The Torah relates: “On the third month after the Jews left Egypt, on this day, they arrived at the Sinai Desert.” The Talmud explains that “this day” refers to the first of the month—Rosh Chodesh Sivan. The passage then continues: “And Israel camped there,” using the singular vayichan instead of the plural vayachanu—an indication of the absolute unity that then prevailed; the Jews camped “as one man with one heart.” This unity caused G-d’s decision to go ahead and give the Jewish people His Torah, as the Midrash relates: G-d declared, “Since the Jews hate divisiveness and love peace, and have formed one, united camp—it is now time to give them My Torah.” (Chassidus explains the seven weeks of counting the Omer as a process of rectifying a person’s seven character attributes.)
The Jews reached Sinai on Rosh Chodesh Sivan—the third day of the last week of the Omer. They had already rectified the three primary branches of the last week’s attribute—chesed, gevurah, and tiferes of malchus. Hence, their spiritual refinement was now considered complete. It is clear from the Midrash that G-d was ready to give the Torah immediately—on Rosh Chodesh Sivan. However, to enable the Jews to become ultimate “receptacles” to receive the Torah, an additional preparation was required on their part in addition to their unity. These were the detailed preparations carried out between the first and sixth of Sivan, as described in Parshas Yisro—and clearly laid out in the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch (see Addendum).
