Said Rabbi Berekhiya in the name of Rabbi Helbo: It is written (Bereishit 32):

“A man wrestled with him”

We know not who was in the power of whom;

Was the angel in the power of Yaakov, or was Yaakov in the power of the angel?

But from the text: And he said, release for the dawn has broken”

Said the angel to Yaakov:

“Release me, for my turn has come to give praise” –

It is evident that the angel was in the power of our father, Yaakov.

                                                                                                                (Song of Songs Rabba, Parasha 2)

 

“So that the socket of his hip was strained as he wrestled with him” – A time of war and a time of peace.

“As he wrestled with him" – seems to be redundant. This is the basis of Chazal’s exposition in Hullin (91a). According to the plain reading, the meaning is “as Yaakov wrestled with him”, for until now, the angel fought with Yaakov, and now he wished to break off contact, but Yaakov took the offensive and resumed the struggle with the angel; therefore, he was punished and his hip was displaced. This was because Yaakov’s attribute was profuse love of peace, as we had noted above. Therefore, he, too, should have rested – as did the angel who ceased to fight. Yaakov, however, betrayed his own attribute, and therefore, was he punished in his hip, which controls walking and which signifies man’s customary behavior. We have a major generalization – when a person is used to exhibiting a fine attribute, it takes on the status of a vow; should he later be unfaithful to this attribute, he is punished. Furthermore, it may be said that this comes to teach a lesson for all generations - the behavior of the fathers is a sign unto the sons – as will be later explained (Haamek Davar, Bereishit 32:32)… and it comes to teach us how one should behave with his adversaries, not challenging them too much, and when the fright has passed, it is best to let the pursuer go on his way.

(Haamek Davar, Bereishit 32:32)

 

 

WHAT IS AN ANGEL?

Gavriel Birenbaum

 

To Baruch and Pasit with love

on the occasion of their engagement

 

Rashi’s remarks on the opening verse of our parasha are well-known:“And Yaakov sent ‘mal’akhim”’ (The word ‘mal’akh’, commonly translated ‘angel’, also means ‘messenger’.) – ‘mal’akhim mamash’ (real angels).

Ibn-Ezra, however, disagrees: These mal’akhim were from among his servants.

The basis for their disagreement may already be found in Bereishit Rabba: “Mal’akhim” – these are flesh and blood messengers; our rabbis say: mal’akhim mamash.

Both the Midrash and Rashi use the term “mal’akhim mamash” (real mal’akhim) to describe non-human messengers; from this we derive that already during the period of Chazal – and certainly from Rashi’s times onward – the word ‘mal’akh’ generally refers to a super-human being.

            The original meaning of the word was ‘messenger’. Today, as our knowledge of Hebrew’s Semitic sister-languages has widened and deepened, we know this for a certainty. The root m’l’kh’ in the sense of “send” existed, among others, in Ugaritic (an ancient Semitic language very close to Hebrew) and Amharic (the language of most Ethiopian Jews). It also exists in modern Arabic (in the hif’il form). Incidentally, the word ‘melakha’ (work) is derived from that that same root (not for naught is work also called ‘mishlach-yad’ – ‘that which the hand is sent to do’).

            There is no doubt that in many instances in the Bible, the word refers to a blood and flesh messenger: “And the harlot Rahav… Yehoshua spared… for she had hidden the messengers which Yehoshua had sent to spy out Jericho.” (Yehoshua 6:25); “When Zebul, governor of the city, heard… he sent messengers to Avimelekh” (Judges 9:30-31); “And Jezebel sent a messenger to Eliyahu, saying…” (I Kings 19:2); and many other places.

            But in some places in the Bible, the ‘mal’akh’ is an incorporeal messenger of God. Often he is specifically termed “mal’ach of God”, or the context leads us to understand that he is not a mortal. These angels can be divided into two categories: A. messengers of God which have been appointed for a special task, such as those sent to notify Avraham and Sarah and to overturn Sodom; the angel which is revealed to Manoah and his wife, parents of Shimshon; the angel which stood as an adversary before Bil’am. B. The type which is also called by other names – ‘the sons of the gods,’ ‘cherubim’, ‘seraphim’ – and they are sometimes portrayed as having wings, and even as flying.

