They shall take from the dust of the burning of the sin offering and place on it living waters in a vessel. (Bemidbar 19:17)
This pasuk is talking about the Parah Adumah. And what was the Parah Adumah? It was essentially a sin offering, a korban chatas. This kind of offering possesses great kedushah. A korban chatas is considered kodshei kodoshim. This is the highest level of offerings.
However, the Parah Adumah is not actually offered on the Mizbeach. It is rather burned to ashes outside Beis Hamikdash. And, the ashes left over after the burning of the offering are just a remembrance of what was. They are a mere residue that lacks any real content of what used to be a korban.
Nevertheless, since these ashes come from a korban, they still have great kedushah. If they are combined with mayim chayim, water drawn from a running spring, they have the power to purify those who are impure and thereby render them fit for avodas Beis Hamikdash.
It says in Sefer Taam v’Daas that we can learn an important lesson from here. Every Jew comes from holy stock. Each one of us has many generations of tzaddikim in his lineage. Furthermore, our souls come from a supremely holy place. It’s just that our aveiros have burnt us up, so we are mere ashes of what we used to be. Some people have been so consumed by the fire that it is hardly recognizable at all that they belong to the holy Jewish people.
But we can still return to our original purity and regain our former kedushah. And this is learned from Parah Adumah. All we have to do is connect ourselves to the mayim chayim, to the Torah Hakedoshah, which is compared to a well of living waters. Because when the ashes of Parah Adumah are combined with the mayim chayim, they acquire special purifying powers. Similarly, we can return to our roots and ascend to high levels of kedushah and taharah.
This is why no Jew should ever despair of himself. He has holy roots. His soul was hewed from a place of purity. To regain it, he needs to devote himself to Torah learning, because without the mayim chayim of Torah, he is just burnt ashes. But with the mayim chayim of Torah learning, he is something very great indeed.
The truth is that combining ashes with mayim chayim is the very basis of the human being. A person’s body is created from the dust of the earth, and by virtue of Hashem breathing the soul of life into it, it becomes a live human being.
This shows that only if mayim chayim are combined with a person made from dust, by means of Torah learning, does he become a completed human being. Without the mayim chayim he remains a clump of earth.
This applies not just to humanity as a whole but also to each individual, every day. Hashem recreates the world every day, and when a person goes through a day without learning Torah, it is like he isn’t even alive that day. He is like a dry, lifeless clump of earth. Only when his earthiness is combined with mayim chayim does a pure and holy soul come out.
This could also explain why Jews prostrate themselves on the graves of tzaddikim and embrace their dust. It is because the place has the holiness of the tzaddik buried there, and tzaddikim are even greater in their death than during their lives.
However, this works only when the holy dust is combined with the living waters of the Torah. This means that the person who is visiting the kever recalls and thinks about the deeds of the tzaddik, how he conducted when he was alive, how careful he was about every mitzvah, how much he devoted himself to avodas Hashem and limud hatorah. When the holy dust combines with the living waters of Torah, the holiness and purity comes out, in the merit of the tzaddik, and the gates of Heaven open to pour out a wealth of blessings.
This does not happen if the holy dust remains without water. In other words, if people just go to kivrei tzaddikim without learning from the ways of the tzaddik. This won’t help anything. Light and blessing will never come from that.
But if a person sets himself to follow the ways of our holy forefathers and learn from their deeds, about him is said:
רָאָּפְתֶ אָּךְּר בֶׁשֲל אֵאָּרְׂשִי יָּתָּי אִּדְבַע – You are My servant; Yisrael, in you I take pride.
1 Yeshayahu 49:3.
