The word, ‘tefakh’ appears in the Bible only three times. It is always in connection with the smallest unit of measurement and always regarding the service of God. ‘Tefakh’ is used during the construction of the Holy Ark of Covenant and the Shewbread Table - - during the time that the Children of Israel were wandering in the desert.
Exodus 37:1, “and Bezalel made the Ark of shittim (acacia) wood...”, and in 37:10-14, “and he made the table of shittim wood: two cubits was the length thereof and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a half the height. And he overlaid it with pure gold and made…a crown of gold round about. Also he made there unto a border and a handbreadth (tefakh) round about. And he cast for it four rings of gold and put the rings upon the four corners (eaves – tefakhot – shaped like a triangle/’delta’)…”in the size of the palm of the hand, it was a ledge sticking out of the bases that were in the four feet. Over against the border (the frame, ‘tefakh’ in Hebrew) were the rings, the places for the staves to bear the table.”
In Exodus, the ‘tefakh’ was made as the palm of the hand, supporting the beams (called ‘badim’ in Hebrew). The ‘tefakh’ was a measurement used in construction and as ‘eaves’ to support the beams that carried the Holy Ark and the Shewbread Table. The ‘tefakhot’, as described in Exodus, were like ‘ears’ in the shape of triangles for ‘rings’, where the beams/staves would be inserted. In the book of I Kings 7:9, the ‘tefakh’ refers to the stone ‘eaves’ attached to the bases and tops of the columns of the Temple. This is the reason that the Hebrew word used for ‘perfected’ (well done from start to finish) is, “me hamasad ad hatefakhot”, as we see in the Bible, “All this structure from the outside to the great courtyard and from the foundation (‘masad tefakh’) to the eaves (‘tefakhot’) on top were made of stone. It is where the wood beams were set upon.” I Kings 7:9. As I translate the Hebrew text, it is written, “All these were of costly stones…according to the measures of the hewed stones, sawed with sawed, within and without, even from the foundation (‘masad’) to the coping (‘tefakhot’).
The ‘tefakh’ is the smallest scale of measurement for Land and for Food. It was, however, not only a scale of measurement, it was also an ‘item’ - - a support ledge made of stone, made like the ‘palm of the hand’, and the word for ‘palm of the hand’ in Hebrew is, ‘tefakh’. In English, we translate this as ‘handbreadth’.
Boaz, the forefather of the House of David, knew what the ‘six handbreadths’ (tefakhot) that he was giving to Ruth represented. Boaz knew what ‘tefakh al tefakh’ means. His tefakhot - - the ‘six handfuls of food’, the Lord’s nourishment were also ‘six portions of land’ (property). This act transformed Ruth from being a ‘poor widow’ to being a woman property-owner, dramatically altering her life status.
When Boaz sends the six tefakhot of barley seeds in olive oil to Naomi, she understood that now she can ‘step aside’, as she succeeded to lay the foundation for the House of the Lord. In Ruth 3:18, “sit still my daughter for the man (Boaz) will not be in rest until he has finished the thing (God has chosen) this day.” Boaz gave Ruth ‘Six Tefakhot’ handfuls /handbreadth of the grain (in Hebrew, ‘tefakh’ means to ‘rise’ or ‘to increase’). The six tefakhot were just the start; Naomi said, “…it will be fulfilled at the wedding. It will be perfected into a full circle of the Lord’s love; a completion of the House of the Lord and Ruth will become a ‘kallah’” (in Hebrew, this means ‘bride/wife’ butalso half of a circle (180°) which is ‘perfection’ and meaning that a ‘bride + groom = 360° = perfection/completion). As written in Ruth, 4:1, “Then went Boaz up to the gate…” and in Ruth 4:2, “…and he took 10 men of the elders of the city and said, ‘sit ye down here’ and they sat down.” Continue to Ruth 4:9, “And Boaz said unto the elders and unto the people, that ‘I have bought all that was Elimelech’s and all that was Chilion’s and Machalon’s of the hand of Naomi, Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Machlon have I purchased to be my wife,”. Now after Boaz gave into Ruth’s hands the 6 tefakhot/handbreadth of the seeds, he is announcing the redemption of the Lands of Elimelech and Machlon with the ‘six tefakhot’ portions of the land for his new wife, Ruth. Then he announced that he adds ‘tefakh al tefakh’, six times six portions in order to complete ‘me hamasad ad hatefakhot’, as Naomi knew he would do. After Boaz declares his marriage at the city gate, in front of the 10 elders, he said to them, “ye are witness this day.” Then, Ruth bears a son and he is named, “Obed”. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Everyone, including Boaz, knew that seeds like wheat and barley are always measured with a ‘se’ah’ instrument, shaped like a pot. The ‘se’ah’, like the ‘tefakh’ are not known or used today. Boaz was ordered by God to send the message that it is the Lord’s seeds and food in the Lord’s hand. It was what ‘turns Ruth to be his ‘am’ (Hebrew for ‘nation), by giving in her hands a possession - - his properties in Beit Lechem Efrata. The marriage gives Ruth the blessing of bearing a child for God. Her former conversion was complete she is now a part of God’s Nation and People.
It is important to notice that God’s most important covenants were always created with a blessed touch and hovering of God’s hand (handbreadth). The tefakh is the handbreadth of God, and a measure either for food or a portion of land. The ‘se’ah’, on the other hand was an everyday instrument for measuring out portions of grain and other food, used in commercial settings. There is an important message written in the Bible teaching us about the ‘hovering hand of God’:
As it is with the creation of Adam and Eve,
the Hand of God is there in Jacob’s wrestling at Penuel
and with Abraham upon God’s altar for Isaac’s sacrifices
It was also so when Moses received the 10 Commandments on Mt. Sinai:
Deuteronomy 10:2, “And I will write on the tables the words…” Deuteronomy 9:17, “I took the two tablets and cast them of my two hands.”
