Bahir 138

A link is provided and the connection is established.

Bahir 138. What is the meaning of "a Torah of Truth?" It is that which teaches (Moreh) the Truth of [all] worlds, as well as His deeds in thought. He erected Ten Sayings, and with them the world stands. It is one of them. In man He created ten fingers, paralleling these Ten Sayings. Moses raised his hands and concentrated to some degree on the Attribute that is called Israel, which contains the Torah of Truth. With his ten fingers, he alluded that he was upholding the Ten. For if [God] would not help Israel, then the Ten Sayings would not endure every day. It was for this reason that "Israel prevailed." [The verse continues], "And when he lowered his hands, Amalek prevailed." Would Moses then do anything that would cause Amalek to prevail? But [this teaches us] that it is forbidden for a person to stand for [more than] three hours with his hands spread out to heaven.

Commentary: Moses is the connection between Heaven and Earth. He stands on Earth and reaches up to Heaven his hands outstretched symbolizing the endurance of Israel, the endurance of Intention, the endurance of our connection with the Creator. We do not just have a connection as if we were one part of creation and the creator was another. No there is a unity that is being established. Both creator and creation live inside of us. Our upward glances or the outstretched hands are symbols of this that we need to constantly remember. Israel in the above passage represents our heart's desire in those terms that we have been speaking about all along. The lowering of the hands where Amalek seems to prevail represents a 'taking of the clay, mixing it and then forming the image that will be intentionally raised to heaven.' This image is the refinement of our heart's desire, the refinement of Israel or in the language of Tikkune (repair) the refinement of the quality of our soul in order to connect with and become a part of heaven and subsequently of godliness. This Truth plainly spoken is the unification of what we are with what we think we are. Once we begin to recognize that we are one with G-d everything we think about will begin to follow this path of completion or the path of Jacob spoken of in verse 137. We are always taking the chaos and uncertainty of life (Amalek) and refining it into the completion of Jacob and the Peace of the Torah. Consider that process to one of taking the raw material (Amalek) and then lifting it up spiritually to make it holy, part of order, part of the ongoing creative force of your intention. The fight that is going on during the period when Moses is raising or lowering his hands symbolizes our struggle at times to transform the raw materials that we are given. Once we realize that this process is something we must be conscious of it makes it easier to remember. We become motivated to become directly involved in our own lifting up by choosing those thoughts of inspiration that are given along with transforming our lower thoughts in much the same way as Israel triumphs over Amalek in the battle spoken of in Exodus 17:11.

A note about prayer. Moses by lifting up his hands was meditating on the endurance of Israel. Israel you see is Moses's heart desire. He prays in this fashion. His thoughts remember the plans he has for Israel which extend to the ultimate destiny of Israel, the establishment of the Promised Land. Moses continues to pray until just before entering the Promised Land G-d shows Moses the future and tells him that he will not enter the Promised Land. The reasons given are one because of the sin at Meribah where Moses struck the rock to bring forth water instead of simply telling the rock to bring forth water. Also two because of the sin of sending the spies forward to scout out the Promised Land. Neither of these reasons in my opinion makes sense either in the context of the surface meanings or the veiled inspirations. What I believe happened at this point was that the ancient wisdom is being deliberately submerged here to hide a very important point. Moses's vision for Israel ended at the Promised Land. The creation which is ongoing had to be taken up now by those whose purpose it was to enter that Promised Land and tend it and keep according to their own intentions. Moses provided the Torah of Truth to guide them. His work was done although he continues to be a spiritual advisor for the succeeding generations of those who quest behind the veils of Torah. When you have an intention and then you see that your work is done it is time to move on to something else. As we move on we do so with the full knowledge of what it is that we are building our next intention upon.