The Voice Is the Voice of YHWH,
and the Hands Are the Hands of Elohim

She has a single lover, unknown to anyone—except to her, concealedly. Out of the love he feels for her, this lover passes by her gate constantly, lifting his eyes to every side. Knowing that her lover is constantly circling her gate, what does she do? She opens a little window in that secret palace where she is, reveals her face to her lover, and quickly withdraws, concealing herself. None of those near the lover sees or notices, only the lover, and his inner being and heart and soul follow her.

So is a word of the Torah: she reveals herself only to her lover.

— Zohar, Mishpatim (II:99a)

Introduction

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, YHWH appeared to Abram, and said to him, "I am El Shadai; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous" (Gen 17:1,2).

Then Abram fell on his face; and Elohim said to him, "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations" (17:3)…"This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised" (17:10).

The Torah is perceived through two divine names, Elohim and YHWH. The distinction between them is not terminological but substantive—built into the structure of Genesis and sustained across all five books. Just as we need two eyes to perceive depth, M (the label used throughout this essay for the compositional intelligence responsible for the Torah’s literary design—whether understood as a single author or a tradition of scribal architects working within a unified plan) indicates we need the two names to perceive interpretive depth. The deity is not limited to the holy and supernatural but is also the author of the natural and mundane. Broadly, YHWH applies to the supernatural and holy while Elohim applies to the natural and mundane. In the Garden of Eden the names appear united as YHWH Elohim. Outside the Garden, they separate. The reunion of the two is the goal of the Torah as a whole. (For the evidence establishing this distinction, see the Genesis commentary series, especially Part C: The Three Rows and Part D: Architecture and Meaning.)

This essay presents the discovery of a previously unidentified composition within the Torah that shows how the reunion takes place—how YHWH, the supernatural, is revealed within Elohim’s natural world. I call this composition “the re-creation weave.” It is formed by the Torah’s ten irregular literary units, spread across all five books, which together tell a coherent story when read as a two-dimensional structure. The re-creation weave stands alongside two related structures: the creation weave (the six days of creation) and the decreation weave (the signs in Egypt). Together, these three structures form the interpretive foundation of the Torah. I made the case for the structural thesis in Before Chapter and Verse: Reading the Woven Torah (BC&V). This essay develops it further^[5].

The Technique of Parallel Doublets

Before we proceed to the Torah-wide structures, a small sample text will demonstrate the technique developed for deriving meaning from the structure of the Torah, and will further distinguish between Elohim and YHWH. In Exodus 3:13-15, Moses asks to know the deity’s name. M uses the generic form, haelohim, “the deity,” not to be confused with the proper name Elohim. Moses is ignorant of the divine names used in Genesis; the reader knows much more than he does. The reader knows that YHWH has not interacted with any person since sending Jacob home from Laban—a silence spanning the entire Joseph narrative and the centuries of Egyptian bondage. The reader also knows that the “holy ground” on which Moses stands (3:5) is the first mention of holiness since the creation of the world, when Elohim hallowed the seventh day. Holiness has been absent from the narrative for the whole of Genesis; now it reappears, and it is YHWH who introduces it. Moses receives two answers:

And Moses said unto the deity: ‘Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them: The deity of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me: What is his name? what shall I say unto them?’ And Elohim said unto Moses: ‘I AM THAT I AM’; and he said: ‘Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: I AM hath sent me unto you.’ And Elohim further said unto Moses: ‘Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: YHWH, the deity of your fathers, the deity of Abraham, the deity of Isaac, and the deity of Jacob, hath sent me unto you; this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.’ (Exod 3:13-15)

Verses 14–15 contain two parallel doublets. The first doublet consists of two divine speeches: Elohim identifies himself as “I AM” (v. 14), and then introduces a second name, YHWH (v. 15). The second doublet closes verse 15: “this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.” When these doublets are read in parallel—column A aligned with column A, column B with column B—a meaning emerges that is not available from the linear reading:

Reading the columns vertically: Elohim’s “I AM” is the name “for ever”—the deity of unchanging being, the god of the philosophers, complete unto himself. YHWH is the memorial “unto all generations”—the deity of history, of becoming, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, inseparable from the people who carry his name forward. Elohim is being; YHWH is becoming. This distinction, locked in by the contrast between “for ever” and “unto all generations,” is precisely what the structural reading of Genesis establishes across nineteen units.

But the burning bush scene does more than distinguish the two names. It announces a reversal of direction. The reader sensitized by the Elohim/YHWH distinction in Genesis will detect a transition taking place here: YHWH, who has been transcendent, will “descend” (3:8) to redeem Israel, while Elohim, who has been immanent, will become transcendent—“I AM,” unto himself. Each moves toward the other’s domain. This message is delivered by Elohim—the immanent deity announcing his own transcendence and YHWH’s descent into history. The re-creation weave, as we will see, traces the full arc of that reunification: how YHWH is revealed within Elohim’s world, moving toward the restoration of the Edenic YHWH Elohim. The technique of parallel doublets, demonstrated here on three verses, is the technique used throughout the Torah on multiple levels of organization to create an inner reading within the outer reading.

The Ladder Between Elohim and YHWH

Elohim created the physical world and is associated with it. “YHWH” appears for the first time as YHWH Elohim, in the Garden narrative. The names separate in the narrative, when Eve and HaAdam are sent out of the Garden. From then on, the separate names, “Elohim” and “YHWH” are used. Apparently, the separation of YHWH from Elohim was the result of HaAdam and Eve eating from the forbidden tree. The reunion of the two is the goal of the Torah as a whole, and specifically, in what I will explain as “the re-creation weave.” The relationship between human events and the revelation of the godhead is a central component of the re-creation weave.

The Torah presents a correlation between human events and changes in the way the deity is revealed. M tells his audience to see the appearances of deity outside the Garden as in some substantive way different from the appearances in the Garden. From Exodus onward, the Torah deals with YHWH’s reuniting with Elohim by establishing a revealed presence on earth, first through the tabernacle and then through the nation of Israel. This reunion is prefigured in Jacob’s oath after the ladder dream, when he declares that YHWH will become Elohim for him.

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of Elohim were ascending and descending on it. And YHWH stood upon it and said, "I am YHWH, the deity of Abraham your father and the deity of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely YHWH is in this place—and I did not know it!" And he was afraid, and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of Elohim, and this is the gate of heaven." So, Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If Elohim will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then YHWH shall be Elohim for me, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be Elohim's house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you." (Gen 28:10-22)

This section is a micro version of M’s plan for the Torah. The vision in the dream is crucial for understanding the plan. The ladder is between Elohim on earth and YHWH in heaven. We know that Elohim is below, at the bottom of the “ladder set up on the earth” because his messengers (angels) start from the bottom “ascending and descending.” YHWH is at the top. This is a single vision of the dialectic created in detail by the book of Genesis, as demonstrated in Part C: The Three Rows and Part D: Architecture and Meaning of the Genesis commentary.

The vision itself verifies that Jacob was aware of this distinction between Elohim, the earthly, immanent, and the heavenly transcendent YHWH. It is reinforced by Jacob’s apparent surprise when waking and learning that the transcendent can be revealed below, “Surely YHWH is in this place—and I did not know it!” This is important because it was YHWH, in the dream, who promised to care for Jacob during his sojourning. Jacob is perplexed by the implication of YHWH’s promise: can the transcendent manage events normally considered part of the everyday immanent world? Can he take care of me? At this point, we may find the dyad “natural and supernatural” clearer than “immanent and transcendent.”

(Through the signs in Egypt YHWH presents himself as revealed through the supernatural, capable of reversing elements of the natural world created by Elohim. Properly speaking, Elohim and YHWH are both supernatural and distinguished by their modus operandi, Elohim “operating in the natural” and YHWH “in the supernatural.”)

Jacob’s doubt is expressed through the conditions of his vow. YHWH, apparently associated with the supernatural (atop the ladder in heaven), has promised Jacob “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land.” In his dream, the supernatural YHWH, proposes to take on a role that Jacob assumed was associated with the natural, and so with Elohim. Jacob replies that he has a test to see if YHWH is capable of close management of earthly matters, such as providing food and clothing. This test is not unlike the way his descendants are to test YHWH after leaving Egypt, but with a different nuance. The Israelites will be fed manna in a supernatural way by YHWH. Jacob expects to be cared for in a natural way—by Elohim: “If Elohim will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, … so that I come again to my father's house in peace.” If YHWH wants to make an impression on earthly creatures, he must do it in a natural way normally associated with Elohim, rather than in the supernatural manner of YHWH in the wilderness. Furthermore, YHWH, taking the role of Elohim, must provide for Jacob’s physical needs by providing “bread to eat and clothing to wear.” If YHWH is indeed capable of doing these “Elohim-like” things for the entire period of Jacob’s sojourning, and brings him home safely, then Jacob will acknowledge that the supernatural can affect the natural world—"then YHWH shall be Elohim for me.”

Jacob’s vow has added details of his own to YHWH’s promise. Not only will YHWH care for Jacob, but according to Jacob, YHWH will be revealed with Elohim. Figuratively, YHWH will descend the ladder. But there is a possible reading that deserves attention: Jacob himself is the ladder. The ladder is “set up on the earth” and reaches to heaven; Jacob is the one who stands between Elohim below and YHWH above, the living connection between them. If Jacob is the ladder, then YHWH’s descent into the world takes place through Jacob—through his descendants, through Israel, through a people dwelling in a land. The re-creation weave, as we will see, traces exactly this descent: YHWH entering the world through Israel in the land of Canaan. But Jacob’s acknowledgment of this does not return them to the Edenic state of YHWH Elohim.

Jacob, in effect, veils YHWH and incorporates him within “Elohim.” It makes sense to think that the supernatural will no longer appear supernatural when carrying out natural acts. This apparent truism is at the heart of our subject. It points to the philosophical question addressed by the re-creation weave. In philosophic terms, the question is: how is the transcendent (YHWH) to be perceived within the world of immanence (Elohim)?

YHWH appears to Jacob just once more in his lifetime, to tell him to return home from his sojourn with Laban. As predicated in his vow, from the time Jacob enters Canaan, he never again mentions or interacts with YHWH, only with Elohim. YHWH has become Elohim for Jacob. It also appears Jacob transfers this idea of the deity to his favorite son, Joseph, who never once interacts with or even mentions YHWH. Even when the Egyptians note that they have benefitted from YHWH’s caring for Joseph: “His master saw that YHWH was with him, and that YHWH caused all that he did to prosper in his hands (Gen 39:3).” For his part Joseph only recognizes Elohim:

And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for Elohim sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. Elohim sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but Elohim; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, "Thus says your son Joseph, Elohim has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. (Gen 45:5-9)

Jacob’s dream and his response is indeed a precursor to YHWH’s descent on the ladder, but it is missing the central condition, that YHWH be revealed together with Elohim, as it was in Eden, YHWH Elohim.

YHWH Dresses Up

Jacob’s understanding that YHWH must “dress up” as Elohim comes just after he himself has dressed up as Esau, and in the same literary unit in which Leah replaces Rachel. It is unlikely that M has made these connections by chance. The differences between Esau and Jacob resonate with differences between Elohim and YHWH. “When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents (Gen 25:27).” Esau “a man of the field” focused his life outside, and Jacob inside “in tents.” Consequently, when Isaac said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau” (Gen 27:22), he correctly described the integration of characteristics of his twin sons. The “outer” part pertained to Esau and the inner to Jacob.

In the same context Isaac makes a similar distinction between YHWH and Elohim in the blessing of Jacob, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that YHWH has blessed. May Elohim give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine” (Gen 27: 27, 28). He associates Elohim with the substantial, “grain and wine” and YHWH with the insubstantial, “smell.” The Hebrew ריח (re’ach) translated smell, is related to ru’ach, “spirit” or “wind.” Elohim, like the hands of Esau, is connected to the physical world, while YHWH like the voice of Jacob is associated with the incorporeal. Consequently, Jacob thought that YHWH would have to “dress up” and merge with Elohim to affect the physical world. Jacob’s error is fully elucidated when YHWH dramatically demonstrates he differs from Elohim through the decreation weave, the signs in Egypt. Each sign demonstrates YHWH’s supernatural ability to negate, to some degree, an aspect of Elohim’s creation. As YHWH himself states in the locust sign, the function of the multiple signs is to define YHWH—as distinct from Elohim.

Holiness

In contrast to the identification through negation in the signs, the most significant positive characteristic of YHWH is holiness, first mentioned in the context of Elohim’s sabbath. This is the element that was lacking from Jacob’s experience, preventing him from fully witnessing YHWH’s revelation in the world. Holiness is like the clue planted unobtrusively in the beginning of a detective novel that will prove to be central to solving the mystery. In all of Genesis, after the creation, it is never again mentioned. Only in Exodus does it begin to play a role in the descent of YHWH.

There is a detail worth noting here. Holiness, Elohim’s last act in creation, immediately precipitates the first appearance of YHWH—as though holiness itself calls YHWH into being. And the first human to distinguish YHWH as independent is Eve: “I have acquired a man with YHWH” (Gen 4:1)—attributing Cain to YHWH, while later attributing Seth to Elohim acting alone (Gen 4:25). Eve is the first to perceive that the names refer to distinct aspects of deity. The connection between holiness and YHWH’s appearance, planted at the very beginning, is the thread that the re-creation weave follows to its conclusion in “Be holy.” The tabernacle provided a holy vehicle for YHWH to “dwell” in the midst of Israel.

“And have them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them (Exod 25:8).” It is significant here that in the very first time YHWH commands the building of a tabernacle, he does not use the word “tabernacle.” The Hebrew translated “a sanctuary” is מקדש, meq’dash. This is a noun form of the root “k–d–s.” holy, a holy place. The implications of the command are enormous—Jacob’s descendants are to be empowered, through YHWH’s blueprints, to utilize elements of the natural world to enable the supernatural to “dwell among them:”

The Lord said to Moses: Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all whose hearts prompt them to give, you shall receive the offering for me. This is the offering that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue, purple, and crimson yarns and fine linen, goats' hair, tanned rams' skins, fine leather, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and for the breastpiece. And have them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them. In accordance with all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it. (Exod 25:1-9)

This is the crux of the re-creation weave. When the tabernacle is completed, M uses the same terms for its completion as were used for the completion of Elohim’s creation (Exod 39:32, 40:33). But there is a huge difference between the creation and the re-creation. Elohim created the world by himself. YHWH commanded Moses and the Israelites to manufacture the vehicle through which the world was re-created to include the indwelling of the holy. Still, the indwelling of the holy is, at first, limited to the environs of the tabernacle. One more step is required to fulfill YHWH’s plan to expand the revelation of the holy in the world and to reproduce the Edenic manifestation with Elohim.

The opening of Leviticus Unit 13, ch. 19, provides the necessary additional step for the revelation of the holy: “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I YHWH, your deity, am holy (Lev 19:1,2).” YHWH’s holiness is to be revealed to the world through Israel. This is the heart of the Torah. Israel is to embody YHWH’s holiness to reveal it in the world.

Furthermore, there is to be a land that will be run according to holy law. That land and the Israelites, together, are to provide the vehicle for cosmic healing. Holiness will have a place in the natural world and united YHWH Elohim will be revealed. Israel is to embody the supernatural, transcendent, holy in the world of natural, immanent, mundane, nations. As YHWH says in his last speech at the close of the forty-years trek “And thou shalt not defile the land which ye inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for I YHWH dwell in the midst of the children of Israel (Num 35:34).” A new epoch is about to begin. The holiness of Israel will reflect the holiness of YHWH, when they observe his laws. Israel is to be the link connecting YHWH’s holiness to Elohim’s creation. According to this view, when Israel observes YHWH’s holy laws, its land should resemble the Garden of Eden, as a place where YHWH and Elohim are united.

M's theology presented above is the product of a close reading of the Torah including consideration of the additional meanings embedded in its structure. We can now begin to observe the specifics of the structural reading. The example I have chosen to discuss in this introduction displays the way M envisioned YHWH’s revelation through Israel. YHWH is essentially invisible. To be revealed in the world, he needs a cloak of visibility. M presents Israel as that cloak, YHWH’s garment.

The Image of Israel as YHWH’s Garment

M presents Israel as YHWH’s cloak of visibility. The literary structure of Numbers was planned as a representation of the four-sided Israelite encampment, with the tabernacle—YHWH’s dwelling—at the center, encompassed by the twelve tribes arranged on four sides. Each side of the camp contains three tribes, and the central tribe of each side is designated the “flag” tribe. In the literary structure, the four “flag” units (2, 6, 8, 12) each consist entirely of laws without narrative—while none of the other units do. The purely legal units are the flags. This explains one of the long-standing problems of Numbers: the seemingly haphazard intertwining of narrative and laws. The laws are not haphazard; they are placed to mark the four sides of the camp.

M left a piece of evidence confirming this reading. In the center of the book (Unit 7, the Korah narrative), immediately preceding the rebellion, appears the law of fringes (Num 15:37-39): colored threads are to be placed on the four sides (כנפי) of garments to remind the wearer of YHWH’s commandments. The laws of which they are to be mindful are found in the flag units—the fringes on the sides of the camp. The literary structure of the book mirrors the garment: the four sides of the camp correspond to four sides of a garment, the legal units are the colored threads, and YHWH’s presence dwells at the center, clothed in the nation of Israel. (For the full analysis, see the Numbers structure.)

This image of YHWH clothed in Israel is one demonstration of how a reading that attends to formal structure leads to meanings not accessible from the linear reading alone. The subject of this essay integrates three such figurative structures—the creation weave, the decreation weave, and the re-creation weave—to show the flow from Elohim’s creation of the natural world, through YHWH’s distinction of himself from Elohim, to YHWH’s re-creation of the world to include the revelation of holiness.

The Creation and Decreation Weaves

The creation and decreation weaves provide the structural key to understanding the re-creation. Both are analyzed in detail in The Creation Weave and in Before Chapter and Verse. (The Unit 1 commentary explores the creation weave as a paradigm for all woven reading.) Here we note only the characteristics directly relevant to this essay.

