Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 43

The Torah was given with three things: water, fire, and in the desert” (Bamidbar Rabba 1:7).

Water: The first element of Torah is to serve as a “means of extinguishing,” like water. The Torah does not come as a means to fulfill man’s desires outside the realm of Torah values. The Torah does not accept these at all; it rejects them, fights them, and comes to uproot them. “This is the Torah, should a man die in a tent” (Bamidbar 19:14). The Rabbis learn from this: “The Torah is preserved only with one who ‘kills himself’ over it” (Berachot 63b). This refers to killing one’s independent desires. This is a primary and necessary first step toward Torah.

Fire: A person of Torah is not without liveliness, feeling, and desires. Indeed, after he extinguishes the fire of personal desires, this is replaced by the Torah’s fire. “For indeed my words are like fire …” (Yirmiyahu 23:29). The Rabbis derived from Iyov 28:17, that whoever toils in the words of Torah, his face lights up with the hue of gold (Avot D’Rabbi Natan 24). “The ordinances of Hashem have rectitude; they make the heart happy” (Tehillim 19:9). We also find that all agree that everyone must have some physical festivity on Shavuot, because it is the day the Torah was given.

Desert: This has to do with the realization that without Torah one cannot exist. In the desert, the only way Israel could exist was through miracles. This teaches us that what appears to be natural survival is from its internal perspective, an existence through miracles. The desert also represents a state of total segregation between Israel and the other nations.

We are standing anew before the receiving of the Torah, and we are once again expected to accept – “we shall do” and “we shall hear” (see Shemot 24:7). The idea is to not only accept Torah as a necessity, but as something we choose freely.

Willfulness and coercion serve side by side. On the one hand, “No man will be able to escape from this Torah” (Rambam’s “Iggeret Teiman”), because Israel is by its nature a different existence from that of the nations. The name Sinai hints at the hatred (sinah) that entered the world from the jealousy of the world that we have Torah (Psikta Zutrata, Yitro 19). There is no way to deny this.

On the other hand, Israel willfully accepted the yoke of the coercive obligation and discipline of the Torah. To accept the yoke of Heavenly kingdom with recognition requires us to see ourselves as naturally obligated. It includes not only doing what we understand and what we would do of our own volition, but even doing things that are difficult for us.

However, if one does not have a proper approach, coercion will not work; coercion is not even part of the design. On the other hand, one who does desire [service of Hashem] should know that his will does not suffice, as he must accept the yoke of discipline. The self-restraint that originally appears burdensome eventually becomes self-apparent.

“On this day, they came to the Sinai Desert” (Shemot 19:1) – the words of Torah shall be new to you as if they were given today (Rashi ad loc.). Some think that the Torah must be given in a way that appeals to the taste of the generation. This is the approach of the Conservative Movement. We stand by the principle that this cannot be. We must toil to change what needs to be changed (i.e., the attitude of the generation).

The midrash (Bereishit Rabba, Vayeitzei 68) connects between the ladder in Yaakov’s dream and the revelation at Sinai. “There was a ladder” (Bereishit 28:12) – this relates to Sinai; “… placed on the ground” (ibid.) – this relates to “they were standing by the foot of the mountain” (Shemot 19:17). “… and its top reached the Heavens” (Bereishit ibid.) – this relates to “the mountain was burning with fire to the heart of the heavens” (Devarim 4:11). Even when it appears that things are being minimized and that there is no effort to have you do things willfully, the truth is that “its top reached the heavens.” This is the secret of “We shall do, and we shall hear.” One should not wait or rely on one’s self-realization or good will.