Mesirus nefesh as the power to hear Hashem

היום הזה ראינו כו' ידבר אלקים כו' וחי ועתה למה נמות.

"This day we have seen... that God speaks [with man] and he lives — and now, why should we die?" (Devarim 5:21-22).

The Sefas Emes points to an apparent inconsistency in the verse: the people declare that one can hear God's speech and survive, yet in the same breath they fear dying.

וקשה לאו רישא סיפא.

And the difficulty is that the beginning [of the verse] does not match its end.

If they have just witnessed that a person can hear Hashem speak and remain alive, why do they immediately ask, 'why should we die?' The two halves seem to contradict.

אכן פרשנו כי כ"ז שהי' השמיעה בכח מסירת נפש שלא הבינו שיוכלו לשמוע להשאר בחיים בכח זה יכלו לשמוע הדברות.

But we explained: as long as the hearing was on the strength of mesirus nefesh — when they did not understand that they could hear and yet remain alive — by that very strength they were able to hear the Dibros.

At first their listening was powered by total self-sacrifice; they assumed hearing Hashem meant death and were ready for it. That readiness to die was precisely what enabled them to receive the commandments.

וכאשר ראו כי ידבר כו' וחי שוב חששו שלא יוכלו להתקיים עוד בחיים:

But once they saw that "[God] speaks... and he lives," they then feared that they would no longer be able to endure in life.

Once they realized survival was possible, their mesirus nefesh — the very engine of their hearing — was undercut. Lacking that self-sacrifice now, they feared they could not survive continued direct revelation, and so asked that Moshe hear in their place.

Summary: The verse seems to contradict itself: the people saw that one can hear God and live, yet they feared death. The Sefas Emes resolves it: their hearing had been carried by mesirus nefesh, a readiness to die. Once they recognized that survival was possible, that self-sacrifice fell away — and without it they could no longer withstand the direct revelation, hence their fear.