Elohim’s six days of creation, when arranged in two columns of three days each, weave the picture of a three-tiered reality (Figure 3). Above (A), days one and four point to a luminous, transcendent tier. Below (C), days three and six are the tier of the immanent, earth. In the middle (B), day two divides above from below, while day five connects them with birds and fish. The two columns represent two simultaneous processes of creation. Column L substantiates through separation: Elohim divides light from darkness, waters from waters, land from sea, and names each result. The elements progress from the insubstantial to the substantial—light (fire), air, water, earth. This is creation ex nihilo. Column R animates through spirit transfer: the רוח (ruach, spirit) of Elohim that hovers over the waters in 1B progressively enters creation through creatures of increasing independence—luminaries locked in orbit, fish and birds moving on currents, land animals under their own volition, humanity bearing the divine image. Elohim blesses rather than names. This is creation ex materia. Neither process alone produces a world; reality is woven from both.

The creation weave ends with a separation that matters for everything that follows. After completing the six days, Elohim and the physical world stand apart. The epilogue (Gen 2:1-3) is the first block of text to refer to creation without mentioning Elohim, and the next passage tells us Elohim “finished his work” without naming any specific works. Holiness, mentioned for the first time in connection with the Sabbath, then vanishes from all of Genesis. It will not reappear until Exodus. The creation has produced a world that can stand on its own—but a world lacking holiness. The re-creation weave shows how holiness is revealed in that world.

Figure 3. The Creation Weave

The nine signs in Egypt form a parallel structure—but inverted and expanded (Figure 4). They divide into three sets of three by two independent criteria: the form of introduction and the agent. Aaron points down for the first triad (earth); Moses points up for the third (sky); YHWH acts directly in the middle. The six days of creation find their correspondences only in the outer columns of the decreation—L and R—while the middle column (M: frogs, pestilence, locust) has no creation-day parallel at all. M instructs us that the middle column is unique to the decreation. In the outer columns, each sign negates an aspect of its corresponding creation day: blood negates the waters of day 3; mixture negates the divider of day 2; hail’s “falling lights” negate the luminaries of day 4; darkness negates the light of day 1; in the boils sign Moses throws soot heavenward and it descends as dust over the land—the ascending and descending movement corresponds to day 5’s birds and fish that traverse the space between above and below; lice from the earth attack creatures of day 6. The order of the days is rearranged and inverted—earth and sky switch positions—and the consecutive sequence of the creation is deliberately broken.

Figure 4. The Nine-Signs Decreation Weave

The decreation weave shares the three-tiered visual hierarchy of the creation (though inverted), but adds a third warp thread in the middle. This additional thread is the first positive distinction between Elohim and YHWH. Where Elohim’s creation rests on dyads (one/many, inanimate/animate), YHWH introduces mediation—a concept absent from the two-threaded warp. This triadic principle first appears in the Tower of Babel (Genesis Unit 4), YHWH’s first solo appearance in the Torah, where three warp threads embody unity, dialogue, and diversity. The decreation shares its three-thread warp with the re-creation weave, as we will see, while sharing its content with the creation. It functions as a conceptual middle between Elohim’s creation and YHWH’s re-creation: connected to the creation by content, and to the re-creation by form.

Key Points of Introduction

The Re-creation Weave

The examination of the re-creation weave is divided into two parts. In the “first look” we get an overview of the re-creation as a formal literary structure. We define its parts and examine how they fit together. The second part “probing the depth,” is interpretative, containing exploration of the meaning of the structure as a literary artifact. We conclude that the structure was created to simulate within a text the revelation of YHWH in the world.

First Look

Units

Before we even begin the analysis, we should consider the magnitude of the discovery we are about to reveal and the incredulity it is likely to provoke. The re-creation weave is embedded within many intertwined levels of structure and organization encompassing the entire Torah. There is no way it could be discovered without reconstructing the original literary format of the entire Torah in meticulous detail. The most significant step involved identifying how the Torah divides itself into literary units, the components we have termed “Units,” like the Babel Unit (Genesis Unit 4). The methods used to identify the Units are presented most fully in Part A: The Units of Genesis, with additional discussion in Part Three of BC&V and in my article on the structure of Leviticus.^[2] Here is a brief recap to facilitate understanding of how the re-creation weave was found.

Each unit of the Torah was composed according to a two-dimensional paradigm attributed to a divine author, Elohim, who employed it in two ways. We have seen that the whole of Elohim’s creation is a weave. In addition, the only text written by Elohim, the Decalogue, arranged across the two stone tablets, is the paradigm for woven text. Each stone tablet represents a warp thread, the foundation of a weave. Consecutive pairs of Words (according to the MT division) are woven across the two tablets like weft threads. Consequently, the full composition has more levels of meaning than the sum of the ten individual components, the meanings embedded in the threads, as we saw in the creation weave (Figure 3). The composition itself is esoteric since it is accessible only to the few who can identify it or who have received knowledge of it from a teacher.

All eighty-six Units of the Torah were composed according to the weave paradigm of the Decalogue. M implies that the genre of woven text should be considered divine as it is attributed to Elohim, who also creates the world in six days according to the same weaving paradigm. It is of the greatest significance that writing and woven text are attributed to Elohim and not to YHWH. Elohim, the creator of the physical, divines a method to turn ephemeral speech, such as YHWH’s, into permanent compositions.

M adapts the divine paradigm and diversifies the possible dimensions of the weaves employed in the Torah. In addition to the 5 (weft threads) X 2 (warp threads) format of the Decalogue, M created Units containing two or three warp threads as well as two to six weft threads. Seventy-six of the Torah’s Units can be represented by simple “weft X warp” notation, such as 3X3, 2X2, 5X3, etc. All these have in common equal sized weft threads and, consequently, a fixed number of warp threads. Ten Units do not fit this pattern. Until the formal structure of each of the eighty-six Units was identified, there was no way to distinguish between the seventy-six “regular” and ten “irregular” Units. I have labelled these 10 irregular Units, the Re-creation Weave, as together, they tell a story, like a meta-narrative, across the whole Torah.

Irregular Units

The ten “irregular” Units contain weft threads of differing dimensions within the Unit, but nevertheless share a form of symmetry. In all ten Units the first and last weft threads are the same size. For example, Unit 3 of Exodus contains five weft threads. The first and fifth have two segments, while the three threads between them have three segments each. The structure of the Unit is noted as “23332.” M has utilized the dimensions of Units as a literary/rhetorical device. In the case of the re-creation weave, the ten irregular Units, taken together, create a coherent veiled composition. In other cases, as in Leviticus, M employed Unit dimensions to indicate that those with similar dimensions are to be understood as conceptually related. However, in the case of sets of Units in Leviticus, the Units are consecutive. The ten irregular Units are spread over all five books of the Torah. Figure 5 is a map of the five books of the Torah showing the dimensions of all its Units. The irregular Units are highlighted, creating a graphic view of their distribution.

We develop a thesis below through analysis of these ten Units. The major conclusion is that the re-creation was constructed with interpretive intent. Specifically, it shows how YHWH is revealed in the world through Israel. The breadth of the interpretive vision presented through this structure is breathtaking, in both depth of content and crafted presentation. For example, the revelation of YHWH is to take place within Elohim’s physical creation. The linking of the two, Elohim and YHWH, returns the world, at least in a limited way, to its state in the Garden of Eden narrative, in which the name YHWH Elohim appears exclusively. The literary device chosen as the vehicle for the Torah’s revelation, woven text, is associated with Elohim. The literary content is the revelation of YHWH. Elohim and YHWH are united through the form and content of the Torah, specifically in the re-creation weave! Thus, those who master this text take part in the reunification of Elohim and YHWH. I trust this vision will encourage you to invest in studying this complex revelation.

The notation in Figure 5 records the dimensions of each Unit. A regular Unit like 3×2 has three weft threads of two segments each. An irregular Unit like 23332 has weft threads of varying sizes—but note that the first and last match, maintaining a form of symmetry. These irregularities are not defects; they are the markers that led to the identification of the re-creation weave.

Figure 5. The Eighty-Six Units of the Torah

Irregular units are marked with emphasized borders. Regular dimensions: rows×columns (e.g. 3×2). Irregular dimensions: thread sizes (e.g. 12221).

M has employed yet another technique to verify that the ten irregular Units comprise an intended collection. The beauty of this additional technique is that it is only significant once the ten Units have been identified and divided into triads. It verifies that the division into triads is intentional. It is based on the locations of the Units in the Torah relative to each other. In triads 1 and 2 the first two Units are consecutive, Genesis Unit 13 and Unit 14 in 1, Exodus Unit 11 and Unit 12 in 2 (see Figure 6). So why not in 3? Does the fact that the first two Units in 3 are not consecutive destroy our argument that M intentionally constructed the dimensions of Units so that we would discover this set of ten irregular Units and divide them into three blocks of three and a single? Not really. Here we can learn something of M’s concept of “elegance,” as used in mathematics and computer programs.

M develops a rule of consecutive Units in 1 and 2. It is emphasized by the fact that the first consecutive pair, Genesis Unit 13 and Genesis Unit 14, have the same dimensions (12221). Having now created the expectation of seeing a consecutive pair in set 3, M uses our expectation to embed yet more information. This is where we can appreciate M’s rhetorical elegance. The repetition of consecutive Units in 1 and 2 develops a rule which is then employed to lock in additional information without repeating the rule in the same form it already appeared, connecting the first and second Units of triads. While there are no consecutive Units in 3, its last Unit, Numbers Unit 13 and the tenth irregular Unit, Deuteronomy Unit 1, 4, are consecutive. M creates an exception which proves the rule while simultaneously verifying that Deuteronomy Unit 1 is part of the plan even though it is not part of a triad. Pairs of consecutive Units are thus an additional tool employed to lock together the ten Units as a composition. It is difficult to comprehend the amount of complex planning that went into the composition of the Torah. As my student and colleague, Rabbi Brett Kopin likes to say, “the Torah is impossible!” To assist with the analysis of the re-creation, the significant points of each of the ten Units are briefly summarized in Figure 6.

Figure 6. The Ten Irregular Units of the Re-creation Weave

We begin our analysis of the re-creation by arranging the first nine Units as a weave, in Figure 7. This arrangement will clarify: M composed these Units to be read together as a two-dimensional structure having both horizontal (weft) and vertical (warp) sense.

Figure 7. The Irregular Units Weave

First Look at the Weft

Each three-Unit set, or weft thread, 1-3, indicates a chronological period. Thread 1 contains two Units of the Jacob narrative in Genesis and the Exodus Unit 3, containing the nine signs of the de-creation weave. This enables us to probe more deeply why M saw fit to arrange the “signs” in Egypt in a manner that, as it were, reverses elements of creation. We can see it as the end of the pre-national narrative, spanning the beginning of Genesis to the end of Ex III. The first verse of Ex IV declares the inauguration of the national calendar: “This month will be for you the beginning of months.” The initiation of the national calendar marks the initiation of the nation. Up to this point they were Jacob’s descendants, “the children of Israel.” After the inauguration of the calendar, they are addressed for the first time as a nation, a congregation: “And YHWH spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying: 'This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying: In the tenth day of this month … “(Exod 12:1-3)

A key term in Exod 12:2 is ראש (beginning), the same root is in the first word of the Torah. After YHWH “decreates” Elohim’s creation in the decreation weave, a new creation begins with the establishment of Israel as a nation. Therefore, set 1, beginning with the Jacob narrative in Genesis Unit 13, encompasses the pre-national story of Jacob and his descendants in three steps.

Set 2 is self-explanatory, dealing exclusively with the tabernacle. Its third Unit, Exodus Unit 19, is like the third Unit in set 1 in that it indicates the completion of a phase, the construction of the tabernacle. Apparently, M selected the Units of set 2 to emphasize a “second creation,” which follows the de-creation closing set 1. Set 2 ends in a manner reminiscent of the end of the days of creation. The opening and closing threads of Exodus Unit 19 begin with the same Hebrew verb as the two segments of the conclusion of the creation, כלה (finish, complete). Figure 8 demonstrates that the parallels include not only the verb, but parallel uses of passive and active voices (in their literal order). Since Exodus Unit 19 closes the book, we can read Exodus as the book of the new creation, YHWH’s creation, as opposed to Elohim’s. This is the core theme of the re-creation weave.

Figure 8. The Completion of the Creation and the Tabernacle

Moving to set 3, while the subject uniting the Units hereof is not as obvious as the subject of set 2, the third Unit in set 3 does follow the pattern established by the third Units in the previous two sets. It too is a “completion” Unit. Numbers Unit 13, the last Unit of Numbers, completes the historical narrative of the Torah and summarizes all the forty-two camp-stops in the desert along the way. It marks the end of the desert wanderings and includes the appointment of Joshua as leader and Elazar as Priest to lead the conquest of Canaan. It also contains the key for dividing the conquest between the tribes.

The future orientation towards the period after Moses’ death connects all three Units of set 3. This theme is most clearly enunciated in the opening of Unit 3M (Leviticus Unit 20): “And YHWH spoke unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When ye come into the land which I give you. (Lev 25:1,2).” Leviticus Unit 13 (see 19:9) also contains agricultural laws which could only apply to the period after the conquest of Canaan, as well as “And when ye shall come into the land (19:23).”

So, M has neatly divided the development of the Israelite nation into three periods according to the three sets: the pre-national (1), transitional (2), and the established nation (3). This first, cursory, reading of the weft is sufficient to demonstrate that we are examining an artifact, a planned composition deserving further exploration. Now, we turn to a preliminary look at the warp of the re-creation weave.

First Look at the Warp

While examining the weft, we noted that the three Units of thread R, the third thread of the warp, are all “completion” Units: 1R, the completion of the pre-national period; 2R, the completion of the tabernacle; and 3R, the completion of the forty-year trek. This observation invites us to see the first thread of the warp, L, as a set of beginnings. Unit 1L contains the beginning of Jacob’s journey; 2L is the beginning of the tabernacle material; and 3L is the first Unit of the re-creation to mention “When you come into the land.”

These observations are sufficient to justify a closer look at the Warp. It appears M planned the threads of the warp to reflect the beginnings (L) middles (M) and ends (R) of the themes presented in the weft threads. However, the coherence of the warp threads seems based on more than chronological ordering, as also the weft threads. This leads us to examine the deeper meanings embedded in the re-creation weave.

Probing the Depth of the Re-creation Weave

We have seen evidence that the re-creation weave is a literary construct, related to the creation and decreation weaves. In the following, we will compare these three “creation” structures. The comparison will be made on several levels. First, we will compare the gross formats of each. Following that we can take a deep dive into the meanings to be derived from reading the creation and the decreation weaves within the wider context of the full Units in which they are found. The detailed analysis of these Units will prepare us to explore the re-creation in depth.

Supernatural Literary Formats

M was a master of creating literary formats to suit content. For example, the six days of creation paint the picture of the three-tiered natural world through a progression of natural elements. In contrast, the Units making up the re-creation represents the supernatural through a textual device divorced from any natural way of reading—a super-text. All ten of its Units have a place in the linear flow of the Torah. But when they are identified as a coherent collection of Units planned to be read together (by their irregular structure), they produce additional meanings. The super-text, the re-creation, presents the indwelling of the supernatural, YHWH, in Elohim’s natural world. The literary format suits its subject.

There is another literary format that distinguishes between Elohim and YHWH. In our first look at the re-creation above, we discovered the ten Units of the weave by identifying them as irregular. We posited, there, that the paradigm of woven writing and speaking is attributed to Elohim in the Decalogue and in the days of creation. These two key examples are like all the seventy-six regular Units, having the same number of parts in each weft thread. As we have begun to see, the function of the re-creation weave is to demonstrate how YHWH, the heavenly, establishes a presence in Elohim’s mundane world. The “irregularities” of the irregular Units were created to tell the story of YHWH. They fall outside the normal paradigm of Elohim’s “regular” weaves. We now have two modes of textual weaving associated with the two divine names, regular weaves with Elohim, and irregular with YHWH. Surprisingly, a third formal, textual, distinction between Elohim and YHWH appears when the creation, decreation and re-creation, weaves are examined together.

The Decreation Is a Conceptual Middle

The three structures we have been exploring, taken together, create a triad with a conceptual middle. The first contains Elohim’s six-day creation weave and the third contains YHWH’s re-creation weave. In the middle, through the signs in Egypt, YHWH deconstructs Elohim’s creation to prepare the world for the recreation. In other words, at the poles we focus on Elohim and YHWH and two distinct types of creation. They meet in the middle where YHWH begins to be revealed in contradistinction to Elohim by manipulating elements of Elohim’s creation weave. This triadic pattern—YHWH at one pole, Elohim at the other, both meeting in the middle—replicates the pattern of the three rows of Genesis, where YHWH dominates Row 1 (above), Elohim dominates Row 3 (below), and both names operate together in Row 2 (the interface). It is important to note that YHWH’s decreation is specifically focused on the creation weave, and not just individual creations, as detailed in the introduction.

The decreation is a conceptual middle, sharing content with the creation weave, and form with the re-creation weave, building on the creation weave in multiple ways. First, it maintains the visual hierarchy of the three weft threads of creation (above, between, below), albeit upside down. It also reflects the distinction between the warp threads of the creation, “one and many,” through presenting public signs in thread L and private signs in thread R. However, it has an additional thread in the middle, “M.” The decreation shares this distinguishing characteristic (three warp threads) with the re-creation weave, as well as having a tenth element not part of a triad. Thus, the creation and the decreation are related by content, while the decreation and the re-creation are, at first look, connected by form. But this is not just a distinction between literary structures. It points to meaning—the association of Elohim with content and YHWH with form. M has revealed YHWH, the supernatural, the transcendent, through the formal complexity of the text. The complex mapping of the creation days to the decreation weave is in itself strong evidence that YHWH is revealed through complexity.

Normalizing YHWH

Despite the revelation of YHWH through the irregular and the supernatural, there is also a significant textual attempt to “normalize” his re-creation by aligning it with Elohim’s creation. We might think that YHWH’s rearrangement of the creation weave in the decreation would be reflected in the re-creation. However, as displayed in Figure 9, the outer warp threads of the re-creation form a precise reflection of the creation, not the decreation. The order of links to days, the horizontal visual order, and the vertical relationships precisely match the creation. While distinguished from the creation by its three-thread warp, nevertheless, the recreation reproduces exactly the relationships established by the order of the days of creation.

