humility

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

I wish adults wouldn't stop listening to Uncle Moishe. I wish we would all listen to the musical genius Uncle Moishe more often, because the basic and most fundamental points of Jewish belief are always delivered in his songs. The problem is is, when we get older, no matter where we hear the lessons again, whether through a CD of a singer or inside of a chumash, or from the mouth of an expertly delivered sermon from the great rabbi of your community, sometimes the same old lessons go off in your head and you say, oh, those are just children's stories, but you never relive Noah's Ark of Romo Vino, the 10 plagues, ever as an adult and this, god forbid, could be one of the examples. I ask you to lend an ear just for a minute for a medrash that maybe you've heard before, but it's important to hear it as an adult. The Medrash Rabbah 13.3.

Speaker 1: 0:54

What's an example of the haughtiness of a person that causes himself to be lowered? The gaiva gone wrong. Famous mountains that you've never heard of. The hill of Tabor, the gaiva gone wrong, ze, tovor, ve, karmel, famous mountains that you've never heard of. The hill of Tabor, the mountain, the sprawling and majestic mountain of Karmel that came from the end of the earth, mezgoyim loymar. And they very pompously said sh'anu gevoyim ve'alenu ma'kodesh baruch hu nosi nesatora, give the Torah unto me, god, when you're going to have this great wedding with you and the Jewish people, and expose yourself and rip open the seven heavens. Expose, expose yourself and give the Torah to a people. Do it on me. Mount Tabor, mount Carmel, they argued. But what's an example of being lowly, being humble? Humble is the one who really gets all the honors, that is mount sinai. That said, I'm lowly, I'm nothing, unassumingly relaxing in the corner upon that mountain. God gave the torah. Now think about that for a second as an adult.

Speaker 1: 2:03

This is the event of all events, the wedding of all weddings. It's supposed to be the most miraculous thing. Just imagine the 100th dinner to celebrate Yeshiva's mirror, with all of the billionaire donors sitting up there with all the great rabbis. But it's to be done very modestly, right? Harsinai is the wedding of all weddings, the Torah of all Torah. The mountain of all mountains needs to be chosen. It can't just be a small little cheese and crackers festivity. Imagine if a Rothschild was marrying a Shroun Rav Shmuel, kamenetzky wedding Rav Don Segel, any of the insert big, famous Jews, torah scholars, donors, benefactors. In that event, they're now joining forces, god and the Jewish people. We need a mountain, but God chose, like a trailer park home, a tiny, small, little mountain.

Speaker 1: 2:53

Why would God do that? Because to teach the lesson the medrash is clear, the Torah is clear To teach you the importance of humility. To teach you the humble one is the one who wins, he's the one who gets all the honor, not in a way that you hear people saying I've been running for honor for so many years, I've been fleeing from honor, it hasn't caught up to me. Those people most of the time are looking over their shoulder for the covet to run after them, but literally, to be an honest, unassuming person that it's not about me, it's about others. That lesson is taught by picking Harsinai and it makes the most incredible of all events small. Because how important.

Speaker 1: 3:33

We see here is the lesson of Anipos. The same thing, a similar lesson is done when Hashem. He says nasa, adam, let us make man. What do you mean? Let us make man? The creation of man only has one creator. The whole world only has one creator. There's only one Genesis by one entity. Why is God saying nav seh, plural, asking the angels? Because Rashi tells us.

Speaker 1: 3:51

This verse does not hold back from teaching Listen to younger, ask advice from the smaller, be humble. How important it is the lesson of humility that, even at the event of all events, unassuming and humble mountain was chosen, and even by the very mentioning of the creation of man, god puts heresy on the line. To teach the importance of humility, to do something practical. Why don't we listen to other people when they talk, not think we always know the answers, but to honestly, with an open ear, listen because, hey, maybe I'm not all that great and maybe someone else has something good to say? It's one of the important lessons that we heard as a child from the great Uncle Mychee that we need to rehash and rethink about now that we're adults. Thank you.