Perhaps the main thing that causes a person to see himself as being limited is the presence of death. The seemingly inevitable end of all living beings gives us the impression that we are really finite creatures, not the eternal holy beings that we truly are. To elevate such a person back to his inherent godliness and rectify that mistaken impression, the Torah prescribes the sprinkling of the essence of life, water, mixed with the ashes of the Parah Adumah, the Red Heifer.
The holy Hebrew language is unique in having five letters that change when they are placed at the end of a word, mem nun tzadi peh chaf. The numerical value of these letters add up to 280, like the value of the word par, a heifer, and reflects the 280 aspects of divine restriction (Dinim) used in the creation of the world. Although when we add the above five letters themselves to the word par, we have the word parah (par plus the letter Hei, which has the value of 5), signifying a multiplicity of these Dinim. Nevertheless, when the various parts of the heifer are burnt and rendered unrecognizable the five turns into one (unity) and they become epher, ashes (the letter Aleph - one - plus the word par). Understanding that all our limitations come from the One Above allows us to realize that they do not have any power of their own, and we can elevate ourselves above them by cleaving completely to their Source.
With this in mind we can view the events in our Parsha differently: It begins with the sorrow over the death of Miriam whose demise stopped the divine flow of life-giving water, the well. Hashem then wanted Moshe and Aaron to show the people how unlimited His bounty can be by merely speaking to a rock and having it give life, but by striking it they made it look as if there was a certain level of limitation, thereby allowing the ultimate force of limitation to take a hold on them as well. When the Clouds of Glory dispersed temporarily as a result of Aaron's demise the people felt lost in a dangerous lifeless desert. Hashem then sent them deadly snakes to provoke them to turn to Heaven and realize that all adversity comes only from Above. The war against Amalek required a form of breaking through the barriers of Nature by avowing to give all it's spoils to Heaven. And fighting the strongest of Canaan's warriors single handedly required complete faith in the all-encompassing power of the Almighty.
May we all realize that our present state is but temporary, and merit to see the ultimate redemption soon in our days. Amen.
Based on Rabbi Vali's book on Bamidbar. Questions and subscriptions can be mailed to: the Yeshiva