Like Water, Like Torah

In the Talmud, water is often used as a symbol for Torah. The rational for this comparison comes from a passage in Isaiah:

Water means nothing but Torah, as it says: "Ho, everyone that thirsteth come ye for water (Isaiah 60:1)." -Baba Kama 82a

Below are some passages from Song of Songs Rabbah which carry the analogy between Torah and water even further. ENJOY!

• Just as rain water comes down in drops and forms rivers, so with the Torah; a man learns two halachahs today and two tomorrow, until he becormes like a flowing stream.
   
• Just as water has no taste unless one is thirsty, so the Torah has no taste unless one labors at it
   
• Just as water leaves a high place and flows to a low one, so the Torah leaves one whose spirit is proud and cleaves to one whose spirit is lowly.
   
• Just as water does not keep well in a vessel of silver or gold but in the commonest of vessels, so the Torah resides only in one who makes himself like a vessel of earthenware.
   
• Just as with water a great man is not ashamed to say to a lowly man, ' Give me a drink of water,' so with the words of the Torah, a great scholar must not be ashamed to say to a lesser one, 'Teach me one chapter, or one statement, or one verse, or even one letter.'
   
• Just as water makes plants grow, so the words of the Torah nurture everyone who labours over them as they require.
   
• Just as water is a source of life for the world, as it says, A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters (Song of Songs 4:15), so the Torah is a source of life for the world, as it says, For they are life unto those that find them and health to all their flesh (Proverbs 4:22).
   
• Just as water restores the soul, as it says, But God cleaved the hollow place which was in Lehi and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk... he revived (Judges 15:19), so does the Torah, as it says, The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul (Psalms 19:8).
   
• Just as water purifies man from ritual uncleanness, as it says, And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean (Ezekiel 36:25), So the Torah cleanses an unclean man of his uncleanness, as it says, The words of the Lord are pure words (Psalms 12:7).
   
• Just as water cleanses the body, as it says, He shall bathe himself in water (Leviticus 17:15), so the Torah cleanses the body, as it says, Thy word is purifying to the uttermost (Psalms 119:140).

-Song of Songs Rabbah