Chazal teach us that when Hashem spoke during the transition of the Torah the experience was so potent that the souls of the Jewish people simple blew out of their bodies and they died on the spot, only to be immediately revived and have the process repeated with the next facet.
It is understandable that Ma'amad Har Sinai had to be an exceptionally powerful experience. But why was it necessary to be overwhelmed to the point of death? Rav Pinchas of Koretz (and here) explains as follows:
Shlomo HaMelech advises us, "דאגה בלב איש ישיחנה" - a worry in a man's heart should be spoken out. The reason that getting something off our chest is so therapeutic is because even though the issue is not the issue is resolved, but rather we have a sense of release. The problem has been relinquished to a higher power.
Thus, Chazal explain that the word "ישיחנה" - should be discussed, should be interpreted "יסיחנה מדעתו", to remove it from the conscious mind (literally, to become distracted away from it). With this we are being taught that we have the ability to objectify our issues and see them and detach.
(This is one explanation as to why the word דבר means both 'thing' and 'word'. Our ability to speak translates an emotional experience into a quantifiable and rational terms. An animal, with no command of language has no sense of separateness from their surroundings. They are totally subject to their environment. Because man can speak he is privy to objectivity.)
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| The Kever of R' Pinchs zy"a |
In several places the term ישיחנה takes on other interpretations as well. That a moment of stress should be transitioned into a Torah-learning session. Thus our mind is connected to the source of all wisdom and we have the ability to return to the issue with more effective problem-solving tools. Elsewhere we are taught that it means we should take a rest. The spiritual benefit of a short nap when trying to deal with an issue is that when we sleep our souls are elevated to a higher world of unity, unbound by spiritual confines. In that sublime, meta-conscious level of sleep we are empowered to come back down into our physical bodies with more calm and conviction.
The common denominator of all of these interpretations is that we can only truly grapple with our most difficult issues when we approach from a perspective that is an 'out of body' experience. Only with that objectivity can we fully internalize what is being demanded of us. A verbal release, toiling in Torah and power-nap bring our minds to an elevated state. With bolstered mental capabilities we can rise to any occasion.
This explains why we heard in the Torah from Hashem in such a way that we died and were revived in the process. When it comes to internalizing and inculcating something so abstract and spiritually demanding as the ultimate Word of G-d Himself, the level of psychological relinquishing required is immense. Death, and the subsequent elevation of the soul is the ultimate out-of-body experience. Therefore the כוחות השכליים - the intellectual capacity of the resurrected far exceed regular human limits.
The practical application is as follows. Hashem communicates with us all the time. The universe is structured in such a way that we are constantly being sent divine messages. We can open a book of Torah at anytime and commune with the Almighty. But the approach must be that there is something broader going on here, that I am taking part in something bigger than myself. It is through realizing that the Torah and life itself are endless in their profundity that I can begin to grasp their essence.
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