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I recall once reading somewhere that perhaps the Zohar, or Ari"zl state that one should not raise one's hands (or wave them around) whilst praying (as it is darchei emori, or some such prohibition). Someone else suggested to me that it might actually be a Tosfos.
Any ideas where such a source, or sources, exist?
Rabbi Akive Eiger writes this in his commentary to the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 89: 1) in the name of the B'er Sheva (74):
מה שאין אנו מתפללים בפרישת כפים כמו שמצינו במקרא כמה פעמים ובזוה"ק ובפרקי דר"א היינו כיון דעכשיו האומות עושים כן. וכמו שאמרו חז"ל על פסוק לא תקים לך מצבה באר שבע סי' ע"ד
The citation to B'er Sheva 74 is a typo and it should read 71 where he writes the following:
ושמא י"ל מאחר שנמצאו נוהגים אומות העולם עכו"ם להתפלל כך בזקיפת ידים למעלה כמפורסם לכן אין אנו נוהגים עכשיו להתפלל כך וכה"ג אמרו רז"ל בפסוק לא תקים לך מצבה אשר שנא ה' אלהיך אף על פי שהיתה אהובה לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא בימי האבות עכשיו שנאה מאחר שעשאוה אלו כנעניים חק לע"א כן נ"ל
It should be noted that Rabbi Akiva Eiger does not write that it is prohibited. The B'er Sheva is similarly toned down, that "we are not accustomed to pray this way" (although his comparison is to an actual prohibition, the point of the comparison seems to merely be that something could be once positive, but later become permitted.
It should be noted that all the above is contrary to the opinion of R. Avraham ben Harambam who spends much of the halachic portion of his HaMaspoik L'ovdey Hashem encouraging practices found in Tanach and Chazal, even if by his time they had fallen out of Jewish practice, and were instead practiced by Suffis.