Figure 9. The Re-creation Parallels the Creation

The Creation and Decreation Are Witnesses to the Re-creation

The precise parallels between the creation and the re-creation, as seen in Figure 9, are even more striking when we consider how the two structures present themselves. The creation is a single coherent block of text relating the actions of just a single character, Elohim. It has all the signs of a highly crafted text based on a repeating formula, “And Elohim said: 'Let….’ And there was evening and there was morning.” The re-creation is not even a coherent text. Its parts are spread out over all five books of the Torah. They include narratives and laws; stories from the past and regulations for a not-yet-existing state. Had we not first seen the common format the re-creation weave shares with the decreation weave (3X3+1), there would be no reason to think of comparing the creation and the re-creation.

And yet, the very expansiveness and complexity of the re-creation indicate that the whole of the Torah was planned as a vehicle for concealing and revealing the re-creation. There is no way that the re-creation can be read as an addition to the Torah or an independent block of text. It is the heart and soul of the Torah, encompassing some of its most significant parts. The whole Torah was planned to encompass the re-creation as the core of its central theme, the revelation of YHWH through holiness, as we see below. The creation and decreation weaves are clues to the existence and significance of the re-creation. Referring to our observation above, we can now say that the non-linear super text, in some way takes precedence over the linear text, and so YHWH takes the front of the stage, not Elohim. What does that even mean? To address this question, we must have a closer look at the goal of Elohim’s creation.

The Purpose of Elohim’s Creation

Why did Elohim create the world? This question is dealt with extensively in the Genesis Unit 1 commentary and in BC&V ch. 8, so our presentation here will be cursory, even though this is such an enormous question. The textual evidence is found in the framework of Genesis Unit 1. The six days of creation, the creation weave, is not the whole of the creation Unit, Genesis Unit 1. It has both a prologue and an epilogue. The purpose of the creation can be seen as changing the existing relationship between Elohim and elements of the creation in the prologue, to the new relationship between them in the epilogue, following the days of creation. As we will see, this form of analysis holds for the decreation as well.

An asymmetry between the two names deserves attention here. Elohim first appears alone, creating directly through his speech. The name YHWH first appears attached to Elohim—YHWH Elohim—in the Garden narrative. This suggests that Elohim is independent; YHWH is dependent. Elohim needs nothing to create. YHWH needs a tabernacle, a priesthood, a people, a land—all elements of Elohim’s world—to be revealed. This dependence is the engine of the entire re-creation: YHWH cannot enter the world without Elohim’s creation, and Elohim’s creation cannot achieve holiness without YHWH. Each needs the other, but not symmetrically. Elohim provides the substrate; YHWH provides the purpose.

The prologue consists of a pair of chiastic triads. The first (Figure 10) is based on the three unmodified nouns literally closing the opening verse (v. 1): Elohim, heaven, and earth. The second triad in v. 2, made up of three sentences (Figure 11) inverts the order of Elohim and the earth: “The earth was unformed… the spirit of Elohim hovered.” The central terms, “heaven” and “the deep,” appear several times in the Torah, but “the deep” never appears without its antipode, “heaven.” This last observation locks in the two triads as a tight chiasm. We have dealt with it at length in BC&V ch. 8. The bottom line is that the opening of the Torah presents a state in which Elohim in closely connected with elements of creation

Figure 10. The Chiastic Prologue of the Creation

The epilogue (Figure 14; Gen 2:1-3) also consists of two triads. They are marked as parallel by their similar openings. As we have said, in the Hebrew, both begin with the word translated “finished.” We noted above (Figure 8) more details about these openings. In terms of content, the first triad (v. 1) “And finished were the heaven…” is the first block of text to refer to the creation without any mention of Elohim. That point is emphasized by the fact that the next triad (vv. 2-3) tells us that Elohim “finished his work,” without any reference to specific “works.” Textually, Elohim and the physical world have separated. That leads to the conclusion: the function of the six days of creation is to bring about a state in which the creation can be seen to stand on its own, independent of Elohim, as it were.

The creation has created a dichotomy. On one side there is the natural world, self-propagating and ostensibly requiring no further input from Elohim. On the other side Elohim rests and sanctifies rest. The dichotomy is between the mundane material world, and divine holiness. At this point there is, apparently, no holiness in the created world. The whole of the Torah, following the creation, and especially the re-creation weave, show how holiness is revealed in the world.

Figure 11. The Epilogue of the Creation

The Purpose of YHWH’s Decreation

Elohim expresses his expectations from people in the creation through their blessing: “And Elohim blessed them; and Elohim said unto them: 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth (Gen 1:28).” People are to take control of the earth (subdue it) and all its creatures. Nowhere was this command followed more faithfully than in Egypt, partly through the influence of Joseph: “And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they got them possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly (Gen 47:27).”

The fertility and prosperity of Israel was just a small part of the wealth and power of Egypt. It was able to master nature sufficiently to avoid disaster during a seven-year famine. Not only did Egypt survive, but it also became the breadbasket for surrounding nations. As its figurehead, Pharoah was the ultimate example of how Elohim’s command to Adam would eventually play out. He was seen as the master of all, including nature. This is the necessary background for a deeper understanding of the decreation and the re-creation.

Interestingly, M crafted the decreation Unit similarly to the creation Unit. It too has a prologue and an epilogue before and after the detailing of the nine signs in the Unit. (The death of the first born appears in the next Unit (Exodus Unit 4; 12:1–13:16.) That means we can apply the same method to analyze the decreation as the creation. The signs of the decreation bring about a transformation of an element of the prologue to its changed state in the epilogue. The process is discussed in BC&V ch. 9. I include an extensive section from that chapter below because of the importance of this Unit.

The decreation weave consists of the three central weft threads of Exodus Unit 3, a Unit of the re-creation. As such, Exodus Unit 3 is doubly important to us, both as containing the conceptual middle of the “creations” trilogy, as well as being a cornerstone of the re-creation. We examine the full Unit first, and following that, explore the significance of Exodus Unit 3 being part of the re-creation.

Exodus Unit 3

The five weft threads of Exodus Unit 3 describe two intertwined processes. The first fits the “signs” theme. It is a process that begins with pure symbolism that becomes more and more of a threat to the stability of the state. The parallel process in the gradual destabilization of the state and the diminishment of Pharoah. Consistent with the overall theme in the Unit of divine “signs,” each of the five threads (1. prologue, 2-4 threads of the decreation, 5. epilogue) has a different degree of signification vis-a-vis their common theme, insurrection. Threads 1 and 5 present the poles: a symbolic insurrection in thread 1, and a fully realized insurrection in thread 5.

• Thread 1: Prologue

Thread 1 is almost purely symbolic. It takes place in a setting that includes only Pharaoh and his court. The effects of the first sign do not extend beyond the seat of authority and its symbolic staves, symbols of authority. Aaron turns his staff into a living symbol, and this is followed by Pharaoh’s councilor-magicians, who also turn their staves into living symbols. When Aaron’s staff swallows those of Pharaohs’ councilor-magicians, the act itself is symbolic, indicating, perhaps, that Aaron serves a higher authority. No real damage is done, nor is the creation of a living symbol a unique power bestowed upon Aaron. It is, apparently, within the job description of all higher-level authorities. YHWH himself similarly engages in pure symbolism in thread 1. He tells Moses that he, Moses, will appear to Pharaoh as a god, and Aaron will appear as Moses’ prophet (7:1). The fact that the structure begins with pure symbolism is totally fitting for a Unit devoted to signs. We turn to the epilogue of the decreation now to complete the examination of its framework.

• Thread 5: Epilogue

In thread 5 we learn that Pharaoh’s antagonist, Moses, has achieved fame throughout the land, “the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people (11:3).” Moreover, Moses then threatens Pharaoh that his people will change their allegiance, “And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down unto me (11:8).” What began as a duel of symbols in thread 1, has turned into a true popular revolution, with the threat embodied in the warning concerning the impending death of the firstborn. We can already see that thread 5 “realizes” something which exists symbolically, in potential, in thread 1, a political challenge to Pharaoh. Threads 2-4, the decreation weave, are graduated steps leading from thread 1 to 5. The full five-part Unit presents a five-step process of civil insurrection initiated through a veiled threat in thread 1. Here is a summary of the intermediate stages of the insurgency in threads 2-4.

• Thread 2, the first triad (blood, frogs, lice)

Thread 2 has common elements with thread 1, the living staff symbol. All three of the signs are brought about by Aaron by means of his staff and are then imitated by Pharaoh’s councilor-magicians. The effects are largely symbolic, creating more nuisance than damage. While bodies of water turned to blood, water was still to be had by digging; frogs in one’s dinner plate might be unhygienic and disgusting, but no worse. One significant change from thread 1 is in the circle of people affected. While thread 1 was limited to Pharaoh’s court, the three “annoyances” of thread 2 affect the entire population. The stench of rotting fish and frogs that filled the air of Egypt may indicate a general malaise that the people began to perceive. Something is rotten in Egypt.

• Thread 3 (mixture, bovine disease, boils)

Thread 3 is significantly different from the first two. As opposed to thread 2, it cannot be understood as a duel between Aaron and Pharaoh’s councilor-magicians. Actual damage is caused by the loss of personal property, death of Pharoah’s livestock. The text emphasizes the distinction between the Egyptians who suffer and the Israelites who are unaffected. While the distinction between the two peoples may have been implied in the earlier stages through Aaron’s superior mastery of matter, it becomes explicit in this stage. YHWH himself declares he will distinguish between Egyptian and Israelite. This point is further emphasized by Moses when he tells Pharaoh that the Israelite form of worship is abhorrent to the Egyptians. The basis for sedition is prepared in this triad by the separation of one part of the population from the other. This theme is further developed in thread 4.

• Thread 4 (hail, locust, darkness)

The seeds of Pharaoh’s political downfall, sown in thread 3, take root in thread 4. The warning before the hail makes a unique appeal to the citizenry not to fall into the trap set for Pharaoh. “He that feared the word of YHWH among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses; and he that regarded not the word of YHWH left his servants and his cattle in the field (9:20,21).” Egyptian society has undergone a change that threatens its very existence, “And Pharaoh's servants said unto him: 'How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve YHWH their deity, knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? (10:7)'” Egypt, as a pharaonic state, is being dissolved. The process of sedition outlined above is summarized in Figure 12.

Figure 12. Five Stages from Symbols to Sedition in Five Threads

The five-thread reading of Exodus Unit 3 reveals a distinction between two modes of experiencing the signs. Pharaoh, who encounters them linearly, one after the other, is limited to sensing YHWH’s power—and even that awareness erodes as his heart hardens. But the future generations of the children of Israel, who can review and integrate the full text of the signs, derive from them not just an impression of power but knowledge of YHWH’s nature—how he differs from Elohim, how he operates through the supernatural, how the three triads map onto the creation. The linear reader is Pharaoh, experiencing events. The structural reader is Israel, perceiving the composition. This distinction between the two modes of reading—one available to all, one requiring the organizational effort of reconstruction—is itself the principle that governs the entire re-creation weave.

Between YHWH and Elohim, Again

The decreation weave is thus part of a larger narrative involving YHWH directly, and Elohim indirectly. The larger narrative points to another seeming conflict between Elohim and YHWH. We noted above, Egypt is the ultimate, fully expressed, product of Elohim’s blessing to Adam, the final stage of “natural” human development. YHWH demonstrates that he represents an opposing direction by supporting a successful sedition by slaves, Israel, against Egypt. Just as YHWH reversed all the elements of Elohim’s creation in the decreation, in the larger context of the full Unit, he reverses the political development inspired by Elohim’s blessing. Through godlike (or Elohim-like) interactions with Pharoah, by Moses and Aaron, YHWH has become a political force affecting the fates of nations. YHWH has thus established yet another sign that he is to be distinguished from Elohim. Not only does YHWH create supernatural signs that he differs from Elohim, but he also has unnaturally upset the political order: slaves impose their will upon their masters with YHWH’s aid. In the long run, YHWH’s influence will be seen in the political realm through the establishment of a holy nation.

While YHWH successfully displays his power to interpose and demonstrate his will in the natural world, by so doing he creates tension between the natural and supernatural. If the signs in Egypt were to characterize his full relationship with the created world, people could no longer depend on nature. This conflicts with YHWH’s promise to himself after the flood:

“And YHWH smelled the sweet savour; and YHWH said in his heart: 'I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease (Gen 8:21,22)

Reading the Re-creation Units Consecutively

Referring to the flood gives us a chance to review the bigger picture, captured in the re-creation weave. Both Elohim and YHWH were involved with the creation of people and had different reasons for bringing about the destruction of the flood. Elohim created people in his image to have control over the world he created. His disenchantment before the flood was with their management of the earth: “And Elohim saw the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth (Gen 6:12).” People had not been able to carry out Elohim’s plan according to which he gave them “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth (Gen 1:28).” While under their control, all life had been corrupted. YHWH, on the other hand decried “…that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Gen 6:5).” Elohim emphasized the objective and YHWH the subjective.

The distinction between YHWH/subjective and Elohim/objective resonates with the “mind-body” dichotomy. For “mind,” or the “heart,” in Hebrew, one might want to use “soul.” Whatever term we use, there is a distinction made through the names, YHWH and Elohim, between the inner “subjective” and the outer “objective.”

In the Garden of Eden, they were integrated in the name YHWH Elohim. When people obtained knowledge of making distinctions, such as between good and bad, and were banished from the Garden, YHWH became distinct from Elohim in the text. The re-creation demonstrates the way the names Elohim and YHWH are to be reintegrated. This integration is how YHWH is to overcome the appearance of being “supernatural,” and consequently not able to be revealed in this “natural” world. To integrate the subjective and the objective they are first distinguished one from the other. And it all begins with Jacob dressing up as/in Esau, thus creating an archetypical connection. We now begin to read the nine Units of the re-creation weave consecutively as a coherent composition. After we complete this reading, we will return to the analysis of the re-creation as a weave.

Genesis Unit 13 (1L)

Isaac’s pronouncement in 1L that “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau (Gen 27:22)” describes more than what he experiences at the moment of Jacob’s impersonation. M has already told us in Gen 25:27 “Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.” Jacob, like a voice, is associated with the internal and Esau, like the hands, is associated with the external. To take his place in the world, Jacob must take upon himself Esau’s worldliness, “grow hands.” To be a complete person, worthy of Isaac’s blessing, Jacob must transcend his personal limitation, an inclination to withdraw from the world. He does so by dressing himself as Esau.

We might think of Jacob as a thinker, a reflective soul, as opposed to his brother, the man of action. A natural introvert like Jacob would have to undergo a radical change to be able to carry out the blessing intended for Esau. He would have to take upon himself the characteristics of the man of action, represented by the goatskin on his hands and neck and Esau’s clothing. Blind Isaac clearly sees: “the voice is the voice of Jacob, and the hand is the hand of Esau.”

Jacob is now both himself, and not himself. His own inner voice, or spirit, is encapsulated within his brother’s physicality. It is as if Jacob’s soul has been transplanted to Esau’s body. Having begun to rebuild himself outwardly to get by in the world, the normally withdrawn Jacob had to step outside of himself and leave his father’s home to seek his fortune with Laben. This incident in the first Unit of the re-creation sets the tone and direction for all that follows. It is a charade that ultimately leads the reader of the re-creation to a revelation of Elohim and YHWH parallel to the relationship between Esau and Jacob.

Genesis Unit 14 (1M)

As we begin to read warp thread M, a structural detail deserves attention. The three M units have 5, 4, and 3 weft threads respectively: Genesis Unit 14 (12221) has five, Exodus Unit 12 (1221) has four, Leviticus Unit 20 (323) has three. This descending sequence is exactly the same as the middle weft thread B: Exodus Unit 11 (12221) has five, Exodus Unit 12 (1221) has four, Exodus Unit 19 (131) has three. The middle warp and the middle weft share the same dimensional ladder—and they cross at Exodus Unit 12, the unit with four threads that sits at the center of the weave. The structure itself creates a ladder descending from five to three, with the crossing point at four—the high priest’s garments, where both middles meet. And the content traces the same descent. In 1M, YHWH is above, at the top of the ladder, and Elohim is below. In 3M, YHWH says “the land is mine; ye are strangers and settlers with me” (Lev 25:23)—he has descended. He is in the land, dwelling with Israel. The dimensions compress as YHWH comes down: five threads when he is in heaven, three when he is on the ground.

The descent is more than numerical. It is a transformation of literary format. The five-thread units (12221) are envelopes—outer rows that wrap and conceal the inner content. The major narrative lives in the center three rows; the envelope frames it. In Genesis Unit 13, Esau is the outer garment of the unit: his wives open it, his departure closes it, and inside is Jacob’s voice, the blessing, the deception. In Genesis Unit 14, places and angels frame the unit—ויפגע במקום at the opening (Bethel), ויפגעו בו מלאכי אלהים at the closing (Mahanaim)—and inside are the births, the wealth, the flight from Laban. In Exodus Unit 11, Israel itself is the envelope: דבר אל בני ישראל ויקחו לי תרומה opens it, ואתה תצוה את בני ישראל ויקחו אליך closes it, and inside is the tabernacle—YHWH’s dwelling within Israel. The format is a diagram of what it describes: a voice inside a skin, a presence inside a tent, a deity inside a people.

The three-thread units (323, 232, 212) work differently. They are not envelopes but cores: a center flanked by two rows. The major content—laws, legislation, the substance of Israel’s life—is on the outside, in the flanks. The center is the anomalous element that provides the key to reading what surrounds it. In Leviticus Unit 13 (232), the flanks carry the paired columns of the Decalogue structure; the center is unit [9], the unpaired triad that unlocks the chapter. In Leviticus Unit 20 (323), the flanks carry the sabbatical principle and the servant laws; the center is redemption, the mechanism that bridges them. In Numbers Unit 13 (212), the flanks carry the war and the land legislation; the center is the forty-two stations, YHWH’s written travel log.

The process across the re-creation weave—from five-thread to three-thread—is one of revealing what was initially concealed. In the envelope units, YHWH is inside layers: a voice inside skins, a presence inside coverings, a deity inside a dream. In the core units, the law stands exposed on the flanks and the center—the anomalous, the holy—stands between them, visible. The dimensional descent from envelope to core does not merely describe YHWH’s revelation. It enacts it. The format and the substance are inseparable.

