The Ashes of Abraham and Isaac on the Public Fast Day

Abraham said: Had Amraphel killed me, I would not have been dust; and had Nimrod burned me, I would not have been ashes. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: You said, "though I am but dust and ashes"—by your life, I will give your children atonement through them, as it is said, "and they shall take for the impure one some of the dust of the burning of the purification offering" (Numbers 19:17), "and a pure man shall gather up the ashes of the heifer" (Numbers 19:9). There we learned: How is the order of fast days [conducted]? They bring out the ark to the open square of the city and place burnt ashes upon it. Rabbi Yudan bar Menashe and Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman [differed]: one said, [the ash recalls] the merit of Abraham, and one said, the merit of Isaac. The one who said the merit of Abraham [bases it on] "though I am but dust and ashes"; and the one who said the merit of Isaac [holds that] it is burnt ash specifically [recalling Isaac, who was as if reduced to ash at the binding]. The statement of Rabbi Yudan [ben Pazi] disputes this, for Rabbi Yudan ben Pazi used to proclaim in the congregation and say: Whoever the prayer leader has not reached to place ash upon his head, let him take ash himself and place it upon his head. And the statement of Rabbi Yehudah ben Pazi says: it is both dust and ash. "Perhaps the fifty righteous will lack five" (Genesis 18:28). Rabbi Chiyya bar Abba said: Abraham sought to descend from fifty to five. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Go back over it in reverse [count upward again]. Rabbi Levi said: It is like a water clock full of water—as long as it is full of water, the advocate teaches merit; sometimes the judge wishes the advocate to keep teaching, and he says, "Add more water into it." "And he said, 'Let not the Lord be angry'" (Genesis 18:32). And why ten? Corresponding to the gathering [of a minyan] for them all.