Rava heard that Rav Yosef was angry and came before him on Yom Kippur eve to appease him. He found the attendant of Rav Yosef, who was diluting a cup of wine with water before him. Rava said to the attendant: Give me the cup so that I will dilute the wine for him. The attendant gave it to him and Rava diluted the cup of wine. While Rav Yosef, who was blind, was drinking the wine, he said: This dilution is similar to the dilution of Rava, son of Rav Yosef bar Ḥama, who would dilute wine with more than the standard amount of water. Rava said to him: Correct, it is he. Rav Yosef said to Rava: Do not sit on your feet until you tell me the explanation of this matter: What is the meaning of that which is written: “And from the wilderness Mattana and from Mattana Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel Bamot” (Numbers 21:18–19)? Rava said to him that it means: Once a person renders himself like a wilderness, deserted before all, the Torah is given to him as a gift [mattana], as it is stated: “And from the wilderness Mattana.” And once it is given to him as a gift, God bequeaths [naḥalo] it to him, as it is stated: “And from Mattana Nahaliel.” And once God bequeaths it to him, he rises to greatness, as it is stated: And from Nahaliel, Bamot, which are elevated places. And if he elevates himself and is arrogant about his Torah, the Holy One, Blessed be He, degrades him, as it is stated: “And from Bamot the valley” (Numbers 21:20). And not only is he degraded, but one lowers him into the ground, as it is stated: “And looking over [nishkafa] the face of the wasteland” (Numbers 21:20), like a threshold [iskopa] that is sunken into the ground. And if he reverses his arrogance and becomes humble, the Holy One, Blessed be He, elevates him,
כמדבר שהוא מופקר לכל - מלמד תורה בחנם לכל:
Rashi on Nedarim 55a
"Like a wilderness, deserted before all" -- This teaches that Torah is freely available to all.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk
Only when you are "like a wilderness" are you ready to have God's presence rest upon you and merit the light of Torah. "Like a wilderness" means that you have not yet been touched by human hands, that you have never been cultivated or planted, that you must rely on your own strength, as in the teaching, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?" (Mishnah Avot 1:14)
(quoted in Itturei Torah [Hebrew], vol. 5, by Aharon Yaakov Greenberg [Tel Aviv: Yavneh, 1996], p. 9). Source: Jeffrey W. Goldwasser, "Becoming a Wilderness"
Rabbi D. Shoham, in Itturei Torah
Another reason that the Torah portion of Bamidbar is always read right before Shavuot, the time of the giving of Torah: to teach you that if you want to merit receiving Torah, you must make yourself like the wilderness, to have a great measure of humility and to feel no reason for pride, to know that you are bare and lacking all, like the wilderness.
Source: https://www.jewishrecon.org/sites/default/files/resources/document/bamidbar-wilderness.pdf
Numbers Rabbah 1:7
Adonai spoke to Moshe in the wilderness of Sinai…(Numbers 1:1): Why [was Torah given] in the wilderness of Sinai? From this the Sages taught: Torah was given to the accompaniment of three things: fire, water, and wilderness…Why was the giving of the Torah marked by these three features? To indicate that as these are free to all in the world, so also are the words of the Torah free...Anyone who does not make herself as open [hefker/ownerless] as the wilderness, is not able to acquire wisdom and Torah.
א"ר (אליעזר) מאי דכתיב (משלי א, ט) וענקים לגרגרותיך אם משים אדם עצמו כענק זה שרף על הצואר ונראה ואינו נראה תלמודו מתקיים בידו ואם לאו אין תלמודו מתקיים בידו ואמר ר"א מאי דכתיב (שיר השירים ה, יג) לחיו כערוגת הבשם אם משים אדם עצמו כערוגה זו שהכל דשין בה וכבושם זה שהכל מתבשמין בה תלמודו מתקיים ואם לאו אין תלמודו מתקיים . . .
אמר רב מתנה מאי דכתיב (במדבר כא, יח) וממדבר מתנה אם משים אדם עצמו כמדבר זה שהכל דשין בו תלמודו מתקיים בידו ואם לאו אין תלמודו מתקיים בידו רבא בריה דרב יוסף בר חמא הוה ליה מלתא לרב יוסף בהדיה כי מטא מעלי יומא דכיפורי אמר איזיל ואפייסיה אזל אשכחיה לשמעיה דקא מזיג ליה כסא אמר ליה הב לי ואימזגיה אנא יהב ליה מזגיה כדטעמיה אמר דמי האי מזיגא למזיגא דרבא בריה דרב יוסף בר חמא א"ל אנא הוא א"ל לא תתיב אכרעיך עד דמפרשת לי הני קראי מאי דכתיב וממדבר מתנה וממתנה נחליאל ומנחליאל במות ומבמות הגיא א"ל אם אדם משים עצמו כמדבר זה שהכל דשין בו תורה ניתנה לו במתנה וכיון שניתנה לו במתנה נחלו אל שנאמר וממתנה נחליאל וכיון שנחלו אל עולה לגדולה שנאמר ומנחליאל במות ואם מגיס לבו הקדוש ברוך הוא משפילו שנאמר ומבמות הגיא ואם חוזר בו הקב"ה מגביהו שנאמר (ישעיהו מ, ד) . . .
