WORD STUDY – Kefitzat Haderech
Genesis 24:42: “Behold I stand here by the well of water…”
Matthew 24:22: “And unless those days be shortened, no flesh shall be saved. But for the elect sake, those days will be shortened.”
Kefitzat Haderech: A shortening of the way
Kefitzat Haderech is not found in the Bible, but there are ancient sages and rabbis who do believe it is mentioned in the Bible. Genesis 24:22 is one such verse. “Natsav ’avos” is translated in almost every English translation as if it were in a perfect tense or a completed action. “I came today.” However, “Natsav’vo” is a participle and should be rendered “I am coming.” More than that, as a participle it has the idea of both standing and coming at the same time. Such an expression is transcending time and only God can do both at the same time. Hence translators just simply say he was standing. Yet, can man really “natsav ‘vo” in a participle form? Many sages teach that this expression is a reference to Kefitzat Haderech. Literally translated it means a “shortening of the way.”
Shmuel Yosef Aganon (an Israeli Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1966) wrote of a righteous rabbi who was given the gift of Kefitzat Haderech or the ability to transport himself from one place to another. He would transport himself into the treasury of the Habsburg Empire and help himself to some gold coins and then transport himself out before anyone could see him. He had to use the coins to help the poor. If he ever kept any for himself, if he ever used his gift for self-gain, even to receive praise and feed his pride, he would lose the gift of Kefitzat Haderech.
There are orthodox rabbis today who actually believe that God still gives the gift of Kefitzat Haderech. They point to the particular grammatical context of Genesis 24:42 and show that this servant completed his journey in one day which was impossible unless he had the gift of Kefitzat Haderech.
In fact Enoch, Elijah, Samuel, Ezekiel, Phillip and Jesus all demonstrated Kefitzat Haderech. In the Aramaic it appears that what is being described in Matthew 24:22 is the concept of Kefitzat Haderech. Jesus says that for the elect sake the days will be shortened. Could Jesus have been speaking about Kefitzat Haderech as a gift available for saints living in the last days as a means of protection and evangelization?
What fascinates me more than anything about this is that the concept of Kefitzat Haderech transcends time. God does not live in time. God created time. Time for us will one day cease. We can not, in our human state, grasp the idea of no end or no beginning, yet the very existence of the universe proves the idea of no beginning or end.
God is living in a constant state of Kefitzat Haderech. It is through Kefitzat Haderech that He is able to be omnipresent and to be able to spend every moment and second, 24/7, with you personally.
We are told we entertain angels unaware (Hebrew 13:2). Is it possible these are not supernatural beings but believers who move through time and space in an instant as “messengers” of God to be in a certain place at a certain time to help us along. Like this righteous rabbi in Shmuel Yoesf Aganon story, if they use the gift for self-gain or pride they will lose it and hence they would never reveal their gift of Kefitat Haderech, we would will never learn they had such a gift.
Oh well, I didn’t mean to waste your time with crazy Sci Fi stuff. I only wanted to give you a Biblical reference to point out that God indeed lives in a constant state of Kefitzat Haderech so that we are assured that He is with us every single moment of every day.
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