Quick Word Study – An Illusion – Lahat Hakarav     לַ֤הַט הַחֶ֙רֶב֙ – Lamed Hei Teth    Hei Cheth Resh Beth  

Genesis 3:24: “He drove the man out, and stationed East of Eden the Cherubim and the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Ok, maybe it is just me. I’m an Aspie (Asperger’s Syndrome) which is on the high spectrum of Autism. It means I am very brilliant in just one area only because I focus so well on that one area to the point of obsession. I am an absolute doofus in other areas like mechanics (I get excited when I replace a light bulb and flip the switch finding it works), social graces (pointing out a woman’s blemishes), sports (I still don’t know who the quarterback is for the Chicago Cubs),  etc.  But ask me about Semitic languages and I come alive.  

I mean how many people do you know that ever wonder how long the Cherubim had to stand guard over the entrance to the Garden of Eden?  Was there some point in history when the tree of life finally died out and the guard was no longer needed?  Wouldn’t it get a little tiring to twirl a flaming sword for centuries and centuries guarding the way to the tree of life?  Did that mean there were walls around the garden and a gate for the angel to guard?  There must be a way to sneak around that angel? Is there just one angel or do they have a team of elite angels and have a regular changing of the guard?  And, like just what kind of threat of a single sword on fire anyways to a spiritual being? If it is intended for a physical being, I sure never heard of anyone who even found the Garden of Eden let alone the tree of life.  Well, I can go on and on with questions like these which to my mind add up to absurdities in the Bible. Thus, you have the root of my Aspie super power which is to focus on ancient languages.  Maybe there is something in the original language that makes some sense to this poor Aspie.  

This fiery ever turning sword in Hebrew is  Eth lahat hacherev hamithehapeketh.  True we can translate this as fiery ever turning sword but the particular usage of these three words are really later usages in the Hebrew.  In its Semitic origins we find it is something quite different.     

The key word here is in the word lahat which our translators and lexicons will tell you means a fiery sword.  Actually, in it Semitic roots we find it comes from an old Akkadian word la’atu (LT) which is a word for the flashing reflection of sunlight off a sword. From a distant out in the desert an approaching army with highly polished swords would wave the swords in the bright sun making it appear to rookies in the defending army as if they had swords of fire.  The old combat veteran Master Sergeant who had seen more than his share of battles would tell the spooked out greenhorns that it was only a lahat. It wasn’t real, it was an illusion. The word lahat was often used for enchantment ie., causing someone to see something that is not there or not see something that is really there.  It was also used for magic in the sense of making something disappear.   The word sword in Hebrew is cherev.  Sword is just one usage of this word.  It is most often used for desolation, emptiness, not there.  This is followed by the verb haped which indeed means turning, but turning in the sense of ever changing.  It is used in a Hithpael form. In other words, the Cherubim are assigned to cause the Garden of Eden to constantly change itself, creating the illusion that it is not there.   Yet, it is still there. The Talmud teaches that it is still there today and so is the tree of life, but we cannot see it.  There is the illusion of invisibility. And then maybe something else that modern science is hinting at. 

I know I am probably leaving the reservation for saying this, but I have a really hard time accepting the fact that God had to station an angel to guard the way to the Tree of Life.  Like that would be some tour of duty for 4,000 years.  Then maybe the angels took shifts like guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and maybe it was considered a duty for only the elite like the guards of Windsor Castle.   Then maybe it was God creating an illusion that it is not there but in reality it still is. Maybe many people see and pass through the Garden of Eden every day but because of the illusion the lahat they do not see it. 

Quantum Physics tries to tell us what is possible in the physical world.  They say time travel is possible, but they don’t know how to do it. The existence of alternative universes is possible but they don’t know how to cross it.  Some even say this world is an illusion or a hologram. That maybe we are just a computer program run by some super intelligent race and this world is run by some pimpled teenage geek.  They are the same ones who mock the idea of a God.  So, I am within the realm of scientific possibility by saying that the Garden Eden exist right where it was during the time of Adam only it has been shifted to an alternative universe another dimension. 

I was reading the works of one rabbi who said that the Bible teaches that God not only created this physical word, but the realm of the spirit. That means there must be another realm where God exist.  He exist outside the realm of the spirit. All we know is the realm of the physical and we can’t even imagine what the world of the spirit is like and if we can’t imagine that realm we are certain unable to imagine a third realm that God lives in. Is that the third heaven? 

You think that is far out, well to this Aspie’s mind it is not more far out that believing that there is an angel standing guard over the Garden of Eden blocking our way to the tree of life with a sword that has been burning for 4,000 + years.  

Oh, by the way did  you know that the Hebrew word for tree ‘ets in it’s Semitic origins is a concentration of power that leads to a doorway, passageway, gateway or portal?   But then that is just an ‘ets to another controversial topic. 

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