9686. And thou shalt make a covering for the door of the Tent. That this signifies the intermediate that unites the second or middle heaven with the first or ultimate heaven, is evident from the signification of the “covering,” as being the intermediate that unites this heaven, which is represented by the Tent of meeting, with the heaven represented by the court, which is treated of in the following chapter. For as “the veil” between the holy and the holy of holies signified the uniting intermediate between the inmost or third heaven and the middle or second heaven, so this “covering” signifies the like between the middle or second heaven and the first or ultimate heaven. That there are three heavens, and that two of them were represented by the Habitation that was inside the veil and the Habitation that was outside the veil, has been shown above; and that the first or ultimate heaven is represented by the court, will of the Lord’s Divine mercy be shown in the following chapter. The entrance from the one heaven into the other is signified by “the door” where the covering was. That a “door” signifies entrance, see n. 2145, 2152, 2356, 2385; and hence communication (n. 8989); wherefore “the covering” at the entrance, which was in the place of a door, denotes the intermediate that communicates and unites.

2145. He was sitting at the door of the tent. That this signifies the holy which at that time appertained to Him, namely, the holy of love-which is signified by the day growing hot, as explained in what follows-is evident from the signification of a “tent,” as being what is holy (see n. 414, 1102, 1566, where also the reason of this signification of “tents” is explained). As the Lord was then in the perception which is signified by the oak-groves of Mamre, which is a lower rational perception, but yet is a perception more internal than that which is signified by the oak-grove of Moreh (concerning whichsee n. 1442-1443 it is here represented and therefore signified by His sitting at the door of the tent, that is, at the entrance to what is holy. How the case is with perceptions, as being less or more interior, may be illustrated by the perceptions of the most ancient people, from whom I have heard that the more they were in memory-knowledges from the things which are objects of hearing and sight, the lower were their perceptions; but that the more they were uplifted above them to the celestial things of charity and love, the more interior their perceptions were, because they were then nearer to the Lord.