            In the books of the Bible composed during the period of the Second Temple, there is an increase in the number of angels, and only there – especially in the Book of Daniel – are they designated by personal names. This development was already noted by Chazal in an enlightening item in the Talmud Yerushalmi:

Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said, even the names of the angels went up with them from Babylon. Earlier: “And one of the seraphim flew towards me”, “seraphim standing above Him” (Isaiah 6:2,6); and later on: “And the man Gavriel” (Daniel 9:21), “except your prince, Michael” (Ibid., 10:21).

            The assumption that angels exist presents a clear theological problem: Does the one, all-powerful, God, whose glory fills the universe, need messengers, intermediaries? Do they possess some independent power which is independent of God? This cannot be. And if so, what need is there of them? All the forces of nature are messengers of God – “Fire and hail, snow and steam, winds of storm do His bidding” (Psalms 148:8) – what need is there for winged creatures? The literature and thought devoted to this subject is wider than all the seas, and here we can only offer a brief survey.

            A number of times, the Bible itself mentions the limitations imposed upon angels: “I can do nothing until you arrive there” - the words of the angel appointed to destroy Sodom (Bereishit 19); “If you offer a burnt offering – to God you must offer it” – the words of the angel to Manoah (Judges 13:16). The Bible records no prayer directed at an angel; King David turns to God even as he sees the angel strike: “When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I alone am guilty, I alone have done wrong…” (II Samuel 23:24).

            The literature of Chazal offers differing opinions as to the nature of the angels, their tasks, and their power. Because of limitations of space, we present only the words of the Amora, Rabbi Yuden:

A mortal may have a patron. Should distress come upon him, he does not immediately enter his patron’s abode; he stands at the door of his patron, and calls to his servant or son, saying: “So-and-so stands at the gate to your courtyard.” Perhaps he will grant him entry – perhaps not. But The Holy One, Blessed Be He, is not like that; if distress comes upon a person, he cries out not to Michael and not to Gavriel, but to Me alone does he cry out, and I answer him immediately.

 (Yerushalmi Berakhot 9b)

            According to Rav Saadya Gaon, the angels are creatures composed of extremely refined and delicate substances, a kind of fire, and they carry the throne upon which appears “the perceived glory”.

            Rambam opines that the angels are totally incorporeal; they are “intelligence without matter”. In keeping with his major principle of “accept truth, whatever its source” he is not afraid to say: And this is also what Aristotle said, but the terminology is different; he says “unattached intellects” and we say “angels” (Guide for the Perplexed II:6). This determination, of course, raises unavoidable questions: How can “unattached intellect” be visible to man? How are we to understand the descriptions of winged angels?

            The Rambam’s answer is clear: All this occurs in prophetic vision, in proportion to the imaginative faculty (Guide, I:49). Just as the intelligent believer knows that the various anthropomorphic attributes ascribed to The Holy One, Blessed Be He, (“eyes of God”, “hand of God”, “and His feet will stand that day on the Mount of Olives”, “and God smelled the pleasant aroma”, “and God said”, and many more) are not to be understood literally, so must he divest himself of the descriptions which give the angels body and form; he must understand them as a shell covering inner content. On the other hand, the Rambam claims that that “angel” is also a multi-meaning, encompassing, name for all natural forces, physical or spiritual, which are also – in a certain sense – messengers of The Holy One, Blessed Be He; there is an angel appointed over passion (as per the words of Chazal in Bereishit Rabba 85:8), and the words of Rabbi Simon “There is not a single blade of grass which does not have its constellation in heaven which touches it and says to it ‘Grow’” (Bereishit Rabba 10:6) are also to be understood in like fashion.

            Already in early eras, poems were penned which addressed angels directly. A well-known example is the “Makhnisey Rahamim” – “Those who bring in the prayers” – which are part of the Selihot service of the Ashkenazic community, and the later poem “Shalom Aleikhem”, sung by many of us on Shabbat eve. The Rambam and other Halakhic arbiters strongly opposed the phenomenon; the fifth article of the famous Thirteen Principles of Faith proclaims:

I believe in complete faith that the Creator, Blessed is His Name – Him alone is it proper to worship and to exalt and to publicize his greatness and his meaning, and it is improper to do so to that which exists beneath Him – the angels, the stars, the spheres . . . as each has predetermined activity, they have neither reign nor choice other than the will of the Exalted, and they are not be employed as means by which to reach Him, but only directly to Him are the thoughts to be directed, setting aside all others.”

 (Rambam, Commentary on the Mishna, Preface to Chapter “Helek”, Kappakh edition, p. 142)

The rulings of Halakhic authorities in Germany and Italy were more lenient; they found ways to preserve these beautiful poems (see D. Goldshmidt’s preface to The Order of Sehlihot, According to Custom in Poland, pp. 11-21).