The outer threads of each M unit confirm the pattern. In Genesis Unit 14, the envelope is visionary: angels, a ladder, YHWH seen in a dream through intermediaries. In Exodus Unit 12, the outer rows carry לכבוד ולתפארת—glory and beauty transmitted through garments. In Leviticus Unit 20, the outer rows declare ownership: “the land is mine” and “they are my servants whom I brought out of Egypt.” Vision, then transmission, then direct claim. At each stage, less mediation is needed because YHWH is closer to the world.

Before making his way out of Canaan, Jacob falls asleep and has the ladder dream. A sensitized reader might note that the now dichotomous Jacob is confronted by the dichotomy in the godhead, Elohim on earth and YHWH in Heaven. Like the impressions of the senses, angels ascend from the physical to the spiritual (mind) and return to influence the physical.

Jacob understood from YHWH’s dream promise that the heavenly, spiritual, transcendent, intended to have influence on earth, Elohim’s realm, by establishing a people in its own land. To forward his plan, YHWH assured Jacob that he would return safely from his sojourn. From his own limited experience, maybe Jacob understood that YHWH wanted to transform himself similarly to the way Jacob transformed himself: like Jacob dressing up as Esau, so too YHWH planned to “dress up” as Elohim and, like Elohim, he would have a connection to the created world, beginning by guaranteeing Jacob’s welfare.

Just as Jacob clothed himself as a man of action, so too, he thought, YHWH the heavenly would clothe himself as Elohim the earthly. Consequently, Jacob promised that if all went well with him and he returned home, YHWH would “become” Elohim to him, the transcendent would become immanent. But that was not exactly consistent with YHWH’s full plan. He wished to be revealed in the world as YHWH, retaining his identity as “transcendent” while being revealed in the world, as we will see momentarily.

First, we must note that the distinction between Elohim and YHWH plays another significant role here, in the details of the births of Jacob’s first twelve children. Jacob’s wives are the only women in the Torah, other than our mother Eve, who distinguish between children born under the influence of YHWH and those born under the influence of Elohim. Leah attributes Reuben, Simeon and Judah to YHWH, but Issachar and Zebulun to Elohim. Rachel attributes Joseph to Elohim and Benjamin to YHWH. At this point M has created a tension between the names that demands the readers serious attention. With this background, YHWH’s wish to be distinguished within Elohim’s world becomes even more poignant.

Exodus Unit 3 (1R)

YHWH crystalizes this point through the signs of the decreation, as we have seen. He demonstrates that he can control nature, and consequently the most powerful of nations. It should be noted that the nine signs are associated with natural phenomena. The “plague” in each case is caused by an extreme degree of a natural phenomenon. Nature is not broken, consistent with YHWH’s vow after the flood, it is temporarily distorted. The distortion makes clear there is another force in the world capable of mastery over both nature and nations, a force other than Elohim, dressed up in in a patchwork garment consisting of distorted elements of Elohim’s creation weave.

The three Units of thread 1 are ordered in terms of divine revelation. Back in Unit 1L the deity does not appear, but Isaac makes a clear and important distinction between the names when blessing Jacob. “And he came near and kissed him. And he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said: See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which YHWH hath blessed. So, Elohim give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fat places of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine (Gen 27:27,28).” Jacob associates YHWH with the intangible, smell (Heb ריח re’ach), connected to the root for “spirit” in Hebrew, and Elohim with the material. In Unit 1M, Jacob’s dream is consistent with his father’s distinction, YHWH is transcendent in heaven and Elohim is linked to the immanent below. Now in Unit 1R, YHWH reveals himself directly to Moses through speech, and to Israel and Egypt as a supernatural force. The appearance of the new force marks the end of an epoch of Elohim’s creation, the period before the revelation of YHWH through holiness in Israel. The curtain falls.

Exodus Unit 11 (2L)

The curtain rises to reveal a new scene. Moses is on the top of Sinai within the fire and cloud of YHWH’s penumbra, where YHWH is to show him the plans of the heavenly sanctuary. These are the plans that lead to the re-creation of the world after the decreation in Egypt. The earthly sanctuary is to provide a dwelling for YHWH within the world. Its construction will be dependent on the goodwill of individuals:

And YHWH spoke unto Moses, saying: 'Speak unto the children of Israel, that they take for me an offering; of every man whose heart maketh him willing ye shall take my offering. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them: gold, and silver, and brass; and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair; and rams' skins dyed red, and sealskins, and acacia-wood; oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense; onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate. And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it. (Exod 25:1-9)

This is the prelude to the turning point in the history of YHWH’s relationship with the world. Moses is shown the detailed blueprints to create a tabernacle to serve as a sanctuary. The emphasis here must be placed on “sanctuary,” מקדש. The Hebrew root is kds, holy. Holiness is to enter the world in a physical artifact, the tabernacle. In the center of that structure will be a voice, the voice of YHWH:

And thou shalt put the ark-cover above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will speak with thee from above the ark-cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. (Exod 25:21, 22)

The means to enable the revelation are all from the physical world created by Elohim (including the tablets he made). The voice of YHWH is to sound from within Elohim’s material creation. It is not the prayers, meditations, incantations, elevated thoughts or esoteric formulae of Israelites that will lead to the enshrining of YHWH within the world, but rather the luxurious goods, “gold and silver,” freely given. The “unnatural” act of contributing one’s personal wealth is itself the people’s first step towards enabling the continuing revelation of the supernatural, holy, in the world.

Lest we wonder how slaves suddenly turned wealthy, we were told in the previous Unit of the re-creation: “Speak now in the ears of the people, and let them ask every man of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold. And YHWH gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. (Exod 11:2,3).” YHWH created the conditions for the sudden accumulation of wealth by the Israelites, who freely gave from it for the establishment of YHWH’s sanctuary. While the material for the construction came from Elohim by way of Israelites, the form was delivered from YHWH by means of Moses, “I show thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof.”

The Unit makes the jump from a human voice dressed in goat’s hair, to a divine voice encompassed by goat’s hair. The tabernacle was to create a vehicle for the expression of the divine voice: “And there I will meet with thee, and I will speak with thee from above the ark-cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel (Exod 25:22).” Like Jacob presenting himself for Isaac’s blessing, the tabernacle was also covered with goat’s hair amongst other materials: “And thou shalt make curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the tabernacle (26:7).”

Moreover, the tent had yet another element associated with Esau that is not mentioned in the narrative of Jacob’s charade. Esau “came forth ruddy (Gen 25:26)” and was called “Red” (Adom). This detail was not necessary for Jacob to imitate because Isaac was blind. However, it is part of the cover of the tabernacle: “And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red (Exod 26:14).” Just as Jacob “dwelled in tents (Gen 25:27)” so too did YHWH desire to dwell: “make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell (Exod 28:8).” The sanctuary was within a tent. Thus, the imagery associated with “the voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau” was a precursor to the divine voice being ensconced in the tent of the tabernacle.

The pattern of the tabernacle is the pattern of a person in the world. The pattern contains two types of division. One is between the individual and the outside world, the tent of the tabernacle and the courtyard. The other is between the outer part of the individual, the senses, and the inner spirit: the sanctum, the holy place, the outer part of the tent, and the inner sanctum, the holy of holies, the inner chamber of the tent, where the voice resides. We meet again the image of the voice within a body, Jacob and Esau. While Elohim created people in his form, YHWH creates his sanctuary in the form of people.

Except for Moses, no people are mentioned within the complex detailing of the sanctuary, neither Aaronites nor Levites, only the body of the tabernacle and its physical furnishings are described and the source of YHWH’s voice. Even the reference to Moses hearing the divine voice does not necessarily locate Moses within the tent. Only at the very end (Exod 27:21) are Aaron and his sons mentioned: “Aaron and his sons shall set it (the lamp) in order, to burn from evening to morning before YHWH.” By ending the description of the tabernacle and its components with the lamp, M is drawing our attention to visibility. The only sign of life in the tabernacle is YHWH’s voice. The divine voice has entered the body of the tabernacle. At this point the Torah shifts perspective to detail the garments of Aaron and his sons, and through them, the divine characteristics: holiness and glory.

Exodus Unit 12 (2M)

And bring thou near unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons. And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, for glory and for beauty. And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they make Aaron's garments to sanctify him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. And these are the garments which they shall make: a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a tunic of chequer work, a mitre, and a girdle; and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. And they shall take the gold, and the blue, and the purple, and the scarlet, and the fine linen. (Exod 28:1-5)

While it is easy to say we are continuing to learn about the tabernacle with the description of the priests’ garments, there is much more to be seen here just under the surface. The construction of the tabernacle makes possible the revelation of “holiness” and “glory” but demands the participation of the “wise-hearted” and “the spirit of wisdom” to realize them, as opposed to the “good-hearted” of Exodus Unit 11. The supernatural, transcendent, is to reveal itself through Aaron’s garments because they were fashioned by people whom YHWH filled with wisdom. YHWH is to be revealed through a joint endeavor with people, like the second tablets of the Decalogue. There is thus empowerment of people, both the craftspeople and the priests through the indwelling of “the spirit of wisdom.” Moreover, the high priest’s garments contain the names of the twelve tribes, the children of Jacob who were born in the parallel Unit, Genesis Unit 14.

The priestly garments are to reflect the divine characteristics of “glory” and “beauty,” and holiness. While the tabernacle itself was sufficient to reveal YHWH’s voice, additional human intervention is necessary to bring about the revelation of divine characteristics that are visible, as opposed to audible. Holiness is abstract and was previously alluded to, as we noted, in calling the tabernacle a sanctuary. The significant new term here is glory, כבוד, (kavod). In nearly all its occurrences in the Torah it refers to a visible revelation of YHWH, usually associated with clouds and/or fire. For example:

And the glory of YHWH abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the appearance of the glory of YHWH was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mount; and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. (Exod 24:16-18)

After the tabernacle is completed, YHWH’s glory is associated with it:

And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and came out, and blessed the people; and the glory of YHWH appeared unto all the people. And there came forth fire from before YHWH, and consumed upon the altar the burnt-offering and the fat; and when all the people saw it, they shouted, and fell on their faces. (Lev 9:23,24)

In both these examples, and in general, YHWH’s glory appears to “all the people” as opposed to the voice that only Moses hears. Priestly garments, displaying glory, are thus associated with the visualization of the divine presence. The divine glory in the garments is physical and permanent, whereas the appearances in the cloud are passing.

Details of the garments, especially Aaron’s, give insight concerning the revelation of divine glory. The word for one of the garments, the tunic, כתונת, k’tonet, is identical to the word used for the garments YHWH Elohim made for Hadam and Eve. That was YHWH Elohim’s last creative act before expelling them from the Garden, and the consequent separation of YHWH from Elohim. The revelation of YHWH’s glory through the physical priestly garments is a step in renewing the joint revelation of YHWH Elohim. It is a physical incorporation of the transition Jacob expected YHWH to make. Jacob thought that YHWH would become Elohim to him. Now we see clearly how YHWH’s holiness is to be revealed through the superficial, garments, melding the mundane of Elohim with the holiness and glory of YHWH through the spirit of wisdom.

The creation of holiness is topped off with the inscription on Aaron’s hat (mitre): “Holy to YHWH (Exod 28:36).” The holy garments also indicate that Aaron is a vehicle to reveal a relationship between YHWH and Jacob’s children. Their names are on his heart: “And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place (28:29).” And he carries their names on his shoulders: “And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, to be stones of memorial for the children of Israel; and Aaron shall bear their names before YHWH upon his two shoulders for a memorial (28:12).” Through the names incorporated in the garments, YHWH’s holiness spreads to Jacob’s children.

Aaron himself is not called on to be more holy than other Israelites, but rather to dress himself in inherently holy garments. The inner person, the voice, disappears within the cloak of holiness. Nature has been turned inside out to reveal holiness as a garment of the mundane. Only the wise hearted who have been filled with the spirit of wisdom have the skill to make the cloak of holiness. These last two Units take place with Moses on the mountain within the divine presence. Now we will see how the plan was carried out and the expansion of YHWH’s glory.

Exodus Unit 19 (2R)

We noted above that the two uses of “completed” in this Unit are parallel to the end of the creation weave, the completion of Elohim’s creation. YHWH is about to complete the initial stage of the re-creation through the completion of the tabernacle. The flow from Unit to Unit in thread 2 is based on the degree of YHWH’s manifestation. In 2L YHWH’s voice is to be heard by Moses alone. In 2M, YHWH’s glory is to enter the priestly garments. Finally in this Unit: “So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of YHWH filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of meeting, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of YHWH filled the tabernacle (Exod 40:33-35).” YHWH now has a dwelling on earth to facilitate his revelation within Elohim’s physical creation. But it is not only a dwelling, it is also a vehicle for YHWH’s involvement in the world:

And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward, throughout all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of YHWH was upon the tabernacle by day, and there was fire therein by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys (Exod 40:36-38).

The cloud and fire that had enshrouded Mt Sinai were now part of the immanent world—a permanent revelation of YHWH in the world. The progression across the three Units has established the role of the Israelites in partnering with YHWH in his revelation in the world. But the revelation itself is still limited to the environs of the tabernacle. The closing words of this Unit—“throughout all their journeys” (בכל מסעיהם)—announce what will be documented at the center of Numbers Unit 13: אלה מסעי בני ישראל, the forty-two stations of Israel’s journey. The journeys promised at the end of 2R become the journeys recorded at the center of 3R. The revelation expands outwards in the next triad.

Leviticus Unit 13 (3L)

While the revelation of divine "glory" is connected to the tabernacle, another divine characteristic, holiness, has implications for individuals, as detailed in Leviticus Unit 13. There is an enormous amount to be said about this Unit.^[3] Within the context of the re-creation, the major contribution of the Unit is detailing the revelation of YHWH in the world through holiness, as applied to individuals. To do so, it draws implied comparisons with Elohim’s holiness-lacking natural realm, as well as with the unholy supernatural.

The opening verses form a banner headline: “And YHWH spoke unto Moses, saying: Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them: Ye shall be holy; for holy am I YHWH your deity (Lev 19:1,2).” Here is the most fundamental distinction between the ways Elohim and YHWH compare themselves with people. For Elohim, imitatio dei is built into the nature of people as they were created on day six in the “image and likeness” of Elohim. For YHWH it is a goal and an activity—an accessible human achievement. YHWH’s laws provide the means for achieving holiness. The detailed laws of Leviticus Unit 13 show how this works through sacrificial holiness, the planting of trees whose fruit becomes holy, and agricultural restraint that reveals social justice—each integrating the “unnatural” holy with mundane nature. These laws are explored in the weft and warp analyses below.

The context of Leviticus Unit 13 within the book of Leviticus is itself significant. It is the structural middle of the book.^[4] Reading Leviticus as analogous to the movement of the High Priest into and out of the tabernacle, it represents the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies. It also serves as a place where YHWH reveals himself to Moses to teach laws for all the people—sixteen times YHWH declares “I am YHWH your deity.”

In the context of thread L, Leviticus Unit 13 transforms the divine voice from a living presence in the tabernacle (2L) into a permanent text. The literary indicator is YHWH speaking in the first person sixteen times. The chapter is the ultimate expression of divine speech captured in writing. Thus thread L contains three voices ordered on a scale of permanence: Jacob’s voice in Esau’s attire (one-time), YHWH’s voice in the tabernacle (temporary), and the divine voice as Torah (permanent).

Thread C’s common theme of “the land” also enters here. Leviticus Unit 13 contains the first reference to entering the land in Leviticus: “And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food.” All three Units of C are forward-looking, containing laws and instructions for Israel in Canaan. The transformation of Elohim’s “earth” (ארץ) into YHWH’s “the land” (הארץ) is fundamental to the revelation of YHWH.

Leviticus Unit 20 (3M)

This Unit, like the previous, is also an extensive collection of laws, but this time, many of them, such as the sabbatical year, are connected to the land. We have seen that the holiness delineated in Leviticus Unit 13 is accompanied by a distancing from the occult. It is not YHWH’s way to be drawn into the world through magic. Ultimately, he is to be revealed mundanely, through the land. This is the basis for YHWH’s eventual revelation as the deity of a nation, as well as the key to the manifest reconnection with Elohim. Nowhere is this clearer than in Leviticus Unit 20.

The Unit opens with laws to render nature unnatural, holy that is, the sabbatical year and the jubilee. The land is to be left fallow every seven years as well as every fiftieth year. Regarding the sabbatical year YHWH says: “But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto YHWH (Lev 25:4).” The link between unnaturally abandoning one’s fields, and holiness is spelled out regarding the jubilee: “For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy unto you (25:12).”

The land of Canaan has been raised up by YHWH from the state in which Elohim left it at the creation: “for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and settlers with me (Lev25:23).” Furthermore, “For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am YHWH your deity. (Lev 25:55).” As YHWH’s servants, Israel carries out his will by revealing holiness through the mundane, the land. YHWH’s holiness is to be revealed in his land by Israelites performing “unnatural” holy acts for him, and consequently, revealing the oneness of YHWH and Elohim.

This revelation is the goal of the re-creation as well as YHWH’s reason for redeeming Israel from Egypt. As he says, “I am YHWH your deity, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your deity (Lev 25:38).” Jacob’s oath after the ladder dream has been modified with the addition of holiness so that YHWH can be revealed as himself and as one with Elohim. The supernatural and the natural coalesce. The dream takes place in the first Unit of this warp thread, MA. The transformation of Jacob’s personal relationship with YHWH into the reality of the Israelite nation is mediated by the high priest in Unit MB. The high priest carries the tribes next to his heart and on his shoulders when he performs the holy service. The glory revealed by Aaron’s garments is to be revealed to the world through all those who serve YHWH, that is, his servants: “For unto me the children of Israel are servants.”

Numbers Unit 13 (3R)

Now that YHWH has revealed his plan to take ownership of the land and the Israelites, all that remains to do is to bring the Israelites into the land. Numbers Unit 13 draws a map of the land and details how to divide it between the tribes. Perhaps the most significant theme of the Unit is obscured within the section detailing the requirement to establish cities of refuge. Its significance is related to the entire story of YHWH in the Torah.

