For the week ending 2 December 2006 / 11 Kislev 5767
One Mountain, Four Names
"The Zidonim call Mount Hermon 'Siryon' and the Emori call it 'Senir’."
(Devarim 3:9)
"To Mount Sion which is Hermon."
(ibid. 4:48)
Hermon, Siryon, Senir and Sion.
Four names for one mountain!
"To teach you the praise of Eretz Yisrael that four different nations took pride in having some connection with it, each of them demanding that the mountain should bear the name which it gave to it."
(Sifri quoted by Rashi)