In the terminology of Kabbalah and Chassidism, soil and water are analogs for materiality and spirituality. Aside from the usual association of soil with earthiness and mundanity, and of water with purity and sublimity, the difference between soil and water expresses one of the basic distinguishing characteristics between matter and spirit. Soil is comprised of distinct granules, while water forms a cohesive expanse. When two types of soil (or any two solids) are combined, they remain separate entities, however thoroughly mixed; liquids, on the other hand, blend to the point of indistinguishability. (This mechanical fact also has halachic implications--see Shulchan Aruch and commentaries, Yoreh Deah, 109.) Indeed, the way to fuse solid particles to an integral whole is either to introduce a liquid element (as in the kneading of dough), or to heat them to the point of liquidity (as in welding).
By the same token, materiality tends to plurality and divisiveness, while the hallmark of the spiritual is unity and oneness. The material world presents us with a great diversity of creatures, elements and forces, each bent on the preservation and enhancement of its individual existence. The material being is egocentric in essence, striving to consume whatever it needs (or merely desires) for itself and resisting all attempts to be consumed. While there are instances of cooperation and symbiosis in the material world, these are always toward the aim of mutual benefit rather than altruistic unity; furthermore, even this usually represents a triumph of mind over matter, and must be enforced upon a resisting egocentric instinct (witness the clash of egos in a marriage, or the race and class-related tensions in a society).
On the other hand, spirituality, like water, is characterized by unity and cohesiveness, and, like water, is an agent of unity when introduced into the soil of the material. The soul amalgamates a diversity of cells and limbs into a life; the idea connects a myriad of disjointed facts into a cogent whole; love supplants the instinctive me with a common we. And when man shifts the focus of his life from the pursuit of material gratification to the service of his Creator, the diverse and belligerent granules of material life coalesce to a singular flow, as his every act and endeavor becomes an exercise in bringing harmony to the world and uniting it with its supernal source.
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