JWR Outlook

Jewish World Review Nov. 6, 1998 / 17 Mar-Cheshvan, 5759

Jews: touched
by angels?


This Sabbath, in synagogues around the world, Jews will publicly read the narrative of Abraham and the angels. Yes, the Torah very much endorses belief in angels. But Judaism's understanding of what angels are is hardly in sync with popular culture.
Popular, but are these depictions
of angels accurate according to the Torah?


By Pauline Dubkin Yearwood


ANGELS, IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED, are everywhere.

The biblical messengers of G-d have spread their wings and flown their way into American popular culture to an amazing extent during the last decade.

Chubby-cheeked cherubim adorn greeting cards and calendars and dangle from necklaces. CBS-TV's family drama "Touched by an Angel" continues year after year to be a hit, and the creatures have shown up in a host of movies from the perennial "It's a Wonderful Life" to "Angel in the Outfield" to John Travolta's imperfect winged one, "Michael."

On a more serious cultural level, an angel crashed to earth to herald the approach of the millennium in Tony Kushner's monumental two-part drama "Angels in America," sparking an early-'90s resurgence of interest in the celestial beings. (Witnessing the angel's first appearance on stage, Kushner's awestruck character whispers "Very Steven Spielberg").

Angels have their own magazine, Angels on Earth, with a circulation of some 800,000, and for a while best-seller lists have included several angel books, particularly those by pop angelology pioneers Sophy Burnham and Joan Webster Anderson.

There are more than 800 sites devoted to angels and angelology on the World Wide Web; an Angel Collectors Club of America; and an Angel Museum opened in Beloit, Wis., this spring. And, it seems, that if you dial up almost any talk show, you're almost certain to find a guest with a story of being saved from an accident, fire or disease by an angel.

In fact, a recent Gallup Poll found that 72 percent of American adults believe in angels.

JEWISH VIEW

But are angels Jewish?

The answer is a definite yes. Despite the Christian orientation of many books on angels and the Jesus-like look of angels in the paintings of the great masters, the winged creatures are unquestionably part of the Jewish tradition.

Indeed, asking if angels are prominent in Jewish tradition "is like asking if G-d is prominent in Jewish tradition," says Rabbi Yosef Posner of Skokie, Illinois.

Yet most experts agree that there are clearly defined differences between Jewish and non-Jewish views of angels.

Guardian angels who watch over and protect particular human beings is a conception from the Roman Catholic, not the Jewish, tradition.

"Jews probably think less about angels than the average person," says Dr. Byron Sherwin, vice president for academic affairs of the Spertus Institute for Jewish Studies . Possibly this is so because "the Jewish community is more secularized" than other religious communities, he says.

Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer of Chicago's Congregation Bais Tefilla, an Orthodox rabbi who has taught a course about angels, says Jews must be "very careful about not turning to angels, not praying to them or asking favors of them. That is quasi-idolatry and is prohibited in Judaism. We are to direct all prayer and requests only to G-d."

Bechhofer says a course he taught on "Malachim (Angels): What are they and what do they do?" at the Hebrew Theological College's Frumi Noble Night Kollel lecture series was well attended.

ROLE OF ANGELS

"There's a precedent (in Jewish literature) for calling human beings angels," observes Rabbi Asher Lopatin, spiritual leader of Chicago's Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel Congregation (Orthodox). "Anyone doing G-d's mission is, in some sense, an angel."

"Reform Jews rarely talk (of angels) in literal terms, but we can extend the notion to anybody who does a mitzvah," says Rabbi Jay Moses of Temple Sholom, a Chicago Reform congregation.

"We don't have a better description than 'angel' for people who are humane, good and kind," says Rabbi Nathaniel Stampfer, professor of Jewish Studies at Chicago's Spertus Institute for Jewish Studies ."To this day, we still say in Yiddish, so-and-so is a real malach," he says, using the biblical Hebrew word that is most often translated as "angel."

