What Do Angels Look Like?
Do You Believe in Them?
Tachat ha-Shemesh – Under the Sun
Weekly Torah Insights from Miami
The narrative of the patriarch Jacob / Israel stretches over two weeks beginning with Parshat Vayaytzay, continuing into Vayishlach. This week it’s all about Jacob (ya-a-kov), his Hebrew name emanating from the word for heel (ekev). We don’t encounter his name Israel (yis-ra-el – the God-wrestler) until next week. This week he journeys away from home. Next week he returns home. Underlying both weeks is the role angels play. In this Substack post we’ll explore the nature of angels through a teaching, a text, and a tale. First, the teaching:
There are many categories of angels in Jewish tradition. There are those that maintain the fabric of the heavenly realm like the Cherubim, the Ofanim, and the Hayyot ha-Kodesh who sing Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh every day before the Throne of Glory. And then we have the angels active between worlds. All angels have one thing in common: they are malachim, messengers, assigned to fulfill singular tasks.
Below are categories of angels we experience in this world of physical being. They are always present, but because we so often take their presence for granted, we are not likely to be aware of them.
We have angels responsible for the maintenance of what we call “natural law.” You likely know the names of several: Gabriel, who is responsible for physics; Micha-el, the angel of compassion; Uriel, for illumination; Raphael, for healing. We invoke their presence in the bedtime liturgy.
But we also have angels ascending and descending as in the ladder of Jacob’s dream. Each of these has a unique mission in the journeys of our lives.
Every relationship comes with its own angel which wanes and waxes with the intensity of that relationship.
And every object in creation has its angelic representation relating to its effect and purpose.
Following is a rabbinic text that treats concisely the abundance and variety of angels (Midrash Tehillim,104:2). The Hebrew for angel is malach (messenger) but it can also be brachah (blessing). Every blessing comes through an angel.
את מוצא כל דבר ודבר מלאך ממונה עליו. אם זכה אדם מלאכי השרת נמסרין לו אם מתחייב אדם מלאכי חבלה נמסרים לו. הוי יצו ה' אתך את הברכה. ואם הפרשת מעשרותיך בשדה ברכתי אותך (שם ג-ו) ברוך אתה בעיר ברוך אתה בשדה. ברוך אתה בבואך וברוך אתה בצאתך
Every object has an angel appointed over it. If a person has positive merits, helpful angels are assigned to him, but if a person is behaving badly, angels of destruction are assigned to him. May HaShem appoint a blessing (an angel) for you. And if you have separated one tenth of your produce as an offering, that’s because I have blessed you (with enough to do so). Blessed are you in the city, and blessed are you in the field. Blessed are you when you come in (from your journey), and blessed are you when you go out.
What does an angel look like? If you ask Artificial Intelligence to generate the image of an angel, considering that AI has been trained on American Christological data, the image will likely look like this:
On the other hand, below is an image of the angel that accompanied me throughout my early childhood. His name is Skippy. He was my guardian angel until I was old enough to leave home for summer camp.
The above teaching and text give rise to a tale. In the days of the intergenerational learning program of the Havurah of South Florida, families learned together more from stories than from teachings and text. Each generation grasped the story as it was able.
Jacob’s Angels
As a child, through shrewd dealing, Jacob bargained the birthright away from his brother. The boundary between shrewd dealing and extortion is quite thin. As a young man, through clever manipulation, Jacob received the blessing for the eldest son from his father, though he was not the eldest son. The boundary between clever manipulation and theft is also quite thin.
“When Esau learns of it,” his mother said, “he will console himself by killing you.”
“Why? Because I am sharper than he is?”
“You are sharp in your reasoning,” his mother explained, “but dull in your feelings. Esau’s feelings are sharper than yours, and his knife is sharper still.”
That awoke fear in Jacob. “What do I do?”
“Go away. Find refuge with your uncle Laban in Haran.”
Jacob had never been away from home, but his fear was great enough that he took whatever was at hand and set out by foot into the wilderness.
That first night he made camp as the sun set. With only stones to serve as a pillow he expected a sleepless night, but sleep overwhelmed him, engulfing him in dreams of angels ascending and descending a ladder stretching from earth to heaven. He awoke just before the last angel could dissolve into the daylight.
“Who are you?” Jacob asked. He held the angel by its foot.
“Let me go. You don’t need me. I was your family angel, but now you have left your family.”
“Who is with me now?” Jacob asked, still not letting the angel go.
“With you now is the angel you need to protect you on your journey.” The angel Jacob was holding slipped beyond his grasp.
“So nice to have guardian angels,” Jacob thought. He built an altar to the One who provided him with such protection. “So long as You continue to protect me,” he said aloud, “and provide me with food and shelter, clothing and all my needs, I will acknowledge You as my God and give You a tenth of all I earn.”
The next day he recalled his promise. “A tenth is too much,” he said. “A twentieth. I’ll give You a twentieth of all I earn.”
The next day, a twentieth seemed too much. “If I earn it, it is mine. But if You earn it for me, then I’ll give You a twentieth.”
He came to a field in which there was a well. On the mouth of the well was a boulder. He sat by the well waiting for shepherds to come and roll away the boulder so he might drink.
A beautiful maid approached as the sun was setting. Why wait, he thought. He summoned the angel of his journey, but it was a different angel who appeared. “What will you give me?” asked the angel assigned to the well.
“A tenth of all I acquire I will give,” he said, for this angel knew nothing of his original promise. “A tenth if you assist me in rolling away the stone.”
The stone rolled away. The maid, Rachel, was impressed.
The angel began to fade.
“Where are you going?” Jacob asked.
“You no longer need me,” the angel said. “I am the angel of this well. You will need another angel to be with you in Haran.”
Jacob was pleased. This new angel would know nothing of his promise in the field.
Jacob settled with his uncle in Haran. He acquired wives and children, but his wages were low, his house modest. He summoned the angel who was with him in Haran. “I have wives and children, but little property. If you assist me, I will give a tenth of everything I acquire.”
Jacob’s wealth multiplied, but with the wealth came the angel demanding payment.
Jacob gathered his family at night, his flocks, his herds, and set out from Haran. The angel could not go beyond the city limits. Jacob smiled as it disappeared. He had come to know angels well – their use, and their limitations.
Word came to Jacob his brother Esau was coming to meet him – Esau and four hundred armed men! Jacob summoned the angel assigned to protect him on the road, but no angel appeared. Because it was daylight, Jacob thought.
That night he crossed the river, sat alone and summoned the angel once again. An angel came, but it did not seem to be a protector. The angel circled, snarled, and attacked in fury. Jacob retreated, defending himself.
“Why aren’t you protecting me?” Jacob cried.
The angel snapped and hissed. “I’m not your angel.”
“Then what are you?”
“I’m the angel that exists between you and your brother.”
“But my guardian angel, where is he?”
“Weak,” said the angel confronting Jacob. “Weaker than me. Weak from maltreatment. Weak from disdain. When you fail to nourish an angel between yourself and the One above, it becomes weaker and weaker until it can’t protect you at all. But when you fail to nourish an angel such as me, one that flows sideways through the world, when you maltreat a brother and treat him with disdain, that angel grows ever more dangerous.”
“What do I do?” Jacob asked.
“If you survive the night, you’ll know what to do.”
Both Parshat Vayaytzay and this story conclude with a cliffhanger. How will Jacob the heel redeem himself? Tune in next week for Parshat Vayishlach, the emergence of Israel the God-wrestler, and the conclusion of the story.
(The story Jacob’s Angels has been adapted from White Fire, my collection of fables published in 2010.)
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