א"ר חייא בר אבא א"ר יוחנן מאי דכתיב (משלי כז, יח) נוצר תאנה יאכל פריה למה נמשלו דברי תורה כתאנה מה תאנה זו
Rabbi Eliezer said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “And chains about your neck” (Proverbs 1:9)? If a person makes himself like a chain that hangs loosely on the neck, i.e., if a scholar is not pushy and disruptive to others, and he is also seen but not seen, i.e., just as a chain is covered by clothes and hair, so too, the scholar does not let himself be seen, his Torah study will endure. But if not, if he acts in a rude and arrogant manner, his Torah study will not endure. And Rabbi Eliezer also said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “His cheeks are like a bed of spices” (Song of Songs 5:13)? If a person makes himself humble like this garden bed upon which everyone treads, and like this spice with which everyone perfumes himself, i.e., which benefits not only the one who wears it, his Torah study will endure. But if not, his Torah study will not endure. . . .
Similarly, Rav Mattana said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “The well that the princes dug out, that the nobles of the people delved, with the scepter, with their staves. And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah” (Numbers 21:18)? If a person makes himself humble like this wilderness, which is open to all and upon which everyone treads, his Torah study will endure and be given to him as a gift [mattana]. And if not, his Torah study will not endure. The Gemara relates that Rav Yosef had a grievance against Rava, son of Rav Yosef bar Ḥama, who is usually referred to in the Gemara simply as Rava, and as a result of the grievance the two would never meet. When the eve of Yom Kippur arrived, Rava said: I will go and appease him. He went and found Rav Yosef’s attendant mixing him a cup of wine. He said to the attendant: Give it to me, and I will mix it. He gave it to Rava, and Rava mixed it. Rav Yosef was blind and could not see his visitor, but when he tasted the wine he said: This mixture is similar to the mixture of Rava, son of Rav Yosef bar Ḥama, who would add extra water to the wine. Rava said to him: It is I. Rav Yosef said to him: Do not sit on your knees until you have explained these verses to me: What is the meaning of that which is written: “And from the wilderness to Mattanah; and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth; and from Bamoth to the valley in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks out toward the desert” (Numbers 21:19–20)? Rava said to him: If a person makes himself humble like this wilderness, which is open to all and upon which everyone treads, the Torah will be given to him as a gift [mattana]. And once it is given to him as a gift, he inherits it [neḥalo] and God [El] makes it His inheritance, as it is stated: “And from Mattanah to Nahaliel.” And once God has made it His inheritance, he rises to greatness, as it is stated: “And from Nahaliel to Bamoth,” which means heights. And if he becomes haughty, the Holy One, Blessed be He, lowers him, as it is stated: “And from Bamoth to the valley.” And if he repents, the Holy One, Blessed be He, raises him back up, as it is stated: “Every valley shall be exalted” (Isaiah 40:4). . . .
Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “He who guards the fig tree shall eat its fruit” (Proverbs 27:18)? Why were matters of Torah compared to a fig tree? Just as this fig tree,
Eitan Fishbane, "Becoming Like the Wilderness"
R. Bahya asks, restating an earlier midrashic teaching (Tanhuma, 6;
Bemidbar Rabbah, 1:7): why does the Torah emphasize God’s speech to
Moshe in the wilderness of Sinai ( בְּמִדְבַּר סִינַי )? It was to teach that “a person
does not attain the Torah until they have made themselves empty and
abandoned like the wilderness” ( אין אדם קונה התורה עד שיעשה עצמו הפקר
כמדבר ) [commentary to Num. 1:1]. To receive the revelation of Torah—or
perhaps a bit less grandly, to let Torah take root in one’s heart—a person
must first make themselves into a midbar, an inner empty wilderness that is
cleared of all the weeds and brush that obstruct true perception and feeling. A
wilderness that returns to the first purity of nature.
Just as divine revelation and the Torah arise from the physical space of
wilderness, of midbar—at the burning bush and then at Mount Sinai—a heart
infused with divine Torah arises through a person’s mindful cultivation of
their own interior wilderness. One should seek to attain the level of hefker—of
feeling unbound by the pride and egoism of ownership, of being unattached
to materialism. In hefker consciousness, we train our spiritual sight to see the
Divine Presence that dwells beneath the surface, beneath the many golden
calves of our obsessions, possessions, and wayward priorities. This is a radical
reinvention of the concept of hefker, a neutral halakhic category of
abandonment and ownerlessness (e.g. BT Eruvin, 45b).
In this transformed reading, the midbar may be said to embody a pure state
of emptiness—an inner cleansing that allows us to go deeper into the spiritual
path. Becoming hefker kemidbar is a process of letting go of our
imprisonment in materiality, in ephemeral and finite desires—to be liberated
into the vastness of an inner wilderness.
...
As the early Hasidic rebbe R. Menahem Mendel
of Vitebsk (Pri Ha’aretz, Letter 27) taught, true wisdom and humanity rises
from the cultivation of deep humility:
The Torah only stands firm in one who makes himself like a midbar
hefker before those who are poor of mind and rich of mind, and he
doesn’t think of himself as better than his friend. On the contrary, he
should be completely nullified before his friend, and it is through this that
they become united and bound up one with the other.
True spiritual refinement, the deepest attainment of hefker kemidbar, must
not remain at the level of individualistic mystical growth and the personal
quest for divine revelation. To realize the ideals of piety, to ensconce the
living Torah in the wholeness of oneself, a person must aspire toward a
genuine humility, to avoid the harmful path of judgmentalism and arrogance.
It is in the bond of loving friendship and fellowship, in kindness and humility
toward the other, that the Torah—and God—are most radiantly revealed.