The detailed instructions for the “cities of refuge” create closure for the story of YHWH. It marks the end of his instructions to Israel in the Torah narrative, since there are no additional laws delivered by YHWH in Deuteronomy. Closure is created with his first interaction with a human, Cain, the first murderer. The story of YHWH begins and ends with spilling human blood, making it a bounded text. An extensive set of parallels between YHWH’s dialogue with Cain (Genesis Unit 2) and his instructions regarding murderers in Numbers (Unit 13) substantiates the crafting of the two sections to create closure.

We will have a look at the possible significance of YHWH’s story in the Torah being framed by murder below, but first a look at how his last instructions to Israel complete the plan we have identified in the re-creation weave. Within the context of the re-creation weave, YHWH’s very last words testify to how he is to be revealed to the world: “And thou shalt not defile the land which ye inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for I YHWH dwell in the midst of the children of Israel.” He is to transcend the limits of the tabernacle, where we saw his glory in 2R, to be revealed through the Israelites observing his commandments in his/their land.

The holiness commanded in 3L will create a holy people, in whose midst holy YHWH will dwell, in the midst of his/their holy land. As we saw in the structure of Numbers, Israel is to be YHWH’s garment of visibility in the world. Israel itself is to be the link between the supernatural of YHWH and the natural of Elohim. When holiness and the physical world are integrated, the Edenic combination, YHWH Elohim is revealed. Thread 3 itself combines the command to be holy in its opening, with references to the land through its three Units. The permanent revelation of the holy within the mundane completes the re-creation.

Deuteronomy Unit 1

We have completed our sequential reading of the first nine Units of the re-creation, the Units that form the weave, and are left with one more Unit to integrate into the ten-Unit structure, Deuteronomy Unit 1. In this Unit Moses begins the first of his speeches encompassing virtually all of Deuteronomy. This is the special character of the book—it is delivered almost entirely in Moses’ voice rather than in the voice of an omniscient narrator, as are the first four books of the Torah.

Moses’ first speech encompasses two Units (I, II) in the woven Torah. M has emphasized them as a two-Unit block by echoing the opening of Unit 1 at the end of Unit II: both mention the “law,” where Moses spoke, and the defeat of Sihon and Og. Unit 1 reflects events reported in the book of Numbers, beginning with leaving Horeb. The events take place on the stage of nations, playing themes of war and peace, conquest and settlement. Unit 2, focusing on the law given at Horeb, is chronologically prior. It appears M specifically crafted and placed the material of Unit 1 to follow Numbers Unit 13, creating the third pair of consecutive Units in the re-creation weave.

As noted above, there are three pairs of consecutive Units in the re-creation weave. Numbers Unit 13 and Deut Unit 1 are the third pair. The effect of creating the third pair is verification of the full re-creation structure, and that it includes a Unit in Deuteronomy. In addition to this purely structural consideration, the connection between the first nine Units and Deut Unit 1 may explain why Deuteronomy Unit 1 and Unit 2 are ostensibly out of order. Deut Unit 1 focuses on Israel as a political entity, a nation among nations. This follows thread 3 of the re-creation weave looking forward to the establishment of Israel as a nation within its own land. Deut Unit 1 goes one step farther and provides a view of the process of conquest leading to the establishment of the Israelite nation in Canaan.

A closer look at Deut Unit 1 reveals that it reflects some of the organizing principles of the nine-Unit re-creation weave. The five weft threads of the Unit are divided into two groups. Threads 1 and 5 take place “in the fortieth year.” Threads 2-4 refer to events in the thirty-eight years preceding. Threads 2-4 contain three segments each, producing a 3×3 structure—a micro version of the first nine Units of the re-creation weave.

The micro/macro relationship invites comparisons. Thread 2 of Deuteronomy Unit 1 parallels the first triad of the re-creation: in all three segments, one character replaces another. Moses recasts the Jethro narrative, claiming initiation of the legal system himself—“the voice is the voice of Jethro, but the hands are the hands of Moses.” The people, not YHWH, suggest sending spies. And where in Numbers it is Moses who warns the people not to go up, in Deuteronomy this warning comes from YHWH. Thread 3 parallels the second triad: YHWH’s political presence extends beyond Israel to the surrounding nations. He has provided lands for the descendants of Lot and Esau, and warns the Israelites not to conquer them. Thread 4 parallels the third triad: Israel’s influence “spills out” beyond Canaan through the conquests of Sihon and Og, becoming YHWH’s means for establishing a new order of nations.

While the first nine Units of the re-creation weave indicate the process whereby YHWH’s holiness is to be revealed in the world through Israel, the tenth Unit indicates the process whereby Israel becomes the means for YHWH’s revelation amongst nations. The structure of the full re-creation is thus 3×3+1, precisely mirroring the decreation weave in which the tenth sign, the death of the firstborn, differs in kind from the other nine while bringing about their goal.

Reading the Re-creation Weave Warp and Weft

We turn now to the integration of the Units of the re-creation to view the whole cloth of the tapestry. The formats of the creation and decreation weaves, as well as our first looks, and in-depth analyses of the re-creation weave, all contribute to the view of the tapestry. The goal of the integration is to gain a better understanding of the process of textual weaving, including its purpose and means.

The Warp

The warp of the re-creation is based on the same foundation as the decreation but in reversed order. The three threads of the decreation are ordered: public event, combination of public event and individual experience, individual experience. The three public “signs,” blood, mixture, and hail, all begin with instructions for Moses to meet with Pharaoh in the morning to announce the public sign. In the recreation, the public event is the third of each triad: the signs in Egypt, the completion of the tabernacle, and the war against the Midianites.

Warp Thread L: Voices, Private Experience

The signs in Egypt associated with private experience, thread R, are lice, boils, and depression (darkness.) The parallel thread of the re-creation, L, focuses on “voices” to indicate inner, private, space. Isaac’s pronouncement in 1L that “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau (Gen 27:22)” describes more than what he experiences at the moment of Jacob’s impersonation. M has already told us in Gen 25:27 “Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.” Jacob, like a voice, is associated with the internal and Esau, like the hands, is associated with the external. To take his place in the world, Jacob must take upon himself Esau’s worldliness, “grow hands.” To be a complete person, worthy of Isaac’s blessing, Jacob must transcend his personal limitation, an inclination to withdraw from the world. He does so by dressing himself as Esau. This incident in the first Unit of the re-creation sets the tone and direction for all that follows. It is a charade that ultimately leads the reader of the re-creation to a revelation of Elohim and YHWH parallel to the relationship between Esau and Jacob.

Unit 2L, Exodus Unit 11, makes the jump from a human voice dressed in goat’s hair, to a divine voice encompassed by goat’s hair. The tabernacle was to create a vehicle for the expression of the divine voice: “And there I will meet with thee, and I will speak with thee from above the ark-cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel (Exod 25:22).” Like Jacob presenting himself for Isaac’s blessing, the tabernacle was also covered with goat’s hair: “And thou shalt make curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the tabernacle (26:7).” Moreover, the tent had yet another element associated with Esau that is not mentioned in the narrative of Jacob’s charade. Esau “came forth ruddy (Gen 25:26)” and was called “Red” (Adom). This detail was not necessary for Jacob to imitate because Isaac was blind. However, it is part of the cover of the tabernacle: “And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red (Exod 26:14).” Just as Jacob “dwelled in tents (Gen 25:27)” so too did YHWH desire to dwell: “make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell (Exod 28:8).” The sanctuary was within a tent. Thus, the imagery associated with “the voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau” was a precursor to the divine voice being ensconced in the tent of the tabernacle.

The parallel between 1L and 2L goes beyond content to format. Both are 12221—five-thread envelopes—and in both cases the format diagrams the content. In Genesis Unit 13, Esau is the outer garment of the unit: his wives open it (Row 1), his departure closes it (Row 5), and inside are the voice, the blessing, the deception. In Exodus Unit 11, Israel is the outer garment: דבר אל בני ישראל ויקחו לי תרומה opens it (Row 1), ואתה תצוה את בני ישראל ויקחו אליך closes it (Row 5), and inside is the tabernacle. Jacob’s disguise at personal scale becomes YHWH’s indwelling at national scale, and the goat hair seals the identification. The format itself is the picture: a voice inside a skin.

The progression of voices in thread L—from Jacob’s voice in Esau’s garment (1L), through YHWH’s voice in the tabernacle (2L), to the divine voice as permanent text (3L)—was traced in the consecutive reading above. Thread L contains three voices ordered on a scale of permanence: Jacob’s is a one-time narrative event; Moses could hear YHWH’s voice in the tabernacle for thirty-nine years; the voice in the Torah is permanent.

3L is Leviticus Unit 13 (ch. 19); elsewhere I have explained why this chapter is the center of the Torah and should be identified as M’s literary equivalent of the ark, containing fragments of the Decalogue as engraved on stone tablets, as well as a new set of “tablets.” For our purposes here, the key is that YHWH speaks in the first person sixteen times in the Unit in the form “I am YHWH.” The Unit is the ultimate expression of divine speech captured in writing.

Thus, thread L contains three voices: Jabob’s in Esau’s attire, the divine voice similarly attired in the tabernacle, and the divine voice as a text. In all three there is an internal individual voice within a skin enabling the voice. The parallel thread in the decreation weave (lice, boils, depression) focused on individuals. Two of the signs, lice and boils, are on the skin, and one internalized (depression) like the ink in the parchment.

There is a distinction between the flow of signs in the decreation weave and the flow of voices in the re-creation weave. In the decreation there is a process of internalization. Lice are external, boils are part of the skin, and depression is internal. In the re-creation the flow is from the unique event, Jacob dressing up, to the permanent, the text of the Torah. The tabernacle represents an intermediate stage planned for the years in the wilderness. We turn now to warp thread R of the re-creation, the parallel to the public thread of the decreation (blood, mixture, hail) thread.

Warp Thread R: Collective Israel and the Revelation of YHWH

YHWH announces in the decreation weave (1R) that the signs in Egypt reveal something about who he is to Egypt (Exod 9:16) and the Israelites (10:2). As the first Unit in thread R, it establishes the theme of YHWH’s revelation to the world. To demonstrate he is not Elohim, YHWH brings about seemingly supernatural events that conflict with Elohim’s well-ordered creation. In other words, YHWH dresses up in elements of Elohim’s creation in much the same way that Jacob dressed up in Esau’s’ clothes.

At this point the children of Israel have not yet coalesced into a nation, and YHWH has not yet established himself as their deity. The first stage of YHWH’s revelation to Israel is to distinguish himself as the source of the supernatural, as opposed to Elohim, the source of the natural. As we have seen, this is the substance of the decreation weave, the revelation of the supernatural on the background of the natural. But this revelation is by means of negation and limited to specific actions, the signs. It does not indicate YHWH’s continuing presence in the world. YHWH’s enduring revelation begins in 2R.

The next Unit in thread R, Exodus Unit 19, contains the completion of the tabernacle: “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of YHWH filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of meeting, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of YHWH filled the tabernacle (Exod 40:34,35).” M has emphasized the glory of YHWH filling the tabernacle. Previously, in 1R, YHWH was known through his signs. Now he is a permanent presence within the Israelite camp on Elohim’s earth. The indwelling of YHWH’s glory within the camp takes on new significance in 3R, Numbers Unit 13.

And YHWH spoke unto Moses, saying: 'Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites; afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.' And Moses spoke unto the people, saying: 'Arm ye men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian, to execute YHWH'S vengeance on Midian. (Num 31:1-3)

Israel has become the agent of YHWH, performing political acts in the world for YHWH, according to Moses. The glory which entered the tabernacle has manifested as an activating force within the camp, like the spirit in the body. The identification of YHWH with the nation of Israel has been completed. It can now go to war in the name of YHWH and conquer Canaan. The combination of Jacob’s voice and Esau’s body, in the first Unit of the weave )1L(, has given rise to an image of Israel embodying YHWH’S “voice” in the last Unit of the weave.

Warp Thread M: The Children of Israel

We noted above that YHWH distinguishes himself from Elohim by employing a mediating concept between Elohim’s dyads such as “one and many,” “private and public,” and “unity and diversity.” Consequently, we should expect warp thread M to be a conceptual middle between L and M. We identified a common thread in L as individuals, and a voice in a skin, an embodied voice. The voice, whether Jacob’s or YHWH’s, is singular. The fact that all three voices are encompassed by animal skins indicates that the voice itself lacks a “body.” Perhaps M wanted us to think of “disembodied voices” in thread L, or simply “singularity.” This is the warp thread parallel to the first three days of creation, days on which singular creations were called into being and named.

The Weft

Weft Thread A: Genesis Unit 13, Unit 14, Exodus Unit 3, and Issues of Identity

In the introduction and “first look” we considered thread A as representing Israel’s pre-national period. It contains narratives of Jacob and his children and their descendants, the children of Israel, before the redemption from Egypt. We also looked closely at its central Unit, Genesis Unit 14, focusing on Jacob’s understanding of the ladder dream and YHWH’s “descent” to the mundane. Now we will examine the three Units of the thread together, seeking out the theme that unites them, beyond chronology, and the function of each Unit in establishing this theme.

Since there is no divine appearance in Genesis Unit 13, Jacob dressing as Esau, we are entitled to ask what it is even doing in the re-creation. If the theme of the re-creation is the revelation of YHWH in the mundane, how does this Unit contribute to the revelation of YHWH without YHWH? The multiple signs and symbols of Exodus Unit 3 suggest that the significance of Genesis Unit 13 may also be symbolic.

The central symbols of Genesis Unit 13 are “voice” and “hands.” The voice is associated with Jacob, a quiet man who dwelled within tents. The hands are the hands of Esau, “a skillful hunter, a man of the field.” We might think of Jacob as a thinker, a reflective soul, as opposed to his brother, the man of action. A natural introvert like Jacob would have to undergo a radical change to be able to carry out the blessing intended for Esau. He would have to take upon himself the characteristics of the man of action, represented by the goatskin on his hands and neck and Esau’s clothing.

Carrying out the charade, the very act of dressing into Esau’s identity, was transformative. Jacob took upon himself a new persona. When Issac said: “The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau (Gen 27:22)," he stated the truth. Jacob, the inner soul, presented himself to his father through the superficial, external traits of Esau, the hands. These are the hands that Jacob would so successfully employ during his sojourn with Laban, when Jacob would demonstrate that he had indeed become a man of the field, a man of action, like Esau. What appears at first to be colorful narrative details, “dressing up,” represents a turning point in the Torah. The world is undergoing a transformation based on the malleability of characters. Jacob replaces Esau; Leah replaces Rachel; and ultimately, YHWH takes on characteristics of Elohim.

The three Units of thread A also have more in common than the shifting of identities. They go back to a time when YHWH was still atop the ladder, in heaven, transcendent, and capture the moment(s) when YHWH is revealed in a new way. Genesis Unit 13 and Unit 14 with their clear identity shifts function as witnesses to the shift that takes place in the decreation, Exodus Unit 3. YHWH “dresses up” in Elohim’s creation, like Jacob dressing up in Esau’s cloths. Through identifiably supernatural events, YHWH diminishes the ultimate “Adam,” Pharoah, while strengthening his “man” (איש), Moses. As Moses grows in power, so too do YHWH’s “hands.” Heavenly YHWH has begun to descend the ladder to connect with the mundane below, the realm of Elohim’s creation.

We are now prepared to analyze the re-creation weave in depth. Since the structure spans ten full Units, the analysis is complex. A complete reading should include an analyses of each of the Units; a reading of each of the six triads of Units (the three weft and three warp threads); the integration of all the material collected from these analyses; a comparison with the decreation weave; a reading of the relationship between the creation and the re-creation. An exhaustive analysis of this complexity is beyond the limits of this study. We will touch on many points related to each of these partial investigations, but none of our findings can be considered complete. However, we will integrate enough material to indicate directions for further investigation. We begin by integrating some of our partial observations into an overview of the whole de-creation weave. An outline of the overview appears in Figure 13.

The warp and weft follow the lines of the creation weave, with warp thread L parallel to days 1-3 and days 4-6 parallel to thread R. The warp threads of the decreation are inversely parallel to the warp threads of the re-creation: e.g., thread R of the decreation is parallel to thread L of the re-creation.) Thread M, in both the decreation and the re-creation is a conceptual middle combining elements of L and R. The dyad of “one and many” characterizing the warp threads of creation is reflected in the decreation and the re-creation by “individual and community.” Thread M combines characteristics of both individual and community. The weft threads reflect the visual hierarchy of “above and below” from the creation. However, the key to visualizing the visual hierarchy is focusing on the position of YHWH in the thread. In thread A, he is transcendent, above, and in thread C he is immanent, below. In thread B he transforms from transcendent to immanent.

The re-creation focuses on a new world in which YHWH is revealed, through holiness. The full significance of the focal Unit, containing the high priest’s garments, is established by comparing it with the central Unit of the decreation.

Figure 13. Outline Overview of the First Nine Units of the Re-creation

We are now prepared to analyze the re-creation weave in depth and to understand more fully its relationships to the creation and decreation. We begin by examining each thread of the re-creation separately, starting with the weft. This analysis includes incorporating the parallels between each Unit of the re-creation and its parallel elements in the creation and decreation. To facilitate the comparison of the parallel elements, they have been arranged in a table in Figure 14.

Links Between the Creation and the Re-creation

Figure 14. Connections between Parallel Elements of Three Creation Structures

Thread A and Days One and Four

Figure 9 shows that the Units of the outer threads of the re-creation are directly parallel to the days of creation. There are two different parallels to examine. The first is the parallel of the visual hierarchy established by the three weft threads: above, between, below. The second is the parallels between days and Units: day one parallels Genesis Unit 13, and day four parallels Exodus Unit 3. Comparing the three weft threads reveals yet another extraordinary parallel. The three levels of the world in the creation parallel three levels of YHWH’s relationship with the world. Parallel to the transcendent heavenly light of creation, thread A in the re-creation presents YHWH as fully transcendent, residing in “heaven,” as it were, atop the ladder. The visual hierarchy of the creation is translated into three degrees of YHWH’s presence in the world: transcendent in A, transforming in B, and immanent in C.

