VABM Matot-Masei

(21) Eleazar the priest said to the troops who had taken part in the fighting, “This is the ritual law that the LORD has enjoined upon Moses:

(22) Gold and silver, copper, iron, tin, and lead— (23)every thing whose nature it is to withstand fire—these you shall pass through fire and they shall be pure, except that they must be purified with water of lustration;

and anything whose nature it is that cannot withstand fire you must pass through water.

(17) Now the Presence of the LORD appeared in the sight of the Israelites as a consuming fire on the top of the mountain.

Through this, his heart will be purified. As it is written, “Anything that was used over fire, must go through fire <and be purified>.” And when he has purity of heart, he then merits to each time speak new words—an aspect of holy spirit.

And in the matter of holiness, it will be clarified in advance with God's help. Although in the matter of purification, it seems to me that there are two types of purification, the first is purification by water as explained above, and water known to be from kindness and grace. And there is purity on the left side as it is written "Everything that comes in fire you shall pass through fire and be purified."

It is the nature of fire and air to go upwards, from the center of the earth upwards towards the expanse; and it is the nature of water and earth to direct their movements beneath the expanse toward its center, as the center of the expanse is the lowermost point, than which there is nothing lower. (...) By nature fire is warm and dry and, therefore, lighter than all of them; and the air is warm and moist; and water is cool and moist;(...)And because they are elements for all bodies beneath the expanse, it is found that each and every body, whether of man, beasts, animal, fowl and fish, or whether of plant, mineral and stone, its unformed matter is a fusion of fire, air, water and earth. The four elements, too, fuse together so that each one of them loses identity when such fusion takes place, so that the fused element of the four of them becomes unlike one of them when it is by itself. And, in such fused body there is not even one particle which is actual fire, or actual water, or actual earth, or actual air, for all were transformed and made into one body. And in each and every such fused body of the four there is coolness, heat, moisture and drought combined. Nevertheless, there are among them certain bodies in which the element of fire is strongest, as in living creatures, therefore the element of heat is more apparent in them; and there are among them bodies wherein the element of earth is strongest, as in stones, therefore the element of drought is most prominent in them; and there are among them bodies wherein the element of water is strongest, therefore the element of moisture is more apparent. In this manner it happens that one warm body is warmer than another warm body, and one dry body more dry than another dry body. So are found bodies wherein the cold alone appears, and bodies wherein the moisture alone appears, and bodies wherein the cold and the drought appear evenly balanced, or the cold and the moisture evenly balanced, or the heat and the drought evenly balanced, or the heat and the moisture evenly balanced, according to the size of the quantity which was the fundamental element for the fusion will the action of that element and its nature appear in the fused body.