While angels are the subject of divided opinions among Jews, on one point there's agreement: in Judaism, angels take a back seat to both G-d and humans.

They are, first and foremost, messengers --- the literal meaning of the Hebrew word malach. In fact, it is sometimes translated as "messenger," sometimes as "angel," says Spertus' Sherwin.

Many commentators note that, in the Bible and throughout the Judaic literature, angels are depicted as being static, unable to grow. That makes them very different from humans.

"An angel can never rise to a higher level than what it was created on," says Rabbi Moshe Francis of the Chicago Community Kollel. "A human being is not quite on the same level as an angel, but a human has the potential to grow spiritually and go on to the next level. Angels stand stationary. They can't grow spiritually."

Angels and humans "are very different creatures," agrees Rabbi Lopatin. "According to the mystical tradition, the angels can only sanctify G-d after we sanctify G-d. Angels are perfect, they are only doing G-d's will, but we have free choice, and G-d wants people to have free choice."

Throughout Jewish history, "angels are considered a metaphor. They are not considered to be physically present," says Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh, outreach director at the Chicago Community Kollel.

The term malach is significant, he believes: "G-d sends healing to mankind, and that healing might be called the angel Raphael. But the angel has no independent personality. The angel is the message."

Even the mystical sources of the Kabbalah "do not consider angels to be beings you could interact with. To a Jew (not studying Kabbalah), angels would have no relevance to modern-day life."

Kabbalists "wanted to make a connection to a different spiritual world," he says. "They considered angels to be moving energy. Their wings were a metaphor for movement."

But even to them, "angels were never beings that can grant your wishes or have an independent personality that you can relate to."

Rabbi Bechhofer sees G-d and humans -- but not angels -- as the universe's "independent operators."

"We don't have as much access to spirituality as a malach, but we have free will," he says. "Each malach has a specific task, but it doesn't impact on the entire universe. Humans impact on the entire universe. They are in an exalted position, but we have the real power."

Rabbi Yehiel Poupko, director of the Pritzker Center for Jewish Education of the JCCs of Chicago, believes there is one time during the year when Jews are "transformed into angels": Yom Kippur.

On that day, according to the Talmud, "we serve G-d here on earth as G-d is served on high," Poupko says.

"We behave like angels: they are dressed in white, and so are we. They don't eat and drink, and we don't either.

They are without family, they are pure, and we are all those things for that one day.

"On most days, when we say the Shema prayers, we whisper the unmentionable name of G-d. Only angels can say that name out loud, because they are utterly pure. But on Yon Kippur, every Jew becomes an angel and can say that name out loud."

In traditional Judaism, and particularly the Chasidic strain, there is a strong tradition of belief in angels.

References to angels in the Orthodox prayer book are more frequent than in the other movements and are "very enriching," says Spertus' Stampfer.

"Every Friday night we sing 'Sholom Aleichem,' which is an address to the angels, welcoming them," Posner of Chicago says. "Judaism teaches that every person is accompanied by two angels, and we can speak to them. "

Beyond these specific beliefs, Jewish writings are rich with teachings about angels. Rabbi Francis of the Chicago Community Kollel relates that the Pirke Avos, or Ethics of the Fathers, posits that "when a person performs a mitzvah, he creates a good angel. When he performs a sin, he creates a bad angel. When he passes away and has to stand in judgment, the good angels testify on his behalf while the bad angels prosecute him."

Another tale from a famous 18th century rabbi, Grand Rebbe Pinchas of Koretz, holds that when two people develop a friendship, an angel is created between them and lives as long as the friendship flourishes.

And one section of the Talmud states that every word that comes from G-d creates an angel.

Still, popular culture notwithstanding, most agree that angels play a decidedly secondary role in today's Jewish life, thought and prayer. "Heaven," says Rabbi Elliot Gertel, a Conservative rabbi from Chicago, "is not so much interested in what angels do. Of much more interest is what we do."


Pauline Dubkin Yearwood is a staff writer at The Chicago Jewish News


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