ספר שמות

Exodus 2:10, “She named him Moses, for I have pulled ‎him from the water.” There is a rule that when we have a ‎combination of light, water and fire, the creature whose soul ‎‎(essence) consists of fire can elevate itself to the level of water, ‎whereas the creature whose essence is water can elevate itself to ‎the level of light. Seeing that Moses was essentially connected to ‎water, having been “pulled from the water,” he can elevate itself ‎to the level of light. This principle is alluded to in Exodus 34,29 ‎ולא ידע משה כי קרן עור פניו‎, “Moses was unaware that the skin of his ‎face radiated light.”‎ ‎[This “rule,” I have found explained in an article on ‎‎Parshat Miketz where Pharaoh is described as standing above ‎the water, and the expressions ‎יאור, נהר,אור‎ are explained also by ‎Onkelos as basically parts of one basic concept. When on different ‎levels of spiritual significance, they are called by correspondingly ‎different names. The interested reader will find a very ‎enlightening article about this written in 2004 in Google under ‎the heading ‎פרשת מקץ‎. The question I had asked Google, was: ‎אור, ‏אש, ומים‎. Ed.]‎