The Gemara in Sotah (5a) teaches: א"ר יוסף לעולם ילמד אדם מדעת קונו שהרי הקדוש ברוך הוא הניח כל הרים וגבעות והשרה שכינתו על הר סיני – “A person should always learn (about haughtiness) from his Creator. Hakodosh Boruch Hu left all the hills and mountains and rested His Shechinah on Har Sinai (a low mountain)”. Just like the Ribbono Shel Olam humbled himself, and gave the Torah on the lowest mountain, we too need to be careful and make sure not to be haughty.
The Divrei Yatziv uses this Gemara to answer a famous question. We say in Dayeinu: אילו קרבנו לפני הר סיני ולא נתן לנו את התורה דיינו - “If He would have brought us to Har Sinai and not given us the Torah, it would have been enough.” Everyone asks, what would have been the point of coming to Har Sinai and not receiving the Torah?
The Divrei Yatziv answers with the Gemara in Sotah, that the purpose of coming to Har Sinai would have been to learn the importance of not being to haughty. Just like Hashem humbled Himself and rested on Har Sinai - the lowest of mountains, similarly, sometimes we also have to be careful with haughtiness.
The question is, however, if Hashem chose to rest on Har Sinai to teach us a lesson in haughtiness, why did He not rest on the ground and give us the Torah from the ground, why did it have to be given on a lowly mountain?
Answers:
The Haga’os Ya’avatz (Sotah 5a) and the Kotzker answer: Although haughtiness is a middah which is disgusting in the eyes of Hashem, a talmud chocham needs to have a little bit of haughtiness, a שמינית שבשמינית – an eighth of an eighth”, to stand up for himself and do what’s correct, and not let people scoff at him. Therefore, the Torah was given on a low mountain, to show that a little bit of haughtiness is needed.
The Ya’avatz offers a second answer, which is that if the Shechinah would rest on the ground we wouldn’t have noticed the lesson Hashem is trying to teach us.
The Gemara in Succah teaches: In the future, Hakodosh Boruch Hu is going to bring the yetzer horah and slaughter it in front of the tzaddikim and the reshoim. To the tzaddikim it will appear as a high mountain, and for the reshoim it will appear like a hair. These will cry and these will cry. The tzaddikim will cry and say, “How were we able to conquer such a huge thing”, and the reshoim will cry and say, “how were unable to conquer such a small thing”. The Divrei Yatziv suggests: The Torah was given on a mountain to hint to us, that even if chas vesholam a time comes where the yetzar horah seems to be winning, and is appearing to us like a big mountain, we still need to accept the Torah with mesirus nefesh. (Otzros Divrei Yatziv, Shabbos 574)
