“‘Put your hand under my thigh.’ What is ‘Your hand’? He started and said, ‘Gird your sword upon your thigh, mighty one, Your glory and Your majesty.’ And he says about this, ‘Mercy and truth will greet you,’ the face of the Creator is their share” (The Zohar, VaYechi, Item 30).

This means that when it is written, “Your hand,” it refers to a sword, and a sword that has two edges, which are mercy and truth, Hochma and Hesed, see in the Sulam [Ladder commentary on The Zohar].

Our sages said, “He who reads the Shema reading by his bed, it is as though he holds a double-edge sword, as was said ‘a double-edge sword in their hand.’”

Concerning the two edges, which are mercy and truth, it means that there is the good inclination, and there is the evil inclination. The beginning of man’s work is with the good inclination, and afterward through the evil inclination, as our sages said, “And you shall love … with all your heart, with both your inclinations.”

Concerning Hesed, which is the quality of bestowal, it is a work of the good inclination. When one is rewarded with the quality of truth, meaning that the quality of the Creator’s goodness is already revealed to him, that it is true, meaning the trueness of His aim, that it is to do good to His creations, then he has nothing against the work of the Creator, for then even his enemies make peace with him, as in, “When the Lord favors man’s ways, even his enemies make peace with him,” pertaining to the evil inclination.

This is the meaning of “Mercy and truth will greet you.” This means that to be rewarded with the Panim [face/anterior] of the Creator, there must first be mercy and truth. When one is rewarded with the quality of truth, it is considered that then he is rewarded with the Panim of the Creator. Conversely, before one is rewarded with the quality of truth, it is considered that he only has the quality of Achoraim [back/posterior], regarded as concealment. At that time, he sees that only he is giving to the Creator, and this is discerned as Hesed.

In other words, he is doing mercy with the Creator, meaning that only he is giving. However, when one is rewarded with the quality of truth, he sees the opposite—that he is the receiver from the Creator, though it is in a corrected manner, meaning he is receiving in order to bestow.

This is the meaning of “One who reads the Shema reading by his bed,” where Mitta [bed] is regarded as Mata [down/below], which is before a person moves into a state of lying down, which is sprawling of hands and legs, as in “I did not find my hands and legs at the seminary.” This means that one has no attainment because at that time, he is in a state of concealment of the face, regarded as Achoraim.