The Miracle of Mount Sinai’s Stones: The Eternal Burning Bush Engraved in Rock

At the awesome and majestic moment of the Revelation at Mount Sinai, on the sixth of Sivan in the year 2448 from Creation, something miraculous was engraved upon the mountain forever.
To this day, within the very stones of Sinai, there remains a mysterious mark — the image of the “sneh” (thorn bush) through which God first revealed Himself to Moshe.

Each fragment of rock taken from the mountain bears, on every side, tiny vein-like markings resembling delicate branches of a bush. This extraordinary phenomenon has fascinated sages and scientists alike for generations.

Modern visitors have confirmed that the wonder persists. A group of travelers who visited Mount Sinai brought back stones from the site, and even today, no matter how finely the stones are broken, each fragment still shows a perfect miniature image of the bush — complete and intact, only smaller.

The booklet “The Divine Image of the Bush on the Stones of Mount Sinai” records testimony from Rabbi Naftali Teich of Petach Tikva, who studied these stones for years. He took samples to the pathological institute of a Jerusalem university, where they were crushed into powder. Under an electron microscope, even the microscopic grains of dust still displayed the same pattern of the bush.

Historical Testimonies

This miracle has been known for centuries. Jewish travelers to the Holy Land would collect handfuls of the mountain’s stones to show their brethren in the Diaspora. Holding a piece of “the mountain of God” in their hands filled them with awe — imagining that on these very stones their ancestors had stood as the divine fire blazed to the heavens.

One of the earliest testimonies comes from a distinguished Jew of Barcelona, a member of the famed Ben Hasdai family, who visited Sinai in medieval times. Amazed by the markings, he took several stones home and presented them to Rabbi Moshe Narboni.

Rabbi Shem Tov Ibn Falaquera, writing some 700 years ago in his commentary on Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed (Part I, ch. 66), quotes Narboni’s account: “Know that concerning Mount Sinai, it is testified that its stones bear upon them the image of the bush (‘sneh’); hence the mountain is called ‘Sinai’ from the word ‘sneh’… One of the noblemen of Barcelona, of the family of Ben Hasdai, brought some of those stones, and I saw with my own eyes the bush perfectly engraved — a divine design! I broke the stone in half, and the image appeared in each part; I broke it again and again until the pieces were the size of nuts, and still the bush appeared whole. I was astonished and rejoiced greatly.”

Later sages, including Rabbi Nathan Shapira of Cracow (author of Megale Amukot, c. 400 years ago) and Rabbi Yaakov Emden (author of Migdal Oz, c. 300 years ago), also referenced this testimony.

A later account appears in the writings of Rabbi Yaakov Sapir HaLevi, a Jerusalem emissary who traveled widely across Jewish communities in the 19th century. Known for his realism and skepticism toward folklore, Rabbi Sapir nonetheless described what he personally witnessed in his travelogue Even Sapir (ch. 14): “These mountains are barren, without a blade of grass. It is said that since the command ‘Neither flocks nor herds shall graze before this mountain,’ no vegetation grows there. As I trod upon the stones, they broke beneath my feet, and I saw within them fine branching lines, like the veins in olive wood.”

The Spiritual Meaning of the Burning-Bush Pattern

The great Kabbalist Rabbi David Shlomo Eibeschitz (author of Levushei Serad, d. 1810 in Safed) delved deeply into the symbolism of this wonder in his work Arvei Nachal. He explained that the bush-like patterns reflect the shared humility of Moshe, Mount Sinai, and the thorn bush itself.

• Moshe was “the humblest of all men.”

• Mount Sinai was “the lowest of all mountains,” chosen for the giving of the Torah precisely because of its humility.

• The thorn bush is “the lowest of all trees,” both small and covered in thorns.

From this he taught: “The Torah endures only in one who humbles himself — like the bush, like Mount Sinai, and like Moshe.”

He further noted a remarkable numerical symmetry: the Hebrew words “Sneh” (סנה) and “Sinai” (סיני) both equal 120 in gematria — the exact number of years Moshe lived. The number 120, he adds, alludes to the 120 combinations of the Divine Name, encompassing all sanctity from the highest realms to the lowest world of action.
Thus, the mysterious engravings in the stones conceal deep spiritual secrets that link the Torah, humility, and divine unity.

A Scientific Reflection

A simpler scientific-style explanation is offered by Rabbi Meir Mazuz, quoting Rabbi Emanuel Toledano. During the Revelation, the Torah says, “From heaven He made you hear His voice… and on earth He showed you His great fire.” (Devarim 4:36)

That intense heavenly fire may have melted the surface of the mountain, as implied by the verse, “The mountains flowed before the Lord, even Sinai before the Lord God of Israel.” (Judges 5:5)

According to this view, when the stones liquefied, the bushes growing on the mountain were absorbed into the molten rock. Their forms became imprinted inside the stones forever. Rabbi Toledano heard this theory from a French geologist familiar with volcanic and tectonic processes.

Why Sinai Is Unique

Some argue that stones bearing natural patterns exist in other mountains as well. Mount Sinai’s stones however, are unique: elsewhere, the markings appear only on the outer surface of rocks, while when broken open, the inner layers are plain.

At Sinai, however, the bush pattern reappears in every fragment, no matter how many times the stone is split — as if the entire mountain carries within it the eternal memory of the burning bush, engraved into creation itself.