Our Gemara on Amud Aleph mentions the crop and feathers of the olah burnt offerings that were thrown on the ground next to the altar. Rashi here adds that they were miraculously absorbed into the ground.

There is another sacrifice related item that gets absorbed into the ground. The Gemara Yoma (21a) tells us shards of earthenware vessels used for the kodshei kadashim sacrifices were swallowed in the earth in their places. These vessels used for cooking the meat of the offerings absorbed some of the meat. The meat that was absorbed became nosar when the period during which the offering may be eaten concluded. One was required to break those vessels in which the meat was absorbed. The shards of those vessels were miraculously swallowed in the earth where they were smashed.

The Chasam Sofer (Tzav 7) wonders what is the purpose of this consistent miracle? He understands it to be a lesson about the process of the body and soul. He cites the Ramban who says that Torah does not mention the reward of the World to Come because it is a given, that the soul which already resides in a spiritual plane will continue to benefit from its spiritual attachment and states eternally. The concern is the body, and that is why the Torah stresses the physical benefits of Torah and mitzvos.

Yet the sacrificial process hints at more. The sacrifice is completely consumed. This represents the ascent of the soul. The Tzaddik’s body, being still a body, does not ascend right away. The ashes of the sacrifices — the most physical remainder — represents what is left of the body. So too the earthenware vessel is the physical body, and the shards are the remainder of the lifeless body. The special miraculous sign of them being absorbed into the earth is a message from God that even the body of a holy person can ascend and become attached to God as the material and ashes become part of the foundation of the Beis HaMikdash.

This is the Midrashic idea about Chanoch who ascended to heaven as a human and became transformed into an angel (see Targum Yonasan Bereishis 5:24.)

Related to this idea, Rav Saadiah Gaon (Emunos V’Deos 6:5) says the body and soul receive the reward together in the future during the resurrection of the dead since they performed the Mitzvos as a team, so to speak. The message is that the body isn’t left out of the process and eventually will receive its fair reward as well.