Rambam - Sefer HaMitzvos: Positive Mitzvah 108: Positive Mitzvah 108

Positive Mitzvah 108: The Purifying Water
Numbers 19:21 "And he that touches the water of sprinkling (purification water), shall be unclean"

A person purifying himself after contact with a dead body must follow certain procedures. One step of his purification process involves Niddah Water.

This is a mixture of natural spring water, combined with the ashes of the Parah Adumah - the red heifer (cow). (See Positive Mitzvah 113).

This water possesses special qualities and when used properly, it can purify. However, it could cause the opposite effect on a person who touches the water for other purposes.

Imagine yourself sitting around a bonfire, enjoying the warmth, pleasant glow and atmosphere. Those same flames which cause so much pleasure, can also burn and destroy if one is careless.

Similarly, this purifying water can cause a person who misuses them to become impure.

No man can claim to have reached the ultimate truth as long as there is another who has not.
Ultimate truth is an unlimited light -- and if it is unlimited, how could it shine in one person's realm and not in another's?

From: Bringing Heaven Down to Earth by Tzvi Freeman - tzvif@aol.com