“What is Mt. Sinai? A mountain on which the hatred to the nations of the world descended” (Shabbat [Sabbath] 89). We should understand why the Torah caused hatred specifically toward Israel, and why we do not say that there is hatred between Ishmaelites and Christians, for example. We should interpret that in ethics, the “nations of the world” are their desires, meaning corporeal lusts whose wish is only to fill their stomachs. The carrier of this is the evil inclination.

Conversely, “Israel” is called “the desire for the work of the Creator,” and its carrier is the good inclination. During the work, a person has desires and yearnings for corporeal lusts. It follows that the person loves the nations of the world and has a lot of work to be able to overcome so as to change these desires. But this is possible only through the Torah, whose attribute is to hate all the corporeal lusts.

We should interpret that it is called “Mt. Sinai” because hatred descended to the nations of the world. That is, through the Torah, one is rewarded with hatred for the nations of the world, establishing in one’s heart hatred for the evil inclination, as our sages said, “The light in it reforms him.”