Summary:
In our portion this week Jacob dreams of angels going up and down a ladder. After the dream God blesses him. Jacob names the place Bethel – the house of God. Later, Jacob works seven years in order to marry Rachel, but Laban tricks Jacob into marrying Leah, Rachel's older sister. Jacob also marries Rachel but only after having to commit himself to seven more years of working for Laban. Leah, Rachel, and their maidservants, Bilhah and Zilpah, give birth to eleven sons and one daughter. Finally, Jacob’s family leave Laban's household with great wealth.
Lesson:
During our Torah portion this week, Jacob camps for a night in the desert. He dreams of a stairway reaching from the ground to the heavens, upon which angels of God are going up and down. Later in the portion Jacob tells his wives, Rachel and Leah, that he dreamed of an angel who told him that his flocks were increasing in number and that he should return home.
The Torah is filled with mention of angels. When Hagar is stranded in the desert, an angel comforts her. Abraham welcomes three angels to his tent. Angels visit Lot in Sodom and urge him to escape before it is too late. Just as Abraham is about to sacrifice Isaac, an angel appears and tells him to stop. When Moses stands before the burning bush, an angel speaks to him and tells him to free his people from bondage.
When we look at art depicting these and other biblical scenes, we see that these angels are depicted as cherub like – little creatures with wings and round, red cheeks. What does the Jewish tradition tell us about angels?
The Hebrew word for angel – Malach, means messenger. Angels in the Torah are not described with wings or rosy cheeks, but rather as one who carries a message or as messengers of God.
In Judaism we see angels in several ways. It could be that angels are beings that exist between God and humanity. In the book of Psalms, we read “What is mortal man…that you have made him a little lower than the angels?” In the Talmud Angels play a large role – so large that some believe that God consulted with angels before creating the world. Some teach that Angels have a lifespan of only one day. They are created in the morning, they praise God all day, and die in the evening. We know from singing Shalom Aleichem each Friday night that angels accompany us as we begin Shabbat.
Maimonides, the ever-rational theologian, wrote that angels were forms of intelligence, agents through which God ruled the world. For Maimonides our minds are open to messages that God can implant within us – thus our minds can actually be angels through which God inspires us with new ideas and visions.
From our Torah portion this week we learn that ancient authors believed in angels who had a real presence and could enter our world and affect us and our actions. Modern authors propose that angels were simply a dramatic way of expressing the inner thoughts of the characters. They might suggest that Jacob in his dream was struggling with the unknown, struggling to find his place in the world, between heaven and earth. Quite possibly the angels were voices deep within his soul assisting him in his struggle.
Each of us can imagine angels in the way we find most meaningful. Clearly, they add color and dimension to our tradition!