            In the literature of the Hassidic and Mussar (ethical) movements, there is great development of the motif of angels as creatures having no freedom of choice. Their holiness and high position are not of their choosing – in contrast to man “whose “actions bring him close and whose actions repel him”. These ideas have their basis in the famous Midrash, in which Moshe our teacher is given the opportunity to convince the angels that the Torah is suitable for Man and not for angels:

…And what else is written [in the Torah]? “You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal” – Does envy exist among you? Do you have a yetser hara (evil inclination)? Immediately they admitted to God [the correctness of his decision].

(Bavli Shabbat 89a)

The concept of peace is bound up in the consciousness of many with the concept of angels. We find in the Bible: “Hark! The Arielites cry aloud; Shalom’s messengers weep bitterly” (Isaiah 33:7). Yet more in Chazal:

Great is the peace awarded the righteous; when they depart this world, three companies of angels of peace precede them. The first proclaims: “He shall come to peace”; the second says: “He shall have rest on his couch”; The third says: “Who walked straightforward.

(Sifri Zuta 6:21)

            Just as Zionism – including religious Zionism – did not wait for a messiah to gather the dispersed of Israel and to build the Temple in a miraculous, supernatural way, but rather rose up and took action, as though in realization of “Level in the wilderness a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3), so must the making of peace not be left in the hands of angels. Peace is not “Hilkhata l’Mashiha” – “Laws for the Messianic era” – a matter for angels to deal with; they are in a state of eternal peace imposed upon them by the very nature of their creation. We mortals, given the freedom of choice, are obligated to seek and pursue peace with our enemies.

Dr. Gavriel Birenbaum lectures on the Hebrew Language in Bar-Ilan Univ.

 

“Shimon and Levi are brothers”

This is problematic, for it would seem that they had acted with the consent of – and in consultation with – her [Dina’s] father; for they stood before him, and he understood that they were speaking deceitfully – why, then, was he angry? Furthermore, it cannot be that he wished to marry off his daughter to the Canaanite who defiled her, and if all the brothers were partners to the deceitful answer – though Shimon and Levi alone perpetrated the act – why did the father cursed the wrath of Shimon and Levi alone?

The answer is thus: The deceit of all the brothers lay in their telling them to circumcise all males, assuming that all the men of the town would not do so, and even should they obey their leaders and circumcise themselves, they would come on the third day, when all were in pain, and take back their daughter from the house of Shekhem. This was the strategy of the brothers, approved by their father. But Shimon and Levi sought vengeance, and decimated all the men of the town…

Because the people of Shekhem were evil, and they considered blood to be no more important than water, the sons of Yaakov wanted to take revenge by the sword of vengeance, and they killed the king and all the inhabitants of his city, for they were his servants, obeying his commands, and the covenant of the circumcision was considered by them to be meaningless, no more than an act of obsequiousness to their masters. Here Yaakov says that they endangered him, as is written, “You have brought trouble upon me, making me odious”; later on, he curses their wrath because they wronged the people of the town who had said to them in his presence, “And we shall dwell with you and be one people” and they might have turned to God; and they reneged on their word, and perhaps they [the people of Shekhem] would have turned back to God and they killed them with no justification, for they did them no harm whatever, and this is the meaning of “their weapons are tools of lawlessness” (Bereishit 34:13).

(Ramban 34:13)

 

…And he was further angered lest people say that it was upon his advice that the act was done, and this - a prophet performing acts of lawlessness and plunder - would constitute a profanation of God’s name. This is the meaning of “Let not my person be included in their council” – excusing himself by explaining that he was not aware of their intent as they answered deceitfully, and he was not counted in their assembly as they came upon the town and murdered them.

(Ramban Bereishit 49:6)

 

 

…Even The Holy One, Blessed Be He seems to present a problem, for one might come and claim: The Torah itself justifies their behavior, for what is written following the incident? “The fear of the Lord was upon the surrounding town, and they did not pursue the sons of Yaakov.” Does not that miracle constitute proof that God approved of their action?

The Torah teaches and reiterates that miracles and omens are not proof of truth. Pharaoh’s magicians also succeeded in their magic… daily and throughout all of human history we are witness to the victorious arm of falsehood – but none of this proves anything… for – as a contemporary sage said – among the many and varied terms employed in description of God’s attributes, we do not find the word “success”.

(Prof. Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in the Book of Bereishit, 267-268)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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