HEBREW WORD STUDY –TELEPORTATION – KEFITZAT HADERECH – קפיצת הדרכ  

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) 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.”   Today we call it teleportation.

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.  There are many other 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?

More significant is that God does not live in time and 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.