There exists a soul in every generation through whom Torah insights are revealed to the world. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov describes this soul as one burdened with suffering: "Bread with salt shall you eat, water with measure shall you drink, for such is the way to acquiring Torah" (Avot 6:4). All who teach Torah draw from this soul.
When this soul is functioning properly, her words are like flaming coals. "Is not My word like fire?" (Jeremiah 23:29). You cannot draw from the waters of Torah unless your own words burn with this intensity. But when this soul falls from her level, when her words cool off and lose their fire, she expires. And when she expires, the Torah insights that flow through her cease.
The consequences are immediate. When the stream of Torah teaching dries up, quarrels break out against the tzaddik (a righteous person)im (the righteous). Rabbi Nachman explains that controversy exists in the world precisely because Torah insights have departed. A Torah lesson is, by nature, an answer. It resolves questions and settles disputes. When there are no answers flowing, the disputes multiply.
This is the deeper meaning of Miriam's death in the wilderness of Tzin (Numbers 20:1). The name Tzin resembles the Hebrew for "cooled words," speech that has lost its fire. When Miriam, the soul who bore the bitterness of servitude for Torah, died, the well (be'er, באר) departed. The be'er is the bei'urei Torah (ביאורי תורה), the explanations of Torah. And immediately, "the nation quarreled with Moses" (Numbers 20:3).
The nine rectifications of the beard described in the Sifra DeTzniuta (Zohar II:176b) correspond to nine repairs that the soul needs before Torah can flow through it. These repairs involve purifying speech, guarding the covenant, achieving humility, and cultivating the burning intensity that transforms ordinary words into vessels of fire. Without these repairs, Torah remains locked behind closed doors.