Who is ‘we’? When the Lord at the creation as described in Beresheet (Genesis) says, ‘Let us make man’ He uses words He didn’t use before in the creation report. Only at the moment of creating man the Lord uses the plural for Himself. Linguistically the majestic plural does not exist. Kings use this form for themselves, a plural for a single person, not the Biblical Hebrew. The question then is: what does G-d mean with the words, ‘Let us make man’.
Two beings The majestic plural – also called the Royal We – makes use of the word ‘we’ for one person who is without anything double. That expression does not exist in Torah. HaShem must mean something else with ‘we’. In Torah these words cannot be used by or point at one person. ‘We’ always means several beings. At least two beings must be meant by these words. Who are these beings, that is the question.
Shadow Angels cannot create. That is not the meaning. In fact there is only one creator. But to whom does the Lord speak these words then? And who is able to co-create? That can only be a being able to create. And that can only be G-d Himself. The only conclusion seems to be that the one to whom G-d speaks is G-d himself, in a lower dimension. A daily life example is the projection of a hand on a wall, the shadow of a hand. The projection is two-dimensional and exactly follows the movements of the dimensional hand.
Three-dimensional projection A projection of the Eternal One, some sort of living hologram, is the being to whom He speaks at the moment of creating man. Man is also created in the image of that being, according to Genesis 1:26, where it literally says in Hebrew, ‘ in our images (b’tzalmenu), after our likenesses (kidmutenu).’ The suffix ‘-u’ means plural. Of ancient times the meaning of the spirit moving upon the surface of the water (Genesis 1:2) the sprit of Messiah. And the light in Genesis 1:3 is the light of Messiah and of the Lord. When G-d walks in the Garden of Eden he cannot be the creator of whom it says that the heavens cannot contain him (I Kings 8:27). Also there G-ds three dimensional projection, his ‘living hologram’ must have walked, while no other name is mentioned there than JHVH Elohim in Genesis 3:8.
Abraham and his heavenly visitors A very peculiar history in relation to this is to be found in Genesis 18. Three men – Marc Chagall translates this into three angels, see the picture – visit our father Abraham. This is called bikur cholim, visiting the sick. Abraham is recovering from his own circumcision which had not yet been forbidden by any well-educated urologist. Two of the three men turned out to be angels, see Genesis 19:1. The third man bears the name JHVH, the ineffable name of HaShem, inexpressible in spite of the efforts of other religions to express the holy name. Abraham offers them a Middle Eastern hospitable meal. After departure of the angels Abraham begs for the Lord to spare the cities of Sedom and Amora, even if there would only be ten men there. The term minian – the minimum of Jewish men required for a prayer or service – stems from it.
JHVH in heaven and JHVH on earth After not having been able to find that lowest amount of righteous men the man with the name JHVH leaves. By the way it would be a chutzpah to give any strict earthly man this name. He joins the angels and a bit later he is involved in throwing sulphur and fire as a heavenly execution of a heavenly judgment. And he does no execute on his one. The text in Torah, the written Torah, says, ‘Then JHVH caused to come down sulphur and fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah, from JHVH out of heaven’ (Genesis 19:24). This where the plural mentioned before stems from. Here is JHVH on earth cooperating with JHVH in heaven, being one G-d, where JHVH in heaven is G-d in all dimensions, or more probably without any dimension. And with JHVH on earth, the projection, the ‘living hologram’ of JHVH in heaven.
Many kinds of appearances Now we can try to answer the question who the being was with whom Moses had a conference with for 40 days and nights. It was not the Eternal One whom the heavens cannot contain. Neither was he the man who enjoyed Abraham’s and his wife Sarah’s hospitality. He was one of the many other kinds of appearances of the Lord, which make him incomprehensible and fascinating at same time. After all he is present in the bush when he calls Moses for his task as deliverer and leader of Israel. And he is de hand or at least it is his handwriting on the wall in ancient Babylon’s palace.
G-d or David, who is the shepherd? An interesting double description of the Lord we also find in Ezekiel 34, where the Lord (verses 11 and 12) as David (verse 23) seems to compete in being a shepherd over Israel. Also the prophet Zechariah talks in doubles. He cites the Lord in chapter 12 verse 9 in giving an unpleasant message to the enemies of Israel, ‘On that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.’ In the next verse G-d continues, cited by Zechariah, ‘I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced…’ (Zechariah 12:10).
Who pierced G-d? Evidently uneasy for translators having to translate what the text says literally. But literally it says that G’d himself will be pierced. It says ‘me’ and not ‘him’. Since nobody is able to pierce G-d in heaven it is G-d’s double Zechariah must be talking about. Fascinating question is who is meant by ‘they’. The words until the first time ‘they’ is mentioned relate to Israel, the Jewish people in other words – I say this because of the Bible preachers who see the church anywhere the word Israel is mentioned. The second ‘they’ in this verse cannot be Israel, for no Jew was allowed execute capital punishment, if the text indeed relates to torture to death on the Roman pole with crossbeam. The Roman enemy had forbidden this per decree.
Human sacrifice not allowed It looks like one time in history there would be a moment in which someone would die at a Roman wooden torture instrument with whom G-d would identify himself. So much did G-d identify himself that he says that he himself had been pierced. This suffering role of Messiah has been mentioned by the prophet Isaiah in his chapter 53 verses 1-11, reason for rabbis from of old to recognize two messiahs: messiah son of Joseph (Mashiach ben Josef) and messiah son of David (Mashiach ben David), the same David mentioned as messiah in Ezekiel 34. Human sacrifice is not allowed in all of Tanach. Except the human sacrifice of the man who turns out to be the ‘living hologram” of HaShem.
JHVH sends JHVH to earth Finally a particular text regarding this topic in the book of again our Jewish prophet Zechariah. He cites the Lord who calls upon Israel to depart from the land of the north Babylon, in chapter 2. He adds that he will live in the midst of Israel (verse 10 in English, verse 14 in Hebrew) and that he, JHVH, has been sent by JHVH to Israel by JHVH (verses 9 and 11) and that Israel will realize that then. The same image as in Genesis with JHVH in heaven sending fire and sending messiah; and JHVH making known that he has been sent by JHVH and that he will be pierced and throws fire in coordination with JHVJ in heaven.
Conclusion The conclusion is that HaShem shows in Tanach that he is G-d in heaven and man on earth, in too many places for people to be able to just pass by them. Reason for this article to pay attention to it is to get to know HaShem in more capacities than the limited amount handed to us sometimes. The Lord is too costly for that. The insight of HaShem having sent a living hologram of himself to earth is important. By it we know that G-d does not live somewhere far away in heaven. But that real deliverance is coming to us. That peace is not a philosophical term, but will handed to us by the messiah of Israel.
Lion S. Erwteman
