Judith Karpati [ * 96 ] Rabbi Phineas ben Yair says : Quickness leads to cleanliness, cleanliness leads to purity, purity leads to separation, separation leads to sanctity, sanctity leads to humility, humility leads to fear of sin, fear of sin leads to piety, piety leads to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit leads to the resurrection of the dead, and the resurrection of the dead leads to the coming of Elijah, may he be remembered for good, Amen . 1 Thus, this rabbinical approach makes the purifying water into the focal point of Jewish religious life . As mentioned in the introduction, in the Babylonian Talmud ( Bekhorot 55 a ) , we read that the source of all the waters is the river of Eden : Rab Judah reported in the name of Rab : All other rivers in the world are lower than the three ] Pishon, Gihon, Hidekkel [ and these three are lower than the Euphrates . According to Rabbi Kaplan, this means that all the waters in the world draw their supply from the Euphrates, i . e . , from the ri...
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