Exodus, 17:15-16, “And Moses built an altar and called the name of it ‘Jehovah – nissi’ for he said, ‘Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war…with Amalek... (in Hebrew it is written, ‘ki yad al kess ya milkhamah le yehovah be’amalek’”, translated = God’s ‘hand’) conducting war ago sent forward Amalek.”
Exodus 33:22, “and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee on a cleft of the rock and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And I will take away mine hand and thou shall see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen.”
In the Book of Ruth, with the story of Boaz and Ruth at the threshing floor of Bethlehem Efrata, we see that, “He measured six measures of barley, “; in Hebrew, ‘kafatz la kali’, the handbreadth/handful of barley roasted in olive oil.
Tefakh al Tefakh and the Star of David
The connection between the ‘tefakh’ as a measure of land and the ‘tefakh’ as a measurement of food both find their meaning in the Book of Ruth, in the Field of the House of David at Beit Lechem. It begins in Ruth 1:15-16, “And she, Naomi, said, ‘Behold…thy sister-in-law (Orpah) is gone back (to her land) unto her people and unto her gods; return then after thy sister-in-law.’ And Ruth said, ‘Entreat me not to leave thee…for whither thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge (your land…your house); thy people shall be my people (in Hebrew it is written ‘am’, which means ‘nation’, and ‘nation’ means ‘people living in one specific territory of land in a geographic area); and your nation shall be my nation, and thy God, my God.”
These blessings are recited when a person is being converted to God. God saw that Ruth did, indeed, leave her land, her nation and her gods. Like with Abraham, so it was with Ruth. It is God who chose Boaz for Ruth and through Boaz’s six handbreadths (‘the palm of God’), He blesses Ruth. It was six tefakhot / handfuls filled with barley seeds that were roasted in olive oil. Roasted with fire = ‘fire’ for sacrifice and with olive oil from the oil press of the House of David, like what is written, “your sons shall be like olive shoots, gathered round your table.” Psalm 128:3. “A staff shall grow out of the trunk of Jesse and an offshoot shall flourish from its roots “ Isaiah 11:1.
These two blessings acknowledge that through David’s birth, at that same threshing floor of Boaz and Ruth’s marriage covenant, the Lord chose His place to conduct His most harmonious completion and love; the birth of the Messiah, Jesus.
God does not only communicate with us through His manifold material creation, but much more so in revelations such as that received by Moses on Mt. Sinai and in the six handbreadths of barley which Boaz given to Ruth at Beit Lechem, the Shepherds’ Field. Just like the hand of the Lord that inscribed the 10 Commandments tablets on Mt. Sinai, so it is with the inscription of David’s name in the six-pointed star. The two ‘delta’ letters for the ‘d’ sound in ancient Hebrew resemble triangles and were written by God’s hovering hand; the equal ‘deltas’: Δ were the ideal symbol of ‘harmony’ and ‘peace’ between two different people, symbolized by the joining of two equal triangles:
Harmony and peace are achieved by focusing on God which can truly be called ‘love’. The triangles were made by God as a ‘tefakh al tefakh’, that creation of God, starting with ‘Boaz and Ruth’ at the Shepherds’ Field in Beit Lechem, continuing with David and completed with Jesus.
When Ruth said (1:15-16), “Whither thou goest I will go…they people…and thy God my God.”, it was at Moab Country, in a foreign land only one triangle delta of the two which makes the ‘Star of David’ was created. This tefakh portion Covenant was only the beginning as written in Ruth 3:18, “Rest until He has finished the thing,”
Its completion was fulfilled at one place, the place which the Lord God chose for His reunion in the Field of Bethlechem Ephrata in the Land of Judah. God created Boaz as the forfather of the House of David in order to compete with Ruth’s Triangle. Tefakh was God’s perfection called ‘kalil hashlemute’, a perfection of God’s full circle of the Lord’s creation. Tefakh al tefakh with God’s blessiong, the ‘Star of David’.
This was the way God constructed the name ‘David’: Δ?Δ - - a ‘delta’ and ‘delta’ - - not side-by-side, but a ‘tefakh al tefakh’ (handbreadth on a handbreadth). Not one against each other, but one completing the other. It was the way in which God created Adam and Eve; one with the other for completion. In Genesis 2:7, the Lord God formed a man’s body from earth (‘adama’, in Hebrew), and then He breathed into it the breath of life. In Genesis 2:24, “and the two are united into one (completion); Ani ledodi ve dodi li (I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me).
Marriage, like all other aspects of life, is not a fixed status of constant bliss; it is a constant way towards oneness. Man and woman, who are ‘two’ on our created world of polarities, are to become ‘one’ again by their union. True Adam. The Star of David symbolises this beautifully; composed of the two equal triangles, it is yet ‘one’. Each of these triangles plays its own role, but has no priority or preference over the other.
This is true for the polarity creator-creation as well as for polarities within the created world, including the man-wife relationship:
i.e., God created Adam and Eve/Man and Woman to ‘complete’
For this reason, the Bible uses the term ‘tefakh’ (handbreadth) when it is a measure for God’s Covenants, rather than the measurement method for ‘everyday’ things, which was ‘se’ah’.
The word ‘trinity’ derives from ‘tri-unity’ or ‘three as one’, and the triangle is the world’s preeminent symbol of divinity. It can be extended beyond the vesica piscis (the intersection of two circles with the same radius) by extending the lines through the centers until they reach the opposite sides of the circles. When these points are connected with a horizontal line, a larger triangle appears. Further connections and further extensions result in a profound harmony:
PRINT/SAVE
EMAIL
