Sefer Hekhalot on Seventy Names of Metatron and the Oral Tradition of Torah

"Seventy names has Metatron which the Holy One, Blessed be He, took from His own Name and put them upon him. And all of them were revealed to Moshe on Sinai so that he learned them during the forty days, while he was sitting up there. The Torah in the seventy faces and seventy tongues, the Halakhot in the seventy faces and seventy tongues, the Shamu'ot in the seventy faces and seventy tongues, the Hagadot in the seventy faces and seventy tongues, and the Toseftot in the seventy faces and seventy tongues. These seventy names are a reflection of the Shem HaMeforash on the Merkava which are engraved upon His Kissei Kavod. For the Holy One, Blessed be He, took from His Shem HaMeforash and installed the Seventy names in His name: Metatron."

-- Sefer Hekhalot, ch. 48 (transl. S.A.O.)


HALAKHOT : Ways of life.
SHAMU'OT : Oral traditions.
HAGADOT : Parables.
TOSEFTOT : Lucid teachings.
SHEM HAMEFORASH : Explicit Name.
KISSEI KAVOD : Throne of glory.

Midrash Rabbah Leviticus on Stringing Together Words of Scripture

"Ben Azzai was sitting and expounding Scripture while a great fire was blazing all around him. Later, his students asked him about the incident: 'Is it perhaps that you have been delving into the arrangements of the Merkavah?' He replied to them: 'No. Rather, I string together passages from the Torah with passages from the Nevi'im, and passages from the Nevi'im with passages from the Ketuvim, and thus the words of Torah were as joyous as they were on the day they were given at Mount Sinai."

-- Midrash Rabbah Leviticus, 16.4


Here, Ben Azzai means that he is mapping out vibrational resonances between the various sections of the TaNaK. The indication is that this is a mystical activity that is similar in intensity to the Ma'aseh Merkavah when performed with skill.