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I’m going to share with you some thoughts I was having about Parshat Vayishlach, which was a few weeks ago. Vayishlach is one of Bereshit’s many dramatic narratives. It begins with Jacob preparing to go back Canaan where Isaac is still living, to get away from Laban’s family, which is more and more unfriendly to Jacob. Jacob knows he will encounter Esau on the way to Canaan, and he gets ready for that meeting in three ways: first by dividing his camp in two (so that if Esau attacks them, maybe half of them will be safe), then by energetically reminding God of his promise to take care of Jacob, and finally by sending Esau generous gifts of sheep and goats and other livestock. That night, alone on the far bank of a river, Jacob wrestles with a mysterious being until dawn and gets his new name, Israel. In the morning he meets Esau and they hug each other and make up. Esau even offers to travel with Jacob, but Jacob says “No, no, you go on ahead, we’ll be too slow for you,” and then heads off in a totally different direction, just to be safe.
Later in the parsha Jacob receives his new name officially, straight from God; Rachel dies; and Jacob travels all the way to meet Isaac, who dies at the ripe old age of 180 surrounded by his family, and is buried by Esau and Jacob together in a meaningful demonstration of their brotherhood. The next parsha begins the story of the next generation, with Israel’s/Jacob’s favorite son Joseph.
When I was studying this parsha I got interested in the malachim that appear in several different moments in this parsha.
Malachim is an ambiguous word in Hebrew; it means “messenger,” but it may refer to either ordinary people type of messengers, or divine angel type of messengers.
The first malachim in this parsha are in the opening pasuk: “Vayishlach Yaakov malachim – Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau.”
To me these malachim sound like regular human people type of messengers. [The kids thought so too.] These malachim are sent with material gifts and an earthly message: “To my lord Esau, thus says your servant Jacob; I stayed with Laban for a few decades and got rich, and I hope we can be okay now.” These same malachim come back to Jacob to tell him that Esau is on his way with 400 men, which is scary.
I hear you know all about Rashi [I had checked with Aaron]. Rashi has something to say about this sentence: he says, “Malachim mamash.”
I am not a Hebrew speaker, but my understanding is that this means “really malachim,” “actually malachim,” “literally malachim.” [There is one native Hebrew speaker in the room; though he knows the word mamash, his English is not terrific. He said it kind of means "very," which is not far from my understanding.]
I really do not know. Which is the “real” meaning of malach? Seems to me that it has two meanings.
Rashi’s commentary is probably meant to be read continuously, so sometimes it is helpful to read commentary on earlier passages to see what happened just before. And there is some good information: just two verses earlier, some malachim encounter Jacob on the road to Canaan. Jacob says he knows by these malachim that “this is G-d’s camp,” and he calls it Machanim, a word related to malachim. Rashi says that these malachim are the malachim who “take care of the land of Israel, come to escort Jacob into the holy land.”
Malachim who are special to the holy land, who come to help Jacob travel to the holy land, sound like they could be angels. [The kids strongly agreed with this interpretation.] Many scholars picture Jacob as traveling to Canaan with a whole bunch of angels who go on the journey with him. After all Jacob is a very holy guy. In this way of thinking, Jacob is so holy that he can even send angels on ahead of him with messages for Esau. Maybe this is God’s way of helping Jacob to impress Esau, or even scare Esau a little, and I think that would definitely work.
Also there is a scene a little earlier, in which malachim speak to Jacob in a dream to tell him to go back to Canaan. Malachim that appear in a dream can’t be human messengers, so this adds support to the idea that Jacob’s malachim are angels.
[There was also some support among the kids for this position.] These could be regular human people who are maybe guards or scouts, who have been waiting in Canaan for Jacob to show up. Mamash, apparently, can also mean “real” in the sense of “tangible” or “concrete.” Rashi’s point may have been that unlike the previous dream angels, these are real-world messengers – human people sent on a human mission.
Overall the whole question of whether these are human or divine malachim is pretty mysterious. It’s confusing in the same way as the mysterious wrestling episode, also in this parsha, in which Jacob’s wrestling partner is first referred to as ish, which means what? (a man), and then later as elohim, which means what? (divine beings), before slipping away at sunrise.
The point I take from this is that in our world right now, there is no clear distinction between human messengers and divine ones. Chasidic Jews teach that an “angel” is anyone or anything who does G-d’s work in the world. While engaged in the divine task, a person is called a malach (or malacha); once the task is completed, the person is finished having that title. Kind of like being a driver: while you’re driving, you’re a driver, and then other days, you are not a driver. In addition to that, though, there could be a person who does holy work so often or so deeply that it becomes a part of who they are; that person could be a malach at all times.
I think the Torah is trying to teach me that I can be G-d’s messenger, so I should try to do that; and also that other human people might be divine messengers at the same time, so I should pay attention to them and treat them accordingly.
Thank you for sharing your ideas with me!
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The students had a number of their own ideas that could have started whole other discussions, and maybe I'll look into some of them. (I was only with them for about 20 minutes so we were not tackling multiple topics.)
