literature, incorporates this phenomenon into some of his plots. In an Agnon story based on one of the above-mentioned Hasidic folktales, a righteous rabbi is given the gift of kfitzat haderech and uses it to "jump" into the treasuries of the Habsburg Empire, take sacks full of newly minted gold coins, and jump back to his shtetl, unnoticed by anybody. He uses the money to help poor or persecuted Jews, and the story implies that the power would be taken away should he take any of the gold for himself. Later, when the Emperor plans to make decrees harmful to the Jews, the Rabbi uses his power of kfitzat haderech in order to jump into the audience chamber and beat the Emperor with his stick—being visible (and tangible) to the Emperor himself, but invisible to his councilors and guards. In science fiction Frank Herbert's Dune Science fiction novelist Frank Herbert's concept for a messiah, the Kwisatz Haderach, resembles and is strongly associated with Kefitzat Haderech, the "leap forward". Emanuel Lotem's 1989 translation of Dune into Hebrew uses the concepts interchangeably. While Frank Hebert seems to use the term to reference the messianic personage himself, it's possible that the Golden Path, a major plot point in the later books of the franchise, and the purpose of the Kwitzat Haderach - to steer humanity on the Golden Path, thus 'shortening the path' humanity must take to survive long-term - may be the reason he chose to use the term. Philip Reeve's Railhead In his Railhead trilogy science-fiction author Philip Reeve introduced a galactic interstellar railway system, the K-Bahn which is based on a network of K-gates, portal-like gateways utilizing an extradimensional non-space to achieve instant arrival after departure, thus "shortening the way". As explained in the novel Railhead itself, the "K" in this terminology stands for "Kefitzat Haderech", referred to as an expression in "one of the languages of Old Earth". See also Bilocation Chukjibeop Jump drive Lung-gom-pa Shukuchi Tay al-Ard Teleportation Teleportation in fiction References Notes Kabbalistic words and phrases Talmudic mythology Faster-than-light travel in fiction