Moses Mountain (Jabal Musa)

You can imagine, one same mountain that all religious faiths meet. Moses Mountain (Jabal Musa), also popularly known as Mt Sinai—whatever the name, this mountain is sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims equally as the place where God presented Ten Commandments to Moses, an instant when heaven came down to earth and divine law was inscribed not only on stone but on the heart of man. It is the Asceding to Divine revelation. Standing at a sacred peak of 7,497 feet above sea level in the southern Sinai Peninsula, Jabal Musa, gives pilgrims not just a physical but a spiritual climb towards divine revelationn. It is a representation of the soul’s journey towards unity with God.

The spiritual climb up Moses Mountain tends to begin early in morning so that pilgrims are at the top before sunrise. This timing is a strong symbolic moment, as sun rises over harsh landscape, much like the divine light that shone when God manifested himself in the burning bush. The majority of travelers find the climb to be a meditative experience, each step a prayer and each pause an occasion for contemplation physical expression of the religious ascent described by the mystics as “dark night of soul” towards divine light. There are two main routes to the top: the more straight but more-vertical Siket Sayidna Musa (Way of Our Lord Moses) with 3,750 steps, and the more moderate but longer camel route.

These combine for the final 750 steps to the top a reminder that whatever spirituality we practice, individually each of us has to make our own ascent to God. Along the way, tiny chapels and stations offer a place to stop and rest and reflect, like the Chapel of St. Elias, in which prophet Elijah is said to have heard God’s voice not in wind, earthquake, or fire, but in the “sound of sheer silence” (1 Kings 19:12).

These stops invite pilgrims to pause and discern God’s voice in their own life, cultivating discrimination that distinguishes God’s will from many voices that compete for our hearing. Near top, a small mosque and a chapel for Christians resides together, representing the mutual regard for this holy site by different faiths a tribute to human hunger for divine that transcends faith. The sweeping view from top gazes out over mountains and valleys surrounding, an awe and wonder moment by some characterized as a spiritual experience unto itself a peek at glory of God as reflected through creation. Glancing from so far up, one can understand why Psalmist penned: “The heavens are telling glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).For less able to climb, part of way can be done on hire camels, and neighborhood Bedouin guides are available to entertain visitors with stories and traditions associated with mountain.

Descending brings another perspective, morning sun illuminating features of the ground which were hidden in darkness as they ascended just as spiritual awareness usually follows an experience of darkness and adversity when the light of understanding gradually dawns. The Catholic tradition has centuries of familiarity with mountains as places of intensive encounter with God from Mount Sinai to Mount of Beatitudes to Mount Calvary. Climbing Moses Mountain confirms pilgrims in this tradition of looking for God in places above, of ascending in body and soul to draw near to Divine. The journey becomes a symbol for Christian life, its struggles and delights, its periods of fatigue and ecstasy, its ultimate destination of oneness with God.