305. This makes a total of twelve bows and standings upright, NAMELY FOUR BOWS AND STANDINGS UPRIGHT AT THE BEGINNING AND END OF 'AVOT,' 'MODIM,' AND MAY HE WHO MAKES PEACE" respectively. And they contain 72 eyes, FOR THEY ARE THE SIX DIRECTIONS, NAMELY TO HIM TO WHOM THE FOUR DIRECTIONS BELONG, TOGETHER WITH THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH, AS ABOVE, AND SIX TIMES TWELVE IS 72. AND BECAUSE THEY DRAW DOWN CHOCHMAH BY MEANS OF STANDINGS UPRIGHT, THEY ARE, THEREFORE, CALLED 'EYES.' The six bows contain eighteen movements, three in each bow, for one has to bend the head, the back, and the tail, LOOSENING the eighteen vertebrae IN THE SPINE, THUS ALLUDING TO YESOD, WHICH IS CALLED 'LIVING' (HEB. CHAI = 18), AND THE IMPLICATION IS THAT ONE HAS TO INCLUDE YESOD IN THESE SIX BOWS. AND THE TWELVE BOWS AND STANDING UPRIGHT amount to 72 AS ABOVE. And these 72 eyes of the Holy One, blessed be He, THAT ARE BESTOWED TO MALCHUT, illuminated the 72 wings of the Shechinah that rises up over them and is called 'standing,' WHICH IS THE SECRET OF THE AMIDAH (LIT. 'STANDING') PRAYER. For, initially, MALCHUT was a state of prostration, WHICH IS THE SECRET OF BOWING, and has to be raised up through the Name of Yud Hei Vav Hei, AND HAS TO BE SET UPRIGHT THROUGH THE DIVINE NAME, through eighteen worlds THROUGH YESOD, THAT IS CALLED 'LIVING,' and through the four standings upright in six blessings, which is Tiferet, that includes the first three blessings and the last three blessings.

821. Lulav is the Righteous, NAMELY, YESOD, for the Lulav is like the spinal chord that contains eighteen vertebrae, corresponding to the eighteen shaking movements with the Lulav. And they correspond to the eighteen blessings of the Amidah prayer, and they correspond to the eighteen mentions, NAMELY, THE NAMES OF YUD HEI VAV HEI, in "Ascribe to Hashem, O you mighty" (Tehilim 29:1), and the eighteen times that the Name is mentioned in the reading of Sh'ma. And the Lulav is shaken in six directions: SOUTH, NORTH, EAST, UP, DOWN AND WEST, which makes six, and it is shaken three times in each direction, MAKING a total of eighteen.