I would use DOM methods for this. However, it is important to understand exactly what it is you want.
You say that you want to create "an instance of the current table", but go on to say it should be blank.
What do you mean by this? If it is blank, how is it an instance of the source table? Does it have the same number of columns? Of rows? Both? Neither? What does is have in common?
Also, how is it the "current" table? Do you have a single button / link in each table which the user will click to duplicate it?
Those finer (but yet somehow essential) points aside, onto the DOM methods.
You can use the "parentNode" property of each element to traverse up the tree, testing the "tagName" property to determine when you reach the table element.
Then you could use the "cloneNode" method to take a copy (optionally choosing whether to take all childNodes) - which you may or may not want to do, depending on the answers to the earlier questions.
Or, you may just want to use the "createElement" method to create your table, table body, rows, and cells, using the "appendChild" methods to add the elements.
Hope this helps,
Dan
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