Sefer HaZohar on the Stones Jacob Arranged

"And arranged them מראשותיו at his 'heads' [the literal translation]. At whose heads? At the heads of that place. What does this mean? If you say, 'Like a person putting something under his head' - no! Rather, at its heads, at the four heads, directions of the world: three stones to the north, three to the west, three to the south, three to the east, with that place above them arrayed upon them. Then, 'he lay down in that place'. Once the bed was prepared, he lay upon it. Who lay upon it? The sun."

-- Sefer HaZohar, 1:148a


This Zohar passage contains an esoterically encrypted meditation exercise. The specific step-by-step directions and geometrical placements will be obvious to those who already know them; the upshot here is to link this practice to the recitation of the verse from the Torah.

 

Mishnah Sanhedrin on the Mold of the First Adam

"Therefore was man created singly, to teach you that whoever destroys a single life from Israel is considered by Scripture as if he had destroyed an entire world; and that whoever preserves a single life from Israel is considered by Scripture as if he had preserved an entire world. [...]

"And to teach the greatness of the Holy One, Blessed is He: For a man mints many coins from one mold, and they are all similar to one another; but the King of kings, the Holy One, Blessed is He, minted all men from the mold of the First Adam, and not one of them is like his fellow man. Therefore each and every one is obligated to say, 'For my sake was the world created'."

-- Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5


"ISRAEL" - this is Metatron on the Spiritual plane, about whom it is said, "Your name is Jacob. Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name." (Genesis 35:10).

"AN ENTIRE WORLD" - this is Metatron on the Physical plane, about whom it is said, "the whole earth is full of His glory." (Isaiah 6:3).

"THE MOLD OF THE FIRST ADAM" - this is Metatron on the Astral plane, about whom it is said, "and on the likeness of the throne, was a likeness like the appearance of a man upon it above." (Ezekiel 1:26).