For if not that he struck it, then they would not have toiled – Israel and the Tannaim and the Amoraim – in the Oral Torah, which is ‘rock’, but it is stated of it: (Num. 20:8)... and you shall speak to the rock, and it shall give its waters... – without effort, and it would be fulfilled of them: (Jer. 31:33) And they shall no longer teach... etc. and water would emerge, without ‘difficulty’, ‘debate’, and ‘decision’.
Because the Shekhinah, – of whom it is stated: (Jer. 23:29) ‘Is thus not My word like fire?’ says Y”Y – was dwelling in the mouths of Israel, for it is the Oral Torah, which is sel’a (rock), composed of ’AL (upon) and the letter Samekh ס (=60) which are the sixty tractates, for thus SeL’A is ‘upon (’AL) 60’ (Samekh).