Why Tabor and Carmel Ran But Sinai Received the Torah

"I, to the LORD, I will sing" (Judges 5:3). And this is what Scripture says: "As Tabor among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come" (Jeremiah 46:18). When the Holy One, blessed be He, came to give the Torah, Tabor and Carmel heard, abandoned their places, and came; and Carmel swam through the sea. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, "Why do you look askance, O many-peaked mountains?" (Psalms 68:17) — why are you running and contending? You are blemished, as in the matter of which it is said, "or one who is hump-backed or a dwarf" (Leviticus 21:20). "The mountain that God desired for His dwelling" (Psalms 68:17) — this is Sinai. Even so, the Holy One, blessed be He, paid them their reward for the running by which they ran and came: at Tabor, Sisera and his armies fell, and salvation was wrought for Israel upon its summit. Once the enemies of Israel had fallen, it is said of it, "I, to the LORD, I will sing." At Sinai it is said "I [am the LORD]" (Exodus 20:2); and at Tabor it is said "I, to the LORD, I will sing" — said twice. And at Carmel the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He, was sanctified, and it was said there, "The LORD, He is God" (1 Kings 18:39), corresponding to "I am the LORD your God."