Kefitzat haderech

Kefitzat Haderech (Hebrew: קְפִיצַת הַדֶּרֶךְ, Modern: Qəfiẓat haDéreḫ or Kfitzat haDérech, Tiberian: Qəp̄îṣáṯ hadDéreḵ) is a Jewish Kabbalistic term that literally means "contracting the path." The word kefatz has both the meaning "to shorten" as well as "to jump". Kefitzat Haderech refers to miraculous travel between two distant places in a brief time. It is perhaps similar to the Lung-gom-pa magical travel in Tibet, and, like the Tibetan practice, involves the use of magical or divine names. The Talmud lists three biblical stories in which this miracle occurs. In early stories of the Chasidic movement, wonder-working rabbis are ascribed the ability to reach destinations with unnatural speed.

The name Kwisatz Haderach from Frank Herbert's Dune series, translated as "the Shortening of the Way", is clearly derived from the term kefitzat haderech.

In Agnon's work

Shmuel Yosef Agnon, an Israeli writer who won the 1966 Nobel Prize for literature, incorporates this phenomenon into some of his plots. In an Agnon story based on one of the above-mentioned Hasidic folktales, a righteous rabbi is given the gift of kfitzat haderech and uses it to "jump" into the treasuries of the Habsburg Empire, take sacks full of newly minted gold coins, and jump back to his shtetl, unnoticed by anybody. He uses the money to help poor or persecuted Jews, and the story implies that the power would be taken away should he take any of the gold for himself.

Later, when the Emperor plans to make decrees harmful to the Jews, the Rabbi uses his power of kfitzat haderech in order to jump into the audience chamber and beat the Emperor with his stick—being visible (and tangible) to the Emperor himself, but invisible to his councilors and guards.

See also

• Tay al-Ard
• Teleportation in Islam
• Bilocation

References

Notes