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.

Sefer haZohar on the Torah as the Name of God

"The whole of the Torah is the name of the Blessed Holy One and he who studies it is like one who studies the holy name, since the whole Torah is one holy name, a supernal name, a name that comprises names."

-- Sefer haZohar, 2:124a

Tishby on the Torah's Fundemantal Nature

"When the kabbalist comes to assess the Torah's fundamental nature, its hidden mystery, he does not see it as a collection of commandments, statutes, and ordinances, of ethical pronouncements and accounts of historical events, all proceeding from the mouth of God. It is for him a massive treasury of divine forces and divine lights that have donned the form of letters and words and so revealed themselves in the book of the Torah."

-- Isaiah Tishby, Wisdom of the Zohar p. 283

Sefer haZohar on the Holiness of Words of Torah

"Rabbi El'azar opened, 'If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will suffer' (Mishlei 9:12). Woe to the wicked of the world who neither know nor consider words of Torah! And if they do not consider, words of Torah appear to them entirely empty and worthless, since they lack intelligence. All because they are empty-headed! For all words of Torah are entirely precious. Of every single word is written: 'She is more precious than rubies; nothing desired can compare with her' (ibid. 3:15, 8:11) ─ with words of Torah.

"All those close-minded, close-hearted fools, upon seeing words of Torah ─ as if it weren't bad enough that they are unaware, they actually claim that those words are defective, worthless! Woe to them when the Blessed Holy One avenges the humiliation of Torah and they are inflicted with punishment for rebelling against their Lord!

"What is written in Torah? 'It is not an empty word מכם (mi-kem), for you' (Devarim 32:47); and if it is empty, it is mi-kem, from you ─ because of you! For Torah is completely filled with all precious stones and priceless pearls, with all the world's treasures, as is said: 'Nothing desired can compare with her'. So how can they say she is empty?

"King Solomon declared, 'If you are wise, you are wise for yourself', because when a person grows wise in Torah, this is his own benefit, since to Torah herself he cannot add even a single letter. 'If you scoff, you alone will suffer', for he will not diminish the glory of Torah in the least. His scoffing is totally his, lingering within him to eliminate him from this world and from the world that is coming.

"Come and see: When supernal letters all combine on this rung ─ last of all sacred supernal rungs, filled by them, blessed by the higher world ─ then this rung stands poised to water all those flocks, each one fittingly, each one watered with judgment and compassion."

-- Sefer haZohar 1:163a (transl. D. Matt)

The last paragraph is an allusion to letter combination and permutation methods of mystical meditation, as taught for example by the school of Rabbi Abraham Abulafia. The "last rung" is a reference to the 10th sefirah, Malkut.

Midrash Rabbah Shir haShirim on Words of Torah in the Heart

" 'The heart of a wise man enlightens his mouth, and adds learning on his lips' (Proverbs 16:23). The heart of a wise man is full of wisdom. Who enlightens others about him? Who informs others about him? His mouth. When he speaks words of wisdom, his mouth informs others of him; his mouth apprises others of him. '... and adds learning on his lips'. Because the wise man extracts the words of Torah from his heart and enunciates them with his lips, he adds to the learning of Torah."

-- Midrash Rabbah, Shir haShirim 1.6