Humility Draws Living Waters

יזל מים מדליו חז"ל דרשו הזהרו בבני עניים שמהם תורה יוצאת כו' שהכנעה אמיתיות להשי"ת הוא הדלי להמשיך המים מבאר מים חיים כמ"ש חז"ל יורדת למקום נמוך כמשל הדלי כפי מה שיורד למטה יותר עד המקור

"He shall flow water from his buckets" (Bamidbar 24:7) — Chazal expounded: "Be careful with the children of the poor, for from them Torah goes forth," for true humility before Hashem Yisbarach is the bucket that draws up the water from the wellspring of living waters, as Chazal said that it descends to a low place — like the analogy of a bucket: the more it descends lower, until it reaches the source,

The Sfas Emes reads the posuk about flowing water through Chazal's praise of the poor man's children: genuine bittul before Hashem is what lets a person draw up Torah, just as a bucket reaches the water precisely by lowering itself.

כן מעלה מים

so does it raise up water.

The deeper a person lowers himself toward the source, the more of those living waters he is able to draw upward.

וכן הכלי לקבל מים חיים הוא הביטול להשורש

And likewise, the vessel to receive the living waters is one's nullification before the Root.

What enables a person to actually receive the wellspring of Torah is his self-nullification before the Root, Hashem.

[והוא כדמיון השקה שמטהר כנ"ל]:

[And this is comparable to the touching of waters (hashakah) that purifies, as above.]

He compares this to the halachic hashakah, where impure water is purified by touching a body of living water — the connection to the source brings about purity.

Summary: The Sfas Emes explains the posuk "He shall flow water from his buckets" through Chazal's teaching that Torah goes forth from the children of the poor. True humility before Hashem Yisbarach is like a bucket that draws living waters up from the wellspring: the lower one descends and humbles oneself, the closer one comes to the source, and thus the more one is able to draw the waters of Torah upward. The vessel fit to receive these living waters is a person's complete bittul before the Root. This he likens to the purification of hashakah, where water is made tahor through its contact with the living source.