Turning to the links between specific days of creation and their counterparts in the re-creation, the connections are more complex. From a look at Figure 9, one might think there is a simple direct mapping of creation days to re-creation Units. If that were so, Exodus Unit 13 would be parallel to the creation of light. But that is not how the connection is made. The light must be mapped twice, first from the creation to the decreation, and then from the decreation to the re-creation. The negation of light in the decreation is darkness, an inability to see others. This is mapped to the re-creation as Isaac’s blindness. The link is verified by an unusual word used in the darkness sign. The darkness is described as “palpable.” The same Hebrew root is employed when Isaac asks to “feel” his son. Here, the decreation serves as a translation tool between the creation and the re-creation. We can utilize this tool to see the link between day four of creation and Exodus Unit 3 as well.

Exodus Unit 3 is the decreation Unit; so, the re-creation contains within it the full decreation Unit as a parallel to day four. The obvious link created by the decreation is by “signs.” On day four Elohim says: “'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years (Gen 1:14).” In the prologue of the decreation YHWH says: “I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt (Exod 7:3).” The specific sign associated with day four is hail that looks like falling stars. Elohim’s signs are symbolically brought to earth in Egypt where they are multiplied by YHWH. The link between the specific sign associated with day four and the fact that all the signs appear in Exodus Unit 13 is described by YHWH in his introduction to the hail sign. “For I will this time send all my plagues upon thy person, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth (Exod 9:14).” Here again the decreation functions as a tool to translate a creation day into a re-creation Unit.

We observed above that both the decreation and the re-creation contain an additional warp thread and identified it as the central one, M. The correlation with the creation is made through the outside threads, L and R. If this analysis is correct, we can predict that Genesis Unit 14, the middle Unit of thread A in the re-creation, parallels the “locust” sign and functions as a conceptual middle between Genesis Unit 13 and Exodus Unit 3. The link with the locust is established by their vertical movement. Like Elohim’s angels in Jacob’s dream, they ascend and descend: “And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the borders of Egypt (Exod 10:14).” The description of the locust going up (ויעל) and coming down reads as if it were specifically crafted to match the movement of Elohim’s angels.

As a conceptual middle, Genesis Unit 14 connects the human use of another’s garments by Jacob in Genesis Unit 12 and the divine use of Elohim’s days of creation by YHWH in Exodus Unit 3. It does so by creating two independent parallels, one to Genesis Unit 13 and one to Exodus Unit 3. The parallel to Jacob replacing Esau is Rachel replacing Leah. The parallel to the transformation in the names of deity is through Jacob saying that YHWH will become Elohim for him. The integration of the two parallels to create the conceptual middle teaches us about the difference between the revelation of deity as Elohim as opposed to YHWH. The revelation of YHWH is inseparable from human actions.

To summarize, the major thrust of weft thread A is the transformation of identity. Human identities are transformed in segment L by Jacob taking on Esau’s identity as a man of action. Segment R presents a transformation in the revelation of deity, as YHWH “dresses up” through elements of Elohim’s natural creation to demonstrate he is supernatural. Segment M is a conceptual middle containing a change in human identities (Rachel and Leah) and divine identities.

Weft Thread B: The Tabernacle, the Garments, and the Center of the Weave

Thread B is unique among the three weft threads. It contains both the beginning and the end of the tabernacle material in Exodus — the blueprints shown to Moses on the mountain (2L, Exodus Unit 11) and the completion of the construction below (2R, Exodus Unit 19). Between these two stands a single Unit devoted to the garments of the high priest (2M, Exodus Unit 12). The thread thus creates a focus for the entire nine-Unit structure on a single individual, Aaron, dressed in garments of holiness and glory, standing at the intersection of the middle warp and the middle weft — the center of the re-creation weave.

The middle warp thread, M, lies between individuals (L) and the nation (R). But the progression from individual to nation also runs through the weft. Thread A contains individuals — the fathers, Jacob and his wives, their children, the descendants enslaved in Egypt. These are persons, not yet a people. Thread C addresses a nation in its land — laws for a polity, a territory divided among tribes. The progression from individual to national runs in both dimensions of the weave, and both converge on a single cell: 2M. The high priest in the garments of holiness stands at the intersection of the middle warp and the middle weft — the only position in the nine-Unit structure where both gradients meet. He is one man, but he carries the names of all twelve tribes. He is an individual who represents the whole.

The Transformation

Thread A looks backward. Its three Units are narrative: Jacob's charade, the ladder dream and the births of the twelve children, the signs in Egypt. All belong to the past. Thread C looks forward. Its three Units are legal: "when you come into the land," the sabbatical year, the division of Canaan. All anticipate a future not yet realized. Thread B is what transforms the one into the other. The tabernacle is not a static dwelling. It is the means by which the past — individuals, narratives, the pre-national story — becomes the future — a nation, laws, a land. The narrative stops in thread B not because time is suspended but because transformation is taking place. The tabernacle is where individuals become a nation of priests, where YHWH's voice becomes law, where the distinction between divine names becomes a program for holiness.

This mirrors the position of Leviticus on the horizontal axis of the Torah as a whole. Genesis is the book of individuals — the fathers, the families, the personal narratives. Deuteronomy addresses the nation — Moses speaks to a people about to enter their land. Leviticus stands between them as the transformational middle, the means of developing national identity. It provides the laws, the holiness, and the priestly service that turn a collection of families into a holy nation. In Leviticus, narrative gives way to instruction; the reader moves inward through the literary structure as the high priest moves inward through the tabernacle, until the center of the book (Leviticus Unit 13, ch. 19) corresponds to the ark in the holy of holies — the place where YHWH's voice is heard and the command "Be holy" is given. (The detailed structural reading of Leviticus Unit 19 is presented in "The Editor Was Nodding": A Reading of Leviticus Unit 19; the architecture of Leviticus as a whole is analyzed in "Structure Is Theology: The Composition of Leviticus".) Thread B occupies the same structural position within the re-creation weave that Leviticus occupies within the five books — not a pause, but the turning point.

The same gradient — individual to community — runs through both axes of the Torah and both axes of the re-creation weave. On the horizontal thread of the five books: Genesis (individuals) → Leviticus → Deuteronomy (nation). On the vertical thread: Exodus (individuals leaving Egypt) → Leviticus → Numbers (the national camp). Both pass through Leviticus as the transformational middle. The re-creation weave reproduces the same gradient on its own axes: warp L (individual) → M (interface) → R (communal); weft A (individuals, narrative, the past) → B (transformation) → C (nation, law, the future). The gradient is fractal — it appears at every level of organization, and the middle is always where the transformation takes place.

"Come" — YHWH's Distinctive Principle

The middle position in every structure governed by YHWH's triadic principle carries the same signature: dialogue, encounter, invitation. In the Tower of Babel — YHWH's first solo Unit — the middle thread is dialogue. The people say הבה נלבנה ("come, let us make brick") and YHWH responds הבה נרדה ("come, let us go down"). Both use הבה — an invitation to shared action, not a command. הבה is not "Let there be," Elohim's one-directional speech that produces results without participation. הבה is "join me in this." It requires a response. It creates relationship.

The same principle governs the decreation's M column. While the L and R signs receive public and private introductions respectively, the M signs receive בא — "Come" to Pharaoh. Face to face, without intermediary. And the M signs (frogs, pestilence, locust) display vertical movement through the three cosmic tiers — frogs ascending from below, herds struck in the middle, locusts descending from above — like the angels on Jacob's ladder, ascending and descending. The M column is not static structure but the traversal of separated realms. It introduces what Elohim's dyadic creation lacked: connection between the tiers that separation established.

The re-creation's M thread carries this "come" forward as a scale of presence:

In 1M (Genesis Unit 14), YHWH says "I will be with you" — presence promised. Words only. Jacob tests whether the transcendent can manage earthly matters.

In 2M (Exodus Unit 12), the priest enters YHWH's presence wearing shoulder-pieces engraved with the names of all twelve tribes — presence mediated. The priest carries Israel into the encounter. He is the "come" made visible, the living dialogue between YHWH and the people.

In 3M (Leviticus Unit 20), YHWH dwells in the land, Israel dwells in the land — presence realized. Mutual indwelling. "The land is mine; ye are strangers and settlers with me" (Lev 25:23).

הבה in Babel is the prototype. בא in the decreation is its application. The M thread of the re-creation is its fulfillment — "come" becomes permanent mutual presence.

The Heavenly Ideal

What Moses sees at position 2M is not a manufactured object. It is the heavenly pattern — "according to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it" (Exod 25:9). The garments exist here as a vision, an archetype, pure form before materialization. When the garments are actually manufactured, in Exodus Unit 18, the imagery is diminished — as any material realization must diminish an ideal. But the re-creation weave holds the ideal, not its earthly execution. That is why Exodus Unit 12 belongs to the irregular Units and Exodus Unit 18 does not. The re-creation preserves the vision Moses received on the mountain.

The Meeting of the High Priests: Decreation M and Re-creation B

The connection between the decreation’s middle row and the re-creation’s middle thread runs deeper than shared position. It runs through the words themselves.

Row B of the decreation is the intersection of heaven and earth. In Row A, Aaron points down—earth’s agent. In Row C, Moses points up—heaven’s agent. In Row B, they meet. Two of the three signs in row B are brought about directly by YHWH, without human intermediary. The third—the boils—is the only sign in the entire decreation in which Moses and Aaron act together: “And YHWH said unto Moses and unto Aaron: Take to you handfuls of soot, and let Moses throw it heavenward” (Exod 9:8). The one position where earth’s agent and heaven’s agent combine confirms that row B is where above and below intersect. Thread B of the re-creation institutionalizes that intersection: what happens once, between agents, on the plains of Egypt becomes permanent through the tabernacle.

The central sign of the central row—the pestilence at MB—and the priestly garments at 2M are linked by a chain of word-pairs that M wove between the two structures. Each pair shares a root or near-identical consonants. Each is reversed from death to holiness.

בא and הקרב. In the decreation, YHWH says בא—“come”—to Pharaoh, the high priest of Egypt. The divine moves toward him. Uninvited, unmediated. In the re-creation, YHWH says to Moses: הקרב אליך את אהרן אחיך—“bring near to you Aaron your brother” (Exod 28:1). The high priest of Israel is drawn toward the divine. הקרב is the root of קרבן—offering, sacrifice—the entire system of approach that makes encounter survivable. The direction reverses.

הויה and יהוה. At the center of MB, a rare word appears: הנה יד יהוה הויה במקנך—“the hand of YHWH hovah upon thy cattle” (Exod 9:3). הויה is a form of the verb “to be”—the same root as the name יהוה itself. The letters are nearly identical. At MB, the root of the divine name is lethal: being-upon as death. At 2M, the high priest enters the Holy of Holies on the Day of Purgation and speaks the name יהוה aloud. Unmediated, הויה kills. Spoken within the architecture of holiness, יהוה sanctifies. Pharaoh was the high priest of Egypt—and he had no garments for this encounter.

יד empty and ידם filled. At MB: יד יהוה—the hand of YHWH upon the cattle. Nothing between the hand and the world. Death. At 2M: ומלאת את ידם—“and you shall fill their hands” (Exod 28:41). The ordination—literally, the filling of the hands—transforms YHWH’s lethal hand into a vessel that can hold holiness.

דבר and דבר. Identical consonants: ד-ב-ר. At MB, YHWH’s דבר is דֶּבֶר—pestilence. At 2M, YHWH’s דבר is דָּבָר—word: “And I will speak with you (וְדִבַּרְתִּי) from above the ark-cover, from between the two cherubim” (Exod 25:22). In the unvocalized scroll, the same letters. Unmediated, the divine דבר kills. From between the cherubim, within the architecture, the divine דבר speaks.

קול and ולא ימות. The hem of Aaron’s robe alternates golden bells and pomegranates—פעמן זהב ורמון—voice and fruit woven around the priest’s body. The verse states the function: ונשמע קולו בבאו אל הקדש לפני יהוה ובצאתו ולא ימות—“and his voice shall be heard when he comes in to the holy place before YHWH and when he goes out—and he shall not die” (Exod 28:35). Three elements converge: קולו—the voice, thread L’s motif from the first unit of the weave; בבאו—“when he comes in,” the same root as בא but reversed in direction; ולא ימות—“and he shall not die,” the explicit negation of what the pestilence produced. The voice is what makes the בא survivable.

Cattle and קדשים. In the pestilence, Egypt’s cattle die and Israel’s are spared. Moses insists to Pharaoh: “Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not a hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve YHWH our deity” (Exod 10:26). The cattle that survived דבר become the offerings. At 2M, the ציץ on Aaron’s forehead serves this function: ונשא אהרן את עון הקדשים אשר יקדישו בני ישראל—“Aaron shall bear the iniquity of the holy things that the children of Israel sanctify” (Exod 28:38). The קדשים are the consecrated offerings—the herds preserved through the pestilence, now sanctified. What the pestilence selected, the priesthood redeems.

שחין and שכן. Nearly identical consonants: ש-ח-ן and ש-כ-ן. At the end of Row B, שְׁחִין—boils—settles on the skin of the magicians: ולא יכלו החרטמים לעמד לפני משה מפני השחין—“the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils” (Exod 9:11). At the completion of the tabernacle: ולא יכל משה לבוא אל אהל מועד כי שכן עליו הענן—“Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud dwelt upon it” (Exod 40:35). Both are something settling upon a surface. Both prevent approach. Both use the formula ולא יכל—“could not.” But שחין on skin is affliction; שכן on the tent is שכינה—the indwelling presence. The boils are the decreation’s image of what indwelling looks like without mediation.

ולא יכלו and ולא יכל. The magicians cannot stand before Moses. Moses cannot enter before YHWH. The same formula climbs a ladder: Egypt’s priests fail before YHWH’s agent; YHWH’s own agent fails before YHWH’s presence. Aaron—in the garments, with filled hands, with the bells sounding, with the ציץ bearing the iniquity of the holy—can. The garments at 2M are the answer to ולא יכל. They solve what the decreation posed and what the tabernacle’s completion made absolute.

Finally, a contrast that transforms not the mechanics of the encounter but who Israel is within it. At MB, YHWH introduces Israel to Pharaoh as כה אמר יהוה אלהי העברים—“Thus says YHWH, the deity of the Hebrews” (Exod 9:1). A generic label, the name outsiders use—an undifferentiated mass. At 2M, the shoulder-pieces of the priestly garments carry six names on each stone, and the breastplate carries twelve—each tribe individually engraved: ששה משמתם על האבן האחת ואת שמות הששה הנותרים על האבן השנית (Exod 28:10). Not “the Hebrews.” Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah—each name distinct, each carried on the priest’s body into the presence. In the decreation, YHWH presents Israel to Pharaoh as a collective without individual identity. In the re-creation, YHWH carries Israel as twelve named persons on the heart and shoulders of the high priest. The encounter transforms how they are known—from an anonymous mass to named individuals held before the divine presence.

Eight word-pairs. Each one nearly identical in sound or root. Each reversed from death to holiness. This is not commentary imposed on the text. It is M’s own phonemic architecture, linking the decreation and the re-creation at the level of the letters themselves—so that the reader who hears the pestilence already hears the priesthood within it, just as the reader who hears “the voice is the voice of Jacob” already hears the bells on the hem of the high priest’s robe.

The Outer Signs: Frogs and Locusts

The word-pair chain connects the center of the decreation’s M column (pestilence) to the center of the re-creation (2M, the garments). The outer M signs—frogs and locusts—connect to the outer M units of the re-creation, but because the decreation inverts the creation, the mapping is reversed: the first triad (earth) maps to 3M, and the third triad (heaven) maps to 1M.

Frogs are the earth-tier sign, and their parallel is Leviticus Unit 20 (3M), where YHWH is on the ground, in the land. In the decreation, frogs invade human space uninvited—ascending from the river into houses, bedrooms, ovens, kneading troughs. Nature overruns civilization. In the re-creation, the shmitah and jubilee of Leviticus Unit 20 reverse this: humans voluntarily return cultivated land to nature. The fields rest, the vineyards lie unharvested. The same boundary between nature and human order dissolves—but in the decreation it is broken from outside, producing chaos, while in the re-creation it is opened from within, producing holiness. And the demand that accompanies the frogs—שלח את עמי ויעבדני, “let my people go that they may serve me” (Exod 7:26)—finds its fulfillment in Leviticus Unit 20: כי לי בני ישראל עבדים עבדי הם אשר הוצאתי אותם מארץ מצרים—“for the children of Israel are my servants, they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt” (Lev 25:55). What was demanded before Pharaoh has become established law in the land. ויעבדני becomes עבדי הם.

Locusts are the heaven-tier sign, and their parallel is Genesis Unit 14 (1M), where YHWH is above, at the top of the ladder. The text describes the locusts’ movement in language that echoes the angels: ויעל הארבה על כל ארץ מצרים וינח בכל גבול מצרים—“and the locust went up over all the land of Egypt and rested in all the borders of Egypt” (Exod 10:14). ויעל and וינח—ascending and resting—the same vertical movement as the angels ascending and descending on the ladder. The locusts are carried by wind (רוח), traverse the space between heaven and earth, consume everything, and are swept away. The angels ascend and descend in service, carrying communication between YHWH above and Jacob below. Both trace the same arc; one destroys, the other connects. And the introduction to the locusts explains that the signs are for transmission to future generations: “that you may tell in the ears of your son, and of your son’s son” (Exod 10:2). Those sons and sons’ sons—the first generation of Israel’s descendants—are born in the parallel unit, Genesis Unit 14.

The Inversion

The priestly garments at 2M present an inversion of the garments in the first Unit of the weave, 1L. When Jacob dressed as Esau, the inner was the essential truth. Jacob's voice — his identity, his spirit — was real. The outer garment was disguise, borrowed goatskins meant to deceive. The skins were false; the voice was true.

With Aaron, this is reversed. The inner man is ordinary — Aaron is a man, no more. The outer garments carry the divine glory. The holiness is not in Aaron. It is on him. The garments are described as "holy garments for glory and for beauty" (Exod 28:2); they are designed by YHWH and crafted by those "whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom" (28:3). Aaron's role is not to generate the holiness but to bear it.

This inversion reflects a distinction between how Elohim and YHWH relate to the world. Elohim places his image inside: "And Elohim created man in his image" (Gen 1:27) — an intrinsic quality, given at creation. YHWH places his holiness outside: the garments, the commandments, the fringes. Elohim works from the inside out. YHWH works from the outside in.

