והזה הטהור על הטמא ביום השלישי וביום השביעי

The maamar opens with the verse on purifying one who became impure through contact with the dead: the water with the red heifer’s ashes is sprinkled on him on the third day and on the seventh day. The Alter Rebbe sets beside it Hoshea’s prophecy of the Resurrection, which also speaks of “the third day,” and the Midrash he cites counts this among Scripture’s great “third days.”

The Amidah prayer says that G‑d revives the dead “with great mercy,” and the Talmud speaks of a dew with which He will revive the dead. The Alter Rebbe identifies this dew, the great mercy, as the source of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, and refers to his fuller treatment in the discourse on the manna.

Tiferes, the third of the emotive attributes after Chesed and Gevurah, is the attribute of mercy and belongs to Yaakov. It is not confined to its own place: it reaches all the way up to Keser, where mercy is “great mercy,” the mercy that revives the dead.

The Zohar reads the middle bar of the Mishkan, which ran through all the boards from one end to the other, as Yaakov, who holds both sides and is complete on both of them, toward the holy Atik above and toward Z’eir Anpin. This is why the verse says “on the third day” specifically: the third attribute, Tiferes, reaches the great mercy that raises the dead. The Alter Rebbe adds that he discusses this verse again in connection with the Ten Days of Teshuvah.

In the Divine chariot the face of the eagle is the face of mercy, so G‑d’s carrying Israel “on eagles’ wings” is the arousal of mercy for the soul that has descended into this world. Through that mercy G‑d brings the soul truly “to Myself,” like the eagle in Moshe’s song that stirs its nest and carries its young on its wings.

The word lefanav, “before Him,” shares its root with pnimiyus, the inner dimension: in the Time to Come the inner dimension of Atik Yomin (the “Ancient of Days,” the innermost level of Keser) will be revealed, a level above the shattering of the vessels and their rectification. The Alter Rebbe ties this to another third day, when Avraham saw the place of the Akeidah “from afar,” and compares it to “Yaakov, who redeemed Avraham”: the third day is Yaakov’s attribute, and through it Avraham saw what was far off.

The words “from afar” mean what lies beyond comprehension. Shlomo, the wisest of men, used the same word for the red heifer, “I said, ‘I will become wise,’ but it is far from me,” so the heifer is rooted in this level that is beyond understanding.

All this, the revelation of what is “far,” comes through “the third day,” the mercy of Tiferes that reaches up to Keser. The Alter Rebbe refers to his explanation of “For this commandment … is not far,” which Kehot locates in Parshas Nitzavim.

That verse speaks of teshuvah: its power is drawn from Keser, the supernal encompassing light, which is “far” beyond grasp, and yet “the thing is near to you.” This is the same movement as the eagle that carries Israel “to Myself”: mercy from the highest level brings near the one who was far.

The red heifer is burned to ashes, so it stands for teshuvah, which burns away all evil thoughts. Through this, the “living waters” of the purification are drawn from the level beyond comprehension that Shlomo called “far” to the one who was far and has come near, the baal teshuvah.

Just as the sprinkling purifies one made impure by the dead, a person can bring his own soul back to life when it is bound up in worldly vanities, for such a soul is counted as dead. Scripture joins the wicked to the grave, and the Sages say the wicked are called dead even in their lifetime; the revival comes through great mercy aroused from above.

This is why the sprinkling is on the third day, the day of mercy: a person arouses mercy on his own soul, as in the morning blessing before the Shema, “In Your great mercy, have mercy upon us,” and G‑d, “being merciful, atones for iniquity.”

The Alter Rebbe refers to his discussion of “In Your great mercy” in the discourse on Zechariah’s vision of the golden menorah. He then turns to the second day of sprinkling: the seventh day is the level of Malchus, the seventh and last of the emotive Sefiros.

Malchus is the level of David the king. Among the seven Ushpizin, the supernal guests of Sukkos, Yaakov is the third and David the seventh, matching the third and seventh days; David was a chariot for Malchus, wholly given over to it, because he was “David My servant.”

The Alter Rebbe reads “For to Me the children of Israel are servants” as cause and effect: through being servants, Israel becomes truly “Mine.”

The Alter Rebbe refers to his explanation of Moshe’s prayer, “And now, I pray, let [the power] be great.” There he shows that a servant’s complete self-nullification, which acts without any reason or understanding of its own, has a very lofty root.

Such bittul draws from Keser, which is above Chochmah and Binah, and Keser is the Malchus of the Infinite One, the kingship of G‑d’s own infinite being. That is why the servant is truly “Mine”: as explained on “And I will betroth you to Me forever,” at this level there is no change, so the bond is forever.

The impurity of the dead has a root above: the shattering of the vessels, described as the seven kings of the world of Tohu who reigned and “died.” The first of them, Bela, corresponds to Daas, the level of knowledge.

Death therefore belongs to the realm of Daas, which is also the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, through which death came into the world. Supernal Chochmah is different: Job says “they die, and not with wisdom,” meaning that death comes only where wisdom is absent, so Chochmah is the Tree of Life.

Keser, above Chochmah, is all the more beyond death; it is the Life of all life. This life is drawn down through bittul above Daas, and that bittul is the level of the seventh day: Malchus, the servant.

The Alter Rebbe refers to his discourse “Take from among you an offering” in Parshas Vayakhel, on the Talmud’s teaching that va’ed, “forever,” never ceases. This is the meaning of the saying “David, King of Israel, lives and endures”: Malchus, the level of David, drawn from above Daas, is beyond death.

The Sages’ saying that “Yaakov our father did not die” fits the same pattern: Yaakov’s level, Tiferes reaching up to Keser, is above the shattering, so death does not touch it. The Alter Rebbe refers to his explanation, elsewhere, of the Zohar at the end of Parshas Vayigash on “And Yaakov blessed Pharaoh.”

He also refers to his discussion in Parshas Vayishlach of the man who wrestled with Yaakov and “could not prevail against him,” and once more to the discourse on the manna. This is why the purification of one impure through the dead, removing the spirit of impurity, comes specifically on the third day, Yaakov’s, and the seventh day, David’s: both are levels of life that death cannot touch.