Angels for Each Other
Newsletter November 28, 2022 Together, we're #keepingitsacred... |
Angels are among us. At least that's what the rabbis noticed when closely reading the text in this week's Torah portion. Genesis 28:12 says: "He (Jacob) had a dream; a stairway was set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and messengers of God were going up and down on it."
Notice, on the ladder to heaven (cue Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven!) the angels were going up and down on it. Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchaki (aka Rashi) in France in the early 11th century comments: "Up and THEN down."
Isn't that curious? Wouldn't you think angels would come down to earth from heaven and THEN ascend?
The 13th century Italian work known as the Chizkuni encourages us to understand that these angels behaving like human beings, ascending and descending the ladder to heaven as if transmitting strength and protection down to humans on earth from God, and relaying updates on humans up to God from earth.
If this all seems irrational to you, it did to the early Reform Movement as well. Dr. Jacob Petuchowski, in the 20th century noted that the early Reformers considered the belief in angels incompatible with the modern era, and thus excised all mention of angels from the liturgy early on (though some angelology may have crept back in).
What has replaced much of this thinking is the idea that instead of the Hollywood portrayal of angels as transparent ghosts with wings or cherubs flying around humanity, is the idea that the angels are actually US! We are the angels walking among one another. We are the ones on the ground everyday, capable of helping one another. Modern thinkers recognize that the Hebrew word for angel is מלאך/malach-- which literally means "messenger." We can be the messengers for one another of hope and comfort. We can help protect and provide for one another, doing the word of Goodness, doing the work of God, on earth for one another. We can bring soup to a sick friend. We can offer to take in the mail for one another, or pet sit for one another's fur babies. We can call or zoom one another and offer a listening ear, or even a word of encouragement. We can serve as angels to help one another thrive. And that is indeed, the work of the Divine. This is how each of up bring sanctity and wellness into the world.
That's how together, as a community, we're #keepingitsacred... Rabbi Heather Miller Founder, Keeping It Sacred |
The above is an excerpt from a Keeping It Sacred newsletter. If you want to read the entire newsletter or any from our archives, please head over to: keepingitsacred.com/news And if you'd like the newsletter delivered to your inbox every week, please share your name and email address in the fields at the bottom of the page in the purple boxes. Thanks for your interest, and thanks for #keepingitsacred… |