A caution is necessary here. To say that YHWH works from the outside in is not to equate YHWH with "the spiritual" in any simple sense. Before the flood, YHWH himself observes that the יצר (inclination) of the human heart — the spirit — is "only evil continually" (Gen 6:5). The spirit unguided is destructive. YHWH's response is not to elevate the spirit but to channel it — through law. The priestly garments are not spirit opposed to flesh. They are spirit directed through material form. "Be holy" is not "be spiritual." It is: leave the corner of your field, do not place a stumbling block before the blind, use honest weights. Specific actions that discipline the spirit, directing it outward toward others. The re-creation does not replace Elohim's material world with YHWH's spiritual one. It disciplines the spirit within Elohim's world so that holiness can be revealed through it.

This is also why "Be holy" is an imperative, not a description. Elohim's imitatio dei is given — humanity is created in his image. YHWH's holiness is achieved — through action, through law, through the ongoing discipline of a spirit that, left to its own inclinations, trends toward evil. The priestly garments are the first point in the Torah where both directions operate together — the image of Elohim within, the holiness of YHWH without — approaching the union of YHWH Elohim.

The Tablets: Unilateral and Relational

The two sets of stone tablets enact the same distinction. The first tablets are Elohim's mode of giving: deity carves, deity writes, the law arrives complete. Unilateral. No human participation. The tablets simply are — being. But they do not survive contact with the reality of human nature. When Moses descends to find the golden calf, the tablets that were made without human participation shatter at the foot of a human failure.

The second tablets are YHWH's mode: Moses carves the stone, YHWH writes. Two parties. A collaboration. The tablets cannot exist without both. And they come after rupture — after the golden calf, after Moses breaks the first set, after YHWH threatens to destroy and Moses argues him out of it. The relationship had to break and be repaired before the second tablets could be made. This is becoming — the tablets emerge from a process, from crisis and reconciliation, from encounter.

YHWH is revealed through relationship. Through הבה — shared action. Through בא — face to face. Through tablets that require both carver and writer. Through garments that require both wearer and maker. Through a text that requires both author and reader.

The Center of the Center

The center of the re-creation weave (2M) and the center of the Torah (Leviticus Unit 13, ch. 19) share the same organizing principle. In "The Editor Was Nodding," the structure of Leviticus Unit 19 was shown to consist of five consecutive pairs arranged in two columns — an essentially dyadic structure reflecting the Decalogue. But at the center of that five-pair structure sits unit [9] (vv. 19b–25), a free-standing unit that is not part of any pair. And unit [9] is triadic: three columns (L, M, R), each containing three elements.

The triad of unit [9] maps directly onto YHWH's principle from Babel:

The L column uses singular verbs and concerns an individual — one. The R column uses plural verbs and addresses the community — many. The M column concerns a couple — two. One, two, many: the same gradient that governs the re-creation weave's warp threads (individual, interface, communal) appears at the very center of the Torah.

The legal order within unit [9] displays the same pattern. In L, all mixtures are strictly forbidden — negative. In R, planting trees is a positive commandment yielding blessing. In M, the case of the betrothed slave woman is neither fully forbidden nor fully permitted — the gray area, the conceptual middle. This is identical to the decreation's M column, where the signs are neither purely public (L) nor purely private (R) but face-to-face encounter.

YHWH thus takes Elohim's Decalogue — a dyadic document of five consecutive pairs — and reconstructs it in Leviticus Unit 19 around a triadic center. The shattered tablets of Elohim are reassembled around YHWH's signature structure. Elohim's document is built on pairs; YHWH's reconstruction introduces a middle. The center of the Torah's center is YHWH's own principle: not the separation of one from many, but the dialogue between them.

The pattern is fractal. At every level of organization, an anomalous center provides the key to the level above it. Unit [9]—six and a half verses of seemingly chaotic law—is the anomalous center of Leviticus Unit 19, and its triadic structure reveals the organizing principle of the chapter. Leviticus Unit 19 (Unit 13) is the anomalous center of Leviticus—the only unit in the book not part of a structural triad—and its five-pair architecture reveals the organizing principle of the book. Leviticus itself is the anomalous center of the Torah—the only book without historical narrative—and its concentric ring structure reveals the organizing principle of the five books. And the ten irregular units are anomalous within the eighty-six—the only units with non-uniform dimensions—and their re-creation weave reveals the interpretive principle of the Torah as a whole. At each level, the anomaly is the key. What appears to be the exception is in fact the focus from which the surrounding structure derives its meaning.

And at each level, YHWH occupies the middle. In the decreation, YHWH acts directly in the M column—between Aaron pointing down toward earth and Moses pointing up toward heaven. In Babel, dialogue stands between unity and diversity. In unit [9], the couple stands between the individual and the community. In the re-creation weave, 2M stands at the intersection of both gradients. YHWH is never at a pole. YHWH is always between.

The centers of the Row 3 units confirm this principle from within their own formats. In Leviticus Unit 13 (232), the center is a triad—three columns, one/two/many, the full expression of YHWH’s principle. In Leviticus Unit 20 (323), the center is a dyad—redeemer and redeemed, where abstract principle meets historical action. In Numbers Unit 13 (212), the center is a monad—the forty-two stations, pure written record. Triad, dyad, monad: the center simplifies as YHWH descends. At the most concealed position (3L, the Holy of Holies of the text), the center contains the full triadic principle. At the most revealed position (3R, YHWH in the land), the center is singular. The forty-two stations look as out of place amid the land legislation as unit [9] looks amid the paired columns of Leviticus 19—and for the same reason. At every level, the anomalous center is the key.

The Dematerialization of Holiness

The holiness concentrated on the high priest at 2M does not remain there. It undergoes a progressive dematerialization as it spreads outward.

The ציץ (tzitz) — a gold plate inscribed "Holy to YHWH" — is placed on Aaron's forehead (Exod 28:36). It is physical, visible, singular: one object, one man.

The root reappears as ציצית (tzitzit) — fringes commanded for every Israelite's garment (Num 15:38–39). The colored threads on the four sides of the garment are to remind the wearer of YHWH's commandments. Still physical, but distributed: every person, every garment.

Finally, "You shall be holy, for I YHWH your deity am holy" (Lev 19:2) — no object at all. A direct imperative addressed to every individual. The holiness has shed its material form entirely.

At each stage, the holiness becomes less physical and more demanding. The ציץ requires only that Aaron wear it. The ציצית require that every Israelite be mindful of YHWH's commandments. "Be holy" requires that every Israelite embody YHWH's holiness through action — not through spiritual elevation but through the discipline of the spirit in daily life: leaving gleanings, judging honestly, loving the stranger. The progression moves from artifact to obligation.

The Diagonal

The center of the weave reveals a line of reading that has not been noted: the diagonal running from 1L through 2M to 3R — from the top-left corner, through the center, to the bottom-right corner. This line is neither warp nor weft. It is a pattern that emerges only when the whole cloth is seen at once — visible not in any single thread but in the relationship between all of them.

The diagonal works because both axes of the weave carry the same gradient — from individual to community — and the diagonal follows the points where the two gradients are identical. Position 1L is individual (warp) × individual (weft) — the individual of the individual. Position 2M is transformation (warp) × transformation (weft) — the transformation of the transformation. Position 3R is community (warp) × community (weft) — the community of the community. Every other position in the grid is a mixture: 1M combines the individual weft with the interface warp; 2R places the community warp within the transformational weft. These cross-positions produce productive intersections. But along the diagonal, the two gradients align without interference. Both axes say the same thing at the same time. That is why the garment progression is so clean along this line — there is no cross-signal, only pure concentration of the principle.

The progression along this diagonal is a triple transformation of the relationship between a wearer and a garment:

In 1L (Genesis Unit 13), a man wears a man's garments. Jacob puts on Esau's choice garments (בגדי חמודות) and covers his hands and neck with goat skins to imitate Esau's hairiness. The purpose is deception — to appear as what he is not. The voice is real; the garments and skins are false.

In 2M (Exodus Unit 12), a man wears divine garments. Aaron puts on the vestments of holiness and glory. The purpose is revelation — to make visible what cannot otherwise be seen. The man is ordinary; the garment is holy.

In 3R (Numbers Unit 13), a nation becomes the garment. Israel acts for YHWH, executes his purposes, fills his land. There is no physical garment at all. The nation itself is what YHWH wears to be visible in the world. Moses says the Israelites will execute "YHWH's vengeance" (Num 31:3); YHWH says he will avenge "the children of Israel" (31:2). The agent and the purpose have merged.

At each step along the diagonal, the garment becomes less material and more real. Goatskin, then woven fabric inscribed with holy gold, then a people. And at each step, the distinction between the wearer and the worn diminishes. Jacob is clearly not Esau. Aaron is clearly not his garments. But Israel acting for YHWH — whose will is being carried out? The two have become inseparable. YHWH dwells in the midst of the children of Israel, and the children of Israel dwell in his land. The garment and the wearer are one.

The Reverse Diagonal

There is a second diagonal — from 1R through 2M to 3L — the line crossing the first. Where the first diagonal traces identity (both axes aligned at the same point on the gradient), the reverse diagonal traces encounter (the axes saying opposite things at the same position).

Position 1R is community (warp) × individual (weft). The signs in Egypt are public, national-scale events — but they test individuals: Pharaoh, the magicians, Moses. This is the fundamental revelation of YHWH as other — as distinguishable from Elohim through the supernatural. The communal display confronts persons.

Position 3L is individual (warp) × community (weft). The laws of Leviticus Unit 13 are addressed to individuals — but for a national purpose. And the content confirms the crossing: YHWH takes Elohim's Decalogue — the communal address, "Elohim spoke all these words" to the assembled nation — and deconstructs it into individual commandments scattered through Leviticus Unit 19, then reconstructs it around the triadic center of unit [9].

Both diagonals pass through 2M. The high priest carrying twelve names stands at the X where the two lines cross. He is both: the individual who represents the community (identity diagonal), and the point where the communal address meets the individual obligation (encounter diagonal). He stands at the chiasm — not a sequence reversed but two lines of meaning crossing at a single point.

The Reader at 2M

If the structure of the re-creation weave invites the reader inward — as the structure of Leviticus invites the reader to experience the high priest's passage into the holy of holies — then the reader who arrives at position 2M occupies the high priest's position. The reader carries the names. As Aaron bears the twelve tribes on his heart and shoulders when he enters the holy place, so the reader who perceives the full structure bears the weight of the entire composition — all eighty-six Units, all five books, the whole of Israel's story.

And like Aaron, the reader bears not only the names but the holiness. The kavod is not in the reader. It is in the text — in the structure of the Torah, perceived and held. But without the reader, the structure remains invisible. The garments without a wearer are cloth. The re-creation weave without a reader is ten disconnected Units scattered across five books. The reader does not become holy by reading. The reader bears holiness by carrying the structure — and with it, the responsibility.

This is the final sense in which YHWH is revealed through relationship. Elohim's creation can be perceived by observation — the natural world is visible to anyone who looks. YHWH's re-creation requires the relationship between text and reader to become visible. The structure exists only in the encounter. Like the second tablets, which required both Moses's carving and YHWH's writing, the re-creation weave requires both the author's composition and the reader's reconstruction. Without either party, the revelation does not occur.

The responsibility is not selective. Aaron does not choose which names to carry. He carries all of them. The reader at 2M holds the past of the composition — having reconstructed everything that led to this point — and faces its future — the implications of holiness for the land, the nation, the world. Behind: the charade, the dream, the signs, the distinction between the names. Ahead: the command to be holy, the laws of the land, YHWH dwelling in the midst of Israel. The reader, like the high priest, stands in the present between past and future, holding the full weight of the covenant.

The difficulty of arriving at this position is itself part of the design. Aaron could not enter the holy of holies casually. The reader cannot arrive at 2M without having reconstructed the literary format of the entire Torah. The re-creation weave is buried deep within the structure — invisible from the linear reading, inaccessible without mastery of all eighty-six Units. The hiddenness is not an obstacle to understanding. It is the condition for understanding. Only those who have done the work of reconstruction can perceive the structure, and only those who perceive the structure can bear its weight.

The Torah provides a model for this reader. Deuteronomy Unit 1 is the tenth irregular unit, standing outside the nine-unit weave and its triadic structure. Throughout the nine units, the warp threads maintain a distinction: L is the individual, R is the communal. Deuteronomy Unit 1 merges them. Moses the individual contains within his personal reflection the national history of Israel—not as objective record but as internalized consciousness, the events retold from within one man. The format is again the picture: Moses’ personal voice opens and closes the unit (Rows 1 and 5), and inside is the nation’s story (Rows 2, 3, 4). The personal envelops the national. What the warp threads kept separate, the tenth unit unites.

Three concentric envelopes emerge across the re-creation: Moses contains Israel’s story (Deuteronomy Unit 1); Israel contains YHWH’s dwelling (Exodus Unit 11); the tabernacle contains the voice (Exodus Unit 11, innermost). Personal, national, divine—each layer is the envelope of the next. Moses carries Israel as Aaron carries the twelve names. Israel carries YHWH as the tent carries the voice.

And this is the final dependency: the re-creation weave only exists in the reader. Without the reader’s reconstruction, the ten irregular units remain scattered across five books. With the reader, they become a composition. Just as YHWH needs Israel to be revealed in the world, the re-creation weave needs the reader to be revealed in the text. Moses in Deuteronomy Unit 1 is the first reader—the one in whom the composition first exists as a unified whole, spoken outward to Israel. The reader who reconstructs the weave follows Moses: an individual containing the national revelation, speaking it into being.

The Zohar’s maiden, who shows her face through a small window to the lover who circles the gate, has shown her face.

Weft Thread C: The Land

We are skipping down to the third weft thread, C, to complete the framework of above (A) and below (C). This is where YHWH’s holy revelation in the world coalesces with mundane reality, where Elohim and YHWH reconnect. It is parallel to the lower level of the three tiers of creation, defined by days three and six. In the “first look” we noted that all three Units are forward looking, containing laws and instructions applying to the Israelites in the land of Canaan after the conquest. The use of “land” in this context invites a comparison with the use of the same word in the creation, both on day three and day six.

The Hebrewארץ (aretz), is used as the generic “earth” in the creation weave, as in “dry land” called “earth.” This is in contradistinction to the word אדמה (adamah), soil, used in the second creation narrative as the source of HaAdam. Besides the generic use of eretz, it is also used to refer to the lands of peoples and nations. When used without reference to a specific nation, as in our Units, it refers to Canaan, the land to be occupied by the Israelites. Generally, in this context it appears as הארץ, “the land.” The transformation of Elohim’s land to YHWH’s “the land” is fundamental to the revelation of YHWH.

Each of the three Units has a different emphasis regarding “the land” (as we will refer to Canaan). Leviticus Unit 13 contains dozens of laws, but only a few of them refer to the land. The most striking is the commandment to plant fruit trees upon entering the land. We explore the significance of this commandment below. Leviticus Unit 20 is also an extensive collection of laws, and many of them, such as the sabbatical year, are connected to the land. Numbers Unit 13 draws a map of the land and details how it is to be divided between the tribes.

As in thread A, the connections between the creation and the Units of C are indirect and illuminated by the parallels in the decreation. We begin by using the decreation translation tool to clarify the connections between days of the creation and Units of the re-creation. Day three of creation connects to Leviticus Unit 13 through the blood sign, and day six of creation connects with Numbers Unit 13 through lice.

Connections with the decreation. On day three “God said: 'Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place (Gen1:11).” The same Hebrew root in verb form, translated “gathered together,” appears in noun form, “ponds,” in the blood sign: “Take thy rod, and stretch out thy hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their ponds of water, that they may become blood (Exod 7:19).”

Blood is mentioned in both Leviticus Unit 13 and Numbers Unit 13, but in very different contexts. In Lev it is associated with the occult, whereas in Num it is mentioned in the context of the cities of refuge. The connection between the blood sign and Leviticus Unit 13 is complex. Blood is mentioned: “Ye shall not eat with the blood (Lev 19:26).” However, the link is stronger than just a single word, and connects with the second half of the same verse: “neither shall ye practice divination nor soothsaying.” The broader link is magic and the occult. Changing water to blood is presented as an act of magic that can be reproduced by Pharoah’s court magicians by incantation. Additionally, Moses is specifically instructed to bring with him the staff that changed to a snake, another act of magic reproduced by the court magicians. Besides the practices of divination and sooth saying, Leviticus Unit 13 also prohibits turning to ghosts and “familiar spirits.” This is the only Unit of the re-creation that mentions the occult. Why is that significant?

We have previously learned within the re-creation to associate YHWH with the supernatural, from the signs of the decreation, as well as Jacob’s ladder where he appears in heaven. The realization of the supernatural through people is the leading subject of Leviticus Unit 13, “Be holy.” The goal of the command is the substantiation of the supernatural holy. But there is also unholy supernatural, or at least nonholy as evidenced by the occult practices prohibited in Leviticus Unit 13. We can see how the holy is distinguished from the occult by examining the uses of “holy” within this Unit. “Holy” appears in two other contexts within Leviticus Unit 13. In one case it refers to a “peace” offering eaten by a celebrant.

And when ye offer a sacrifice of peace-offerings unto YHWH, ye shall offer it that ye may be accepted. It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow; and if aught remain until the third day, it shall be burnt with fire. And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is a vile thing; it shall not be accepted. But every one that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the holy thing of YHWH; and that soul shall be cut off from his people. (Lev 19:5-8)

Holiness can enter human food when it is offered as a sacrifice. The holiness is shared with YHWH because parts of the animal are burned on an altar and parts are eaten by the celebrant. The shared holiness is part of the glue that holds together individuals as a community. One who profanes the holiness of YHWH’s offering is “cut off from his people.” The offering unites the individual, the community, and YHWH.

The second use of “holy” regards the fruit of newly planted trees. “And in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy, for giving praise unto YHWH. (Lev 19:24)” Here too holiness is associated with food. By following YHWH’s laws, the individual Israelite can share YHWH’s holiness by ingesting holy food. Holiness has entered food, a substance supporting life. It is antithetical to the occult focused on “ghosts (Lev 19:31)” and “the dead (19:28.)” There is more to be said about trees and fruit.

