This post continues the discussion we began in “Bereshit: The Binary Universe I” and continued in “The Binary Universe II: Angels as Microprocessors.”

At the end of Parshat Vayetze, Jacob meets two camps of Angels:

And Jacob went on his way, and angels of G‑d encountered him. When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of G‑d!” So, he named that place “Mahanaim.” (Genesis 32:2–3)

The text indicates that Jacob meets two camps of angels—one set of angels that accompanied him outside the Holy Land and another set that takes over as he re-enters the Holy Land (See Rashi on these verses). The word “Mahanaim” (מַחֲנָיִם) literally means “two camps,” reflecting Jacob’s perception of two distinct angelic groups.

In light of our metaphor—angels as transistors—this transition at the border of the Holy Land can be seen much like the handoff of a signal from one set of transistors to another within a complex circuit. In the biblical narrative, Jacob encounters one camp of angels who have guided and protected him during his journey outside the Land of Israel. As he approaches the boundary, these “foreign territory” angels effectively hand off their role to a new set of angels operating within the Holy Land’s spiritual environment. Each group of angels is optimized for the spiritual “voltage” and conditions of its particular domain—just as each transistor or group of transistors in a circuit is designed to handle a specific portion of the signal processing.

In electronic terms, consider, for example, a multi-stage amplifier or a pipeline of logic gates. One stage amplifies or conditions the signal to a certain point. When the signal moves on—crossing from one “domain” of operation to another—its handling shifts to a different stage, more suited to the new parameters. The first transistor stage cannot perform optimally under the changed conditions, so the signal passes seamlessly into a second stage of transistors designed to carry it forward in the new environment.

In complex electronic systems, signals rarely travel directly from an input source straight to the final output stage without intermediate conditioning. Instead, the signal moves through a series of specialized transistor-based stages, each optimized to perform a particular function—amplification, filtering, level-shifting, buffering, or logical processing—before the signal reaches its final form. The “handoff” from one transistor stage to another ensures that at each step, the signal is compatible with the electrical environment and requirements of the next stage in the chain.

One reason signals are passed from one transistor-based stage to another is that each stage can be designed to present the optimal input and output impedances. A transistor amplifier, for example, may have a low output impedance to drive the next stage without significant signal degradation. The next stage, having a corresponding input impedance, can receive the signal cleanly and further process it.

Each stage might be specialized. An initial stage could provide high-gain amplification of a very weak signal but might not be suitable for driving a heavy load. After amplification, the signal might pass to a buffering stage with robust transistor arrays that can deliver the necessary current or handle a broad range of frequencies.

One stage may include filtering transistors arranged as part of a transistor-based RC filter or active filter configuration, which cleans the signal of noise. This “cleaned” signal is then handed off to the next stage, which might handle fine-tuned amplification or digital logic interpretation.[1]

By analogy, just as one camp of angels might not be equipped to guide Jacob in a particular spiritual domain and thus relinquishes the role to another camp that is better suited, each transistor stage in an electronic circuit accomplishes its portion of the work and then hands the now-optimized signal off to the next stage. This ensures that at every step—whether spiritual or electronic—the “signal” (guidance or electrical current carrying information) is in the best possible state to be received by the next set of elements, enabling a seamless and purposeful progression through the system.

The angels, then, are like specialized “transistors” who filter, modulate, or direct spiritual energy appropriate to their realm. When Jacob crosses into the Holy Land, the conditions of spiritual conductivity change. The angels that guided him in exile have completed their task, just as one group of transistors passes on the output (a properly prepared signal) to the next group, which will continue the process under the new parameters. This staged handoff ensures that the “signal” of divine guidance and protection remains continuous, stable, and well-matched to the spiritual environment, much like a carefully engineered chain of transistor stages ensures a stable and coherent signal throughout an electronic device.

This biblical narrative interpreted in light of the angel-transistor parallel, further enforces our hypothesis that angels serve as the “hardware” that execute digital code of our binary universe.

Endnotes:

[1] Here are a few practical examples of signals being passed from one transistor-based stage to another:

  • Multi-Stage Operational Amplifiers (Op-Amps) internally contain multiple transistor stages. At the Input Differential Stage, a pair of transistors receives a tiny input signal and provides initial gain, setting the stage for common-mode rejection. The Intermediate Gain Stage provides the bulk of the gain. It refines and amplifies the signal from the input stage, ensuring it has sufficient amplitude and the correct characteristics for the next step. Output Buffer Stage is often a push-pull or complementary pair, that can drive output loads with the necessary current and low impedance. The signal is thus “handed off” internally from delicate, high-gain transistors to more robust, current-driving transistors.
  • RF Signal Chains in Communication Devices, such as radio receivers, is used to amplify an extremely weak and noisy signal from the antenna. The first stage—LNA (Low Noise Amplifier) —uses specially chosen transistors with very low noise figures to gently amplify the weak RF signal without adding too much distortion. The output from the LNA is then handed off to a transistor-based mixer stage—this is the Mixer Stage. Here, transistors mix the incoming RF signal with a local oscillator signal to translate it to an intermediate frequency (IF). The LNA’s output would not be directly suitable for this mixing process if it weren’t first amplified and conditioned. The resulting IF signal may be handed off to a transistor-based IF amplifier and filters that further refine the signal in the. Each stage plays its own role before ultimately delivering a clean, demodulated baseband signal to the next part of the system.
  • Digital Logic Pipelines in Microprocessors are used in modern CPUs, which handle data in pipelines, where transistor-based logic gates form sequential stages. In the Fetch Stage, transistors that form memory address decoders and buffers fetch an instruction from memory. In the Decode Stage, the fetched binary instruction is handed off to a network of transistor-based logic gates that decode it into control signals. In the Execute Stage, another set of transistors (in ALUs—Arithmetic Logic Units) receives these signals and performs the required computations. Here, the “handoff” is the transfer of clean, properly interpreted digital signals from one set of transistor-driven logic circuits to the next, ensuring each stage receives the data in a form it can process.
  • Multi-Stage Switching Regulators (Power Supplies) often employ several transistor-based stages. In the Front-End Stage, high-frequency switching transistors (MOSFETs) convert an input DC voltage into a pulsed signal. In the Intermediate Filtering and Regulation Stage, another set of transistors (often MOSFETs in linear regulator sections or synchronous rectifiers) smooth and regulate the pulse into a stable lower-voltage DC level. Finally, in the Output Stage, a buffer of power transistors provides the required current and stable output to the load. Each stage “hands off” a progressively more refined power signal to the next.

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