Bahir 169

Verse 169. What is the ninth? He said to them: the ninth and tenth are together, one opposite the other. One is higher than the other by 500 years. They are like two Wheels (Ophanim). One inclines toward the north, while the other inclines toward the west. They reach down to the lowest earth. What is the lowest earth? It is the last of the seven earths down below. The end of the Divine Presence of the Blessed Holy One is under His feet. It is thus written (Isaiah 66:1) , "The heaven is My throne, and the earth is the hassock for My feet." The Victory (Nitzachon) of the world is there. It is thus written (Isaiah 24:10), "for Victory of Victories (Netzach Netzachim) ."

Commentary: The ninth and the tenth are together. They represent a cycle of beginning and ending, birth and rebirth. They are opposite one another in that as one ends the other begins. One is higher than another by 500 years. We are given the transcendence of time here but in another way this 500 is 10 times 50 viewing the 50 gates of understanding through the ten Sephiroth. The Ophanim are symbols of reincarnation death and rebirth and their direction when it is said, " they reach down to the lowest earth," gives us another clue to the central core of this verse. As thoughts cycle thorugh in their evolution towards form there comes a time when they are manifested as form or the lowest and last of the seven earths mentioned above. This is reinforced when it says, " The end of the Divine Presence of the Blessed Holy One is under His feet. The Divine Presence describes the activity of connection. I've described the feeling before as the Kundalini energy passing from head to toe in a rush of warmth, light and uplifting emotion. What we learn here is the process not only of inspiration but also of embodiment. In order to make this clear we must understand that we are working on several levels at once. In the midst of this insight we are reminded of the Sephiroth Netzach which is the eighth Sephiroth. This comes in here because the cycle of progression is being explained so that you cannot talk about one aspect of holiness without including all the other interconnected aspects. The eighth in relationship to the flow of energy from the ninth through the tenth. This can be likened to a valve where the pressure of energy is built up and then suddenly releases its energy. Netzach represents Victory and is also known as Eternity. The energy flowing from above reaches this valve of Netzach where the transformation of one goes from ideation into the outworking into form. Everything is known therefore including the certainty of the outcome. This outcome is directly the result of earthing the Divine Presence. This earthing gives the Divine Presence a context growth just as the seeds of a plant utilize the context of the earth for the growth of their self image. The same becomes true in the thought world as the images of our creations unify with Torah and then work out their reflections and then their certainty of becoming what we see.
It says, 'the Victory of Victories is there." This Victory is the certainty of expression through the Divine Presence of the appearance into form that our thoughts must make.

In heaven in the world of ideas where thoughts produce emotions our focus is to produce good or to allow the Divine Presence to so fill our thoughts that we have become in effect G-d filled. We stop thinking of self per se and think in terms of the big picture relating each moment to every other one using the vehicle of Torah study. This is where the wheels or the Ophanim turn. Torah is the center fixed yet always becoming transforming in the midst of the status quo. In order to realize the state of being known as 'the earth is the hassock for My feet,' we must have follow through. The key to follow through is at that perfect in between place between cycles. Here is where we continue on inviting the Divine Presence into our lives and negating our Big I substituting this for simply I am.

Here are some more references to 500 years in the Torah.

Genesis 5:32 When Noah had lived 500 years, Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Here is a cycle of completion and then new beginnings as in the children who are born to Noah.

Genesis 10:10This is the line of Shem. Shem was 100 years old when he begot Arpachshad, two years after the Flood. 11 After the birth of Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and begot sons and daughters.

The first cycle here is 100 years and then the end of Shem's life after another 500 years. The place to stand is in between these cycles. Eastern philosophy calls this the place between two breaths. It is where the opening for the Shekinah is offered and accepted simulataneously with our reaching up for Hashem.
We must remember in line with this offering/reaching up that 'what has come once will come again.
There is a flow and a cycle of flowing in and out that we must keep in mind as we contemplate the thoughts that arise from an initial point of meditational contact.