Holy Transformation of Nature

We have seen that the holiness delineated in Leviticus Unit 13 is accompanied by a distancing from the occult. It is not YHWH’s way to be drawn into the world through magic. Ultimately, he is to be revealed mundanely, through the land. This is the basis for YHWH’s eventual revelation as the deity of a nation, as well as the key to the reconnection to Elohim. This last point is emphasized through an indirect reference to day three of creation, when the earth produced trees, in Leviticus Unit 13. The specific command to plant trees in Leviticus Unit 13, as well as the surrounding details, offers a paradigm of how Elohim, associated with the natural, and YHWH, associated with the supernatural, coalesce.

And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food,
then ye shall count the fruit thereof as forbidden; three years shall it be as forbidden unto you; it shall not be eaten. And in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy, for giving praise unto YHWH. But in the fifth year may ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you more richly the increase thereof: I am YHWH your deity. (Lev 19:23-25)

In Elohim’s creation, the earth naturally produced trees. In YHWH’s re-creation, Israelites are commanded to plant trees. The Hebrew verb “plant” (ונטעתם) appears in a plural imperative form. All Israelites are commanded to plant trees! As nature was empowered to carry out Elohim’s will, so too is Israel empowered to carry out YHWH’s will. The commandment is itself the empowering agent.

YHWH’s command now meets the natural fecundity of the earth and produces fruit. If the fruit were treated as natural, people would be free to eat it in accordance with Elohim’s blessing on day six: “every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed­—to you it shall be for food (Gen 1:29).” But YHWH demands the “unnatural,” refraining from eating the fruit in the first three years. In the fourth year, the unnatural restraint gives way to the revelation of holiness in the fruit, “in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy.” The holiness revealed through the mundane fruit is given as the reason to praise YHWH. Finally, in the fifth year, YHWH echoes Elohim’s blessing of fertility from day six: “that it may yield unto you more richly.” Following YHWH’s commandments brings about the revelation of holiness and YHWH’s blessing of fertility. There are other agricultural laws in Leviticus Unit 13 that also demand “unnatural” restraint from individuals.

And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corner of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleaning of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather the fallen fruit of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am YHWH your deity. (Lev 19:9,10)

These agricultural laws point to another aspect of YHWH’s revelation, social justice. This contrasts with Elohim’s minimal modification of “the rule of the strongest,” (“have dominion (Gen 1:28)”) after the flood, “Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed (Gen 9:7).” The last half of this verse is a significant reminder “for in the image of Elohim made he man.” The simple physical existence of people reflects the nature of Elohim. Therefore, the “image” of Elohim is not to be killed. This contrasts with the reason YHWH demands capital punishment for murder in Numbers Unit 13.

Numbers Unit 13

Returning to blood: there are extensive references to blood guilt in the context of the cities of refuge in Numbers Unit 13. There is thus a huge difference between blood and blood. In Leviticus Unit 13 it is associated with prohibited involvement with the supernatural. In Numbers Unit 13 is mentioned within the framework of defining the character of the national land, literally, the mundane. We examine closely below how blood guilt teaches about how YHWH’s demand of capital punishment for murder differs from Elohim’s. But first we need to examin the connection between it and the lice sign.

The lice sign is connected to day six through the earth and the living creatures created on day six: “'Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind (Gen 1:24).” People, who were also created on day six, were not brought forth from the earth, but rather created directly by Elohim in his image and likeness. By smiting the dust of the earth, Aaron brought forth out of the earth lice to attack both people and animals. The earth that brought forth creatures and supported people now became lice attacking them. Pharoah’s magicians, who could not reproduce this sign, were resigned to linking it with Elohim: “Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh: 'This is the finger of Elohim' (Exod 8:15).” As we have seen, Elohim is associated with the earth, below, and YHWH with Heaven, above. The invocation of Elohim by Egyptians indicates that they also recognized him as master of the earth. This point takes on added significance when we translate the lice sign to Numbers Unit 13.

Lice and the revelation of YHWH.

Before observing the connections between Numbers Unit 13 and lice, we must make a slight digression to justify an unseemly comparison between lice and YHWH. It may well be that comparisons of this sort, as well as indications of ostensible duality in the godhead, were amongst the reasons that the content of the re-creation were buried so deep within the structure of the Torah, far beyond the ken of the many.

Numbers Unit 13 is not only the last Unit of numbers, but also marks the end of the forty-year sojourn. It is also the end of the four books of the Torah presented through the voice of an omniscient observer. Deuteronomy is almost entirely written in the voice of Moses. Most important, it presents the ultimate reason for the exodus from Egypt and the giving of the law. Israel, and its deity, YHWH, are about to take up residence in Canaan, the promised land.

As we learned from the lice sign and Paroah’s magicians, Elohim is recognized as the creator of the earth. Since the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, he has been revealed as distinct from YHWH. Beginning with Abram, YHWH has created a trajectory to reconnect with Elohim. Jacob was the first to understand the desire of deity to be revealed as the transcendent (YHWH) connected to the immanent (Elohim), as it was in the Garden. The potential for reconnecting is visualized by the ladder in his dream. Israel is to be the vehicle for the combined revelation of Elohim and YHWH. This is the central message of the re-creation weave. The world in which people can live as they did in the Garden, under the aegis of YHWH-Elohim, is to be re-created in Canaan by Israel and YHWH. In the grand literary majesty of the Torah, this esoteric cosmic truth is conveyed by the very least of all creatures, lice.

The connection between lice and Numbers Unit 13, like the blood/magic connection, is both limited, in terms of a specific verse, as well as broad. The parallel verses are somewhat like the analogy we saw between Jacob using signs of Esau and YHYH using signs of Elohim. In this case, the analogy is between YHWH and the lice.

I understand it is not respectful to compare YHWH with lice, but it is where the text is leading us. The lice are described as being in the land and people: “Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and there were lice upon man, and upon beast; all the dust of the earth became lice throughout all the land (Exod 8:13).” And so is YHWH. “Do not defile the land that you settle in, the one I dwell within, as I YHWH dwell within the Israelites. (Num 35:34).” The land is transformed in two ways. In Egypt it becomes infested with lice, that then infest people. In Canaan it is occupied by YHWH, who also dwells within the Israelites.

The verse above from Numbers is YHWH’s last statement in the book completing the narrative of the Torah. (It is followed by the reply to the elders regarding the daughters of Zelophehad to close the book.) It sums up the central theme of the Torah: YHWH’s plan to establish a people and a land to reveal his holiness on earth. But the earth is the realm of Elohim, so a revelation of YHWH on earth represents the reappearance of YHWH-Elohim, the goal of the re-creation. A holy people in a holy land connect the transcendent holiness of YHWH and the mundane immanence of Elohim.

We noted above YHWH’s identification with the land of Canaan and its resultant holiness. The context for the verses we quoted is the establishment of cities of refuge for manslayers. That section distinguishes between murder and accidental death:

And these things shall be for a statute of judgment unto you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be slain at the mouth of witnesses; but one witness shall not testify against any person that he die. Moreover ye shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer, that is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death. And ye shall take no ransom for him that is fled to his city of refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest. So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are; for blood, it polluteth the land; and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. And thou shalt not defile the land which ye inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for I YHWH dwell in the midst of the children of Israel.' (Lev 35:29-34)

From the above, we learn how YHWH views the obligation to carry out capital punishment. The only expiation for murder is the death of the murderer. If it is not carried out the land in which YHWH resides will become polluted and thus unsuitable for the presence of YHWH’s holiness. Elohim prescribes capital punishment because of the natural state of humankind, in the “image of Elohim.” YHWH makes the same demand because of Israel’s unnatural state of holiness due to his indwelling. Israel is to integrate nature, Elohim, and nurture, observing YHWH’s laws, to recreate the Edenic linkage of YHWH Elohim.

Leviticus Unit 20.

As in thread A, the middle Unit, Leviticus Unit 20, is a conceptual middle. Here too, the central Unit integrates aspects of the poles, Leviticus Unit 13 and Numbers Unit 13. YHWH’s unique relationship with the land of Canaan and the Israelites, noted in Numbers Unit 13, is the integrating theme of Leviticus Unit 20. The Unit opens with laws to render nature unnatural, holy, the sabbatical year and the jubilee. The land is to be left fallow every seven years as well as every fiftieth year. Regarding the sabbatical year YHWH says: “But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto YHWH (Lev 25:4).” The link between unnaturally abandoning one’s fields, and holiness is spelled out regarding the jubilee: “For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy unto you (25:12).” The land of Canaan has been raised up from the state in which Elohim left it at the creation by YHWH: “for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and settlers with me (Lev25:23).” Furthermore, “For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am YHWH your deity. (Lev 25:55).” As YHWH’s servants, Israel carries out his will by revealing holiness through the mundane, the land.

Both Leviticus Unit 13 and XX exclusively contain laws to be carried out by individuals. There are no ritual regulations, even though both Units are in Leviticus. Their contents can be read as elucidations of the first commandment in Leviticus Unit 13, “Be holy.” Following these commandments will reveal holiness in the world, through the land of Canaan where they are applied, and through the individual Israelites who are commanded to observe them. While individuals play a role in revealing YHWH by observing the laws, the collective nation itself also reflects YHWH in Numbers Unit 13.

Numbers Unit 13.

Numbers Unit 13 opens with the war of vengeance against the Midianites. The Torah gives two different views of who is taking vengeance against the Midianites. First, were are told in YHWH’s voice: “And YHWH spoke unto Moses, saying: 'Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites; afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people (Num 31:1,3).'” But when Moses turns to the people he says: “Arm ye men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian, to execute YHWH's vengeance on Midian (31:3).” YHWH tells Moses that Israel is to take vengeance, seemingly for their own sake. But Moses says that it is YHWH’s vengeance. The two, the nation of Israel and YHWH, have become intimately connected and have the same desire for vengeance. But only Israel will physically go to war with the Midianites. Israel will be the agent for carrying out divine vengeance. Just as we saw individual Israelites referred to as YHWH’s servants, the nation as a whole is an extension of YHWH, his hands, when going to war.

Figure 15. The Re-creation Weave

Genesis Unit 13 (LA in Figure 15) contains the narrative of Jacob impersonating Esau, relating purely to individuals. The parallel in warp thread R, RA, contains the narrative of the signs in Egypt, signs for all of Egypt as well as the descendants of Jacob. The second Units of warp threads L and R both deal with the tabernacle. In LB (Exodus Unit 11) individuals are invited to contribute materials for the construction of the tabernacle from the goodness of their hearts “every man whose heart maketh him willing (Exod 25:2).” On the other hand, RB (Exodus Unit 19) describes how the entire community constructed the tabernacle “Thus was finished all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting; and the children of Israel did according to all that YHWH commanded Moses (Exod 39:32).” Units LC (Leviticus Unit 13) and RC (Numbers Unit 13) maintain the same relationship. LC contains a multitude of commandments directed at individuals, while RC contains the command for the whole nation to take vengeance on the Midianites, as well as the list of national encampments during the forty years in the wilderness.

The middle warp thread (M) combines individuals and community. MA (Genesis Unit 14) contains Jacob’s ladder dream as well as the details of the births of the first twelve “children of Israel.” The next Unit in thread M (Exodus Unit 12) describes the garments of the high priest. He, symbolically, has the names of the tribes of Israel upon his heart, on the breastplate, and on his shoulders on the epaulets. The third Unit (Leviticus Unit 20) limits the term that individuals can be indentured based on the entire community being YHWH’s servants. We can refine these observations of the warp threads by a closer look at the internal coherence of each thread.

Manifestation

The second warp thread of the creation will help us lock in an understanding of thread R in the re-creation. In our analysis of the creation in ch.8 of BC&V, we noted that the process delineated in days 4-6 is the infusion of Elohim’s anima (רוח) into the world in three distinct stages. These stages were distinguished by different forms of animation, movement. The lights are constrained, moving in their fixed heavenly orbits. The birds and fish are free to move. But they can also be carried about by their elements, air and water. The terrestrial creatures have full freedom of movement. The three Units in thread R of the recreation display a similar set of movements.

One function of the signs in Egypt (RA) is to permit the children of Israel to move. Normally we think of the redemption from Egypt in terms of slavery and freedom. However, the children of Israel did not appeal to Pharoah to become free Egyptians. Their freedom was to be based on leaving Egypt to serve YHWH. They wished to leave the “orbit” of Egypt. In RB, the completion of the Tabernacle, the Israelites have broken out of Egypt’s orbit but are still limited by a cloud by day and fire by night. The upward and downward movement of the cloud is consistent with the vertical component of the movements of birds and fish.

And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward, throughout all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of YHWH was upon the tabernacle by day, and there was fire therein by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys (Exod 40:36-38)

The Israelites have progressed from having their movements constrained by Pharoah to having them limited by YHWH’s cloud. Unit RC, the last Unit of Numbers, continues the “journeys” theme by detailing all the stations (defined by the cloud movement) during the wanderings in the wilderness. But it also lays out the plan for how Israel is to fill the land of Canaan and conquer it. There YHWH will no longer be represented by a cloud or a fire. YHWH is to dwell in the nation of Israel and the land of Israel, “And thou shalt not defile the land which ye inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for I YHWH dwell in the midst of the children of Israel (Num 35:34).” The indwelling of Elohim’s anima in the world through Adam created in image of Elohim is paralleled by the indwelling of YHWH in Israel.

The three threads of the weft incorporate three stages of a multifaceted process including the development of Israel as a nation, the revelation of YHWH as its deity, and the crystallization of its legal code. We initially identified these threads as associated with three stages of Israelite history: the pre-national (A), transitional (B), and the established nation (C). Deeper analysis, especially of warp thread R, has revealed we should also look at the weft as indicating stages of YHWH’s revelation.

Throughout all of Genesis, and up to the signs in Egypt, YHWH has been associated with unique events, the flood, the tower of Babel, and revelation to individuals, the fathers and Moses. Elohim, on the other hand is associated with the creation of the world and the establishment of “natural law” after the flood. As in Jacob’s dream (MA), YHWH is above, transcendent, and Elohim is below. When Jacob takes the oath that his return home will lead to YHWH becoming (like) Elohim for him, it foreshadows YHWH descending the ladder. The descent is actualized by the construction of the tabernacle (B). Interestingly, the dimensions of the Units in thread B create a ladder, as it were, from A to C. All three Units in A have five weft threads; the Units of C have three weft threads each; the Units of B have, in order, five, four, and three weft threads. Finally, YHWH takes his place in the world below through his identification with Israel. The first Unit of C (Leviticus Unit 13) provides the key to this identification through imitatio Dei, “YHWH spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I YHWH your deity am holy (Lev 19:1,2).” YHWH is to be revealed to the world through Israel embodying his holiness. This is the purpose of the re-creation.

It is time to talk about the elephant in the room. What is M trying to tell us about Elohim and YHWH? We collected a great deal of evidence in BC&V that we should view them as distinct characters in the narrative, and not just a pair of names. Before we continue, we need to gather up some of the key distinctions between them.

• Elohim appears first and creates the world.

• At the very end of creation, Elohim introduces holiness into the world he created. Holiness does not occur again until Moses approaches the burning bush.

• Immediately after Elohim sanctifies the sabbath in the creation, the name YHWH appears for the first time, attached to Elohim: YHWH-Elohim.

• After HaAdam and Eve are expelled from Eden, YHWH and Elohim separate.

• In the “Song of the Sea” holiness is attributed to YHWH for the first time.

• Holiness is never attributed to Elohim

These points lead to the following hypothesis. Elohim created the world to establish holiness. At first, in the Edenic state, holiness was attached to Elohim through YHWH. At first, HaAdam and Eve could not distinguish between Elohim and YHWH, the mundane and the holy.

Thread A defines the starting point of the process. Israel exits in potential through the personhood of Jacob (LA), his children (MA), and the pre-national mass of his descendants in Egypt, the children of Israel, RA.

25:25 And the first came forth ruddy, all over like a hairy mantle; and they called his name Esau. 25:26 And after that came forth his brother, and his hand had hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob. כה:כה ויצא הראשון אדמוני כלו כאדרת שער ויקראו שמו עשו כה:כו ואחרי כן יצא אחיו וידו אחזת בעקב עשו ויקרא שמו יעקב

25:27 And the boys grew; and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. כה:כז ויגדלו הנערים ויהי עשו איש ידע ציד איש שדה ויעקב איש תם ישב אהלים

27:16 And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck. כז:טו ותקח רבקה את בגדי עשו בנה הגדל החמדת אשר אתה בבית ותלבש את יעקב בנה הקטן כז:טז ואת ערת גדיי העזים הלבישה על ידיו ועל חלקת צואריו

27:22 And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said: 'The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.' 27:23 And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands כז:כב ויגש יעקב אל יצחק אביו וימשהו ויאמר הקל קול יעקב והידים ידי עשו כז:כג ולא הכירו כי היו ידיו כידי עשו אחיו שערת ויברכהו

25:8 And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed re כה:ח ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם

25:22 And there I will meet with thee, and I will speak with thee from above the ark-cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. כה:כב ונועדתי לך שם ודברתי אתך מעל הכפרת מבין שני הכרבים אשר על ארון העדת את כל אשר אצוה אותך אל בני ישראל

26:7 And thou shalt make curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the tabernacle כו:ז ועשית יריעת עזים לאהל על המשכן

26:14 And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red and a covering of sealskins above. כו:יד ועשית מכסה לאהל ערת אילם מאדמים ומכסה ערת תחשים מלמעלה

יט:כג וכי תבאו אל הארץ ונטעתם כל עץ מאכל וערלתם ערלתו את פריו שלש שנים יהיה לכם ערלים לא יאכל יט:כד ובשנה הרביעת יהיה כל פריו קדש הלולים ליהוה

לה:לד ולא תטמא את הארץ אשר אתם ישבים בה אשר אני שכן בתוכה כי אני יהוה שכן בתוך בני ישראל

לב:כב ונכבשה הארץ לפני יהוה

מ:כא ויבא את הארן אל המשכן וישם את פרכת המסך ויסך על ארון העדות כאשר צוה יהוה את משה

יא:מה כי אני יהוה המעלה אתכם מארץ מצרים להית לכם לאלהים והייתם קדשים כי קדוש אני

Figure 16. Themes of the Re-creation Weave