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I’m going to share with you some thoughts I was having about Parshat Vayishlach, which was a few weeks ago. Vayishlach is one of Bereshit’s many dramatic narratives. It begins with Jacob preparing to go back Canaan where Isaac is still living, to get away from Laban’s family, which is more and more unfriendly to Jacob. Jacob knows he will encounter Esau on the way to Canaan, and he gets ready for that meeting in three ways: first by dividing his camp in two (so that if Esau attacks them, maybe half of them will be safe), then by energetically reminding God of his promise to take care of Jacob, and finally by sending Esau generous gifts of sheep and goats and other livestock. That night, alone on the far bank of a river, Jacob wrestles with a mysterious being until dawn and gets his new name, Israel. In the morning he meets Esau and they hug each other and make up. Esau even offers to travel with Jacob, but Jacob says “No, no, you go on ahead, we’ll be too slow for you,” and then heads off in a totally different direction, just to be safe.Later in the parsha Jacob receives his new name officially, straight from God; Rachel dies; and Jacob travels all the way to meet Isaac, who dies at the ripe old age of 180 surrounded by his family, and is buried by Esau and Jacob together in a meaningful demonstration of their brotherhood. The next parsha begins the story of the next generation, with Israel’s/Jacob’s favorite son Joseph.
When I was studying this parsha I got interested in the malachim that appear in several different moments in this parsha.
- What does the word malachim mean? [This question and the ones below, I asked the class, and we discussed their ideas; what's below is my answer.]
Malachim is an ambiguous word in Hebrew; it means “messenger,” but it may refer to either ordinary people type of messengers, or divine angel type of messengers.
The first malachim in this parsha are in the opening pasuk: “Vayishlach Yaakov malachim – Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau.”
- Does this sound like human messengers to you, or angels?
To me these malachim sound like regular human people type of messengers. [The kids thought so too.] These malachim are sent with material gifts and an earthly message: “To my lord Esau, thus says your servant Jacob; I stayed with Laban for a few decades and got rich, and I hope we can be okay now.” These same malachim come back to Jacob to tell him that Esau is on his way with 400 men, which is scary.
I hear you know all about Rashi [I had checked with Aaron]. Rashi has something to say about this sentence: he says, “Malachim mamash.”
- Does anyone here know what mamash means?
I am not a Hebrew speaker, but my understanding is that this means “really malachim,” “actually malachim,” “literally malachim.” [There is one native Hebrew speaker in the room; though he knows the word mamash, his English is not terrific. He said it kind of means "very," which is not far from my understanding.]
- What kind of malachim are the “real” kind?
I really do not know. Which is the “real” meaning of malach? Seems to me that it has two meanings.
Rashi’s commentary is probably meant to be read continuously, so sometimes it is helpful to read commentary on earlier passages to see what happened just before. And there is some good information: just two verses earlier, some malachim encounter Jacob on the road to Canaan. Jacob says he knows by these malachim that “this is G-d’s camp,” and he calls it Machanim, a word related to malachim. Rashi says that these malachim are the malachim who “take care of the land of Israel, come to escort Jacob into the holy land.”
- Who thinks the malachim who “take care of the land of Israel” sound like angels? Why do you think so?
Malachim who are special to the holy land, who come to help Jacob travel to the holy land, sound like they could be angels. [The kids strongly agreed with this interpretation.] Many scholars picture Jacob as traveling to Canaan with a whole bunch of angels who go on the journey with him. After all Jacob is a very holy guy. In this way of thinking, Jacob is so holy that he can even send angels on ahead of him with messages for Esau. Maybe this is God’s way of helping Jacob to impress Esau, or even scare Esau a little, and I think that would definitely work.
Also there is a scene a little earlier, in which malachim speak to Jacob in a dream to tell him to go back to Canaan. Malachim that appear in a dream can’t be human messengers, so this adds support to the idea that Jacob’s malachim are angels.
- Who thinks the malachim who “take care of the land of Israel” sound like human beings? Why do you think so?
[There was also some support among the kids for this position.] These could be regular human people who are maybe guards or scouts, who have been waiting in Canaan for Jacob to show up. Mamash, apparently, can also mean “real” in the sense of “tangible” or “concrete.” Rashi’s point may have been that unlike the previous dream angels, these are real-world messengers – human people sent on a human mission.
Overall the whole question of whether these are human or divine malachim is pretty mysterious. It’s confusing in the same way as the mysterious wrestling episode, also in this parsha, in which Jacob’s wrestling partner is first referred to as ish, which means what? (a man), and then later as elohim, which means what? (divine beings), before slipping away at sunrise.
- HERE IS THE BIG QUESTION. My belief is that nothing is wasted in the Torah; nothing is there without a reason. Apparently there is some reason that the Torah wants it to be unclear whether the malachim are human people, or angels. What do you think could be the reason for that?
[My teacher sense is that this question didn't really take. One kid said the Torah is ambiguous all over the place, which is certainly true, but isn't a reason (unless the reason is "Because that's how Torah is"). Other kids started talking about other topics; see below.]
The point I take from this is that in our world right now, there is no clear distinction between human messengers and divine ones. Chasidic Jews teach that an “angel” is anyone or anything who does G-d’s work in the world. While engaged in the divine task, a person is called a malach (or malacha); once the task is completed, the person is finished having that title. Kind of like being a driver: while you’re driving, you’re a driver, and then other days, you are not a driver. In addition to that, though, there could be a person who does holy work so often or so deeply that it becomes a part of who they are; that person could be a malach at all times.
I think the Torah is trying to teach me that I can be G-d’s messenger, so I should try to do that; and also that other human people might be divine messengers at the same time, so I should pay attention to them and treat them accordingly.
Thank you for sharing your ideas with me!
----
The students had a number of their own ideas that could have started whole other discussions, and maybe I'll look into some of them. (I was only with them for about 20 minutes so we were not tackling multiple topics.)
- Amara wanted to explore the idea that malachim could be not only human beings or angels, but possibly animals, or forces of nature.
- Aviva wanted to discuss the possibility that Jacob's sparring partner in the wrestling episode is Esau.
- Aaron thought maybe Jacob's sparring partner is a vampire because he disappears at dawn.
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