Angels in Judaism

Hebrew mal’ākh is the standard word for "messenger", both human and divine, in the Hebrew Bible; it is also related to the words for "angel" in Arabic (malāk ), Aramaic and Ethiopic. It is rarely used for human messengers in Modern Hebrew, as the latter is usually denoted by the term shaliyakh (). The noun derives from the verbal consonantal root l-’-k (), meaning specifically "to send with a message" and with time was substituted with more applicable sh-l-h. In Biblical Hebrew this root is attested only in this noun and in the noun məlʾāḵā́, meaning "work", "occupation" or "craftsmanship". The morphological structure of the word mal’ākh suggests that it is the maqtal form of the root denoting the tool or the means of performing it. The term mal’ākh therefore simply means the one who is sent, often translated as "messenger" when applied to humans; for instance, mal’ākh is the root of the name of the prophet Malachi, whose name means "my messenger". In Modern Hebrew, mal’akh is the general word for "angel". In the same manner, apparently, the prophet Haggai is described as "the messenger of the Lord with the message of the Lord" (malʾakh ʾElohim be-malʾakhut ʾElohim; Book of Haggai 1:13). ==In the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible)==

The Hebrew Bible reports that angels appeared to each of the Patriarchs, to Moses, Joshua, and numerous other figures. They appear to Hagar in Genesis 16:9, to Lot in Genesis 19:1, and to Abraham in Genesis 22:11, they ascend and descend Jacob's Ladder in Genesis 28:12 and appear to Jacob again in Genesis 31:11–13. God promises to send one to Moses in Exodus 33:2, and sends one to stand in the way of Balaam in Numbers 22:31. Isaiah speaks of "the Angel of the Presence" ("In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them, and carried them all the days of old") (Isaiah 63:9). The Book of Psalms says, "For He Will give His Angels Charge over you, to keep you in all your ways" (Psalms 91:11). Different parts of the Bible deal with angels to different degrees. In numerous locations, the Bible introduces the idea of a Heavenly host or "host of heaven", and the related divine epithet "Lord of Hosts". While sometimes depicted militarily, the assembly also serves to praise God, in descriptions reminiscent of a kingly court. Genesis has Elohim, Bene Elohim (Sons of God), as does the Book of Job; Psalms has the related bənê ēlîm and bənê elîon, as well as Shinnan and Qedoshim. The prophetic books, which usually do not write of angels, nonetheless mention Seraphim, Cherubim, and Ophanim, Chayot Ha Kodesh, Erelim, and Hashmallim. In the Book of Zechariah, several episodes explicitly contain Angels. In Daniel, angels gain some of the characteristics they would come to possess in the post-biblical Apocalyptic literature, such as each serving as personal patrons of peoples (Persia, Greece), and some having personal names (Gabriel, Michael). Angels and prayer In the Book of Zechariah, Zechariah hears from the that He had been angry with his ancestors due to their evil deeds. He promised them that if they "return[ed] to [Him], [He] would return to [them]." Then the angel of the Lord prayed to the Lord and said, "O GOD of Hosts! How long will You withhold pardon from Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, which You placed under a curse seventy years ago?" Angels as warriors In the Bible, there are some references to angels acting as warriors and protectors of all that is good. One of these references is the Book of Daniel, which contains four apocalyptic visions. However, Daniel 10:13 refers to a sort of battle between the prince of the kingdom of Persia and the speaker, who is believed to be Gabriel. Here, Gabriel tells Daniel that one of the chief princes, Michael, helped him in the opposition he was facing from the prince of the kingdom of Persia. Thus, both angels act as warriors for good against the bad opposition from the prince of the kingdom of Persia. In addition, in Daniel 12:1, the speaker, Gabriel says that the angel Michael is the protector of the Israelite people and is a great prince. Angels as messengers In many passages from the Tanakh, angels are utilized as messengers; indeed, there is no specific Hebrew equivalent for the English word "angel". Angels seem to have the appearance of ordinary humans; they are typically men and do not have wings in the mortal realm. The presence of an angelic messenger versus a human messenger must be determined by the context of the passage. Regardless, messenger angels are a highly important part of preserving and strengthening the link, as well as necessary distance, of God to humans. The nature of the knowledge that angelic messengers carry is always heavenly; that is to say, it is divine, and only by sanction from God can it be transmitted to humans, and only for necessary reasons. When an angel delivers the knowledge of God, his own identity is effaced by that of his Lord; that is, he speaks directly for God. Examples of this role can be seen in numerous famous passages from the Old Testament, including the three mysterious men in the story of Abraham and the destruction of Sodom in Genesis 18:1–19:23, as well as the angel who informs Samson's mother of the nature of the baby she carries in Judges 13:3–5. In these examples, the angels are disguised, their identities unimportant in relation to the heavenly magnitude of the knowledge they possess; they are entirely defined by their jobs. Rather, a type of commentary or explanation of the vision is provided through the figure of an interpreting angel, whose teachings dispel the ignorance of the prophet and allow him to better understand, and thus better propagate, the knowledge of the end times that his vision contains. Such knowledge of the apocalypse had both heavenly and earthly implications, and assumed a great deal of importance to the oppressed people of Israel at the time, who needed explanations for why God would let them go through so much hardship; thus, the knowledge was "good". Because of the bizarre features of the visions contained in such apocalyptic literature, interpreting angels assume the roles of teachers rather than just messengers; instead of just conveying information, they must explain it. However, Daniel is only aware of this information due to the assistance of Gabriel, who teaches him the correct interpretation of his vision, and encouraging him when he falters (Daniel 8:15–27). This role of angels is mirrored in Zechariah, where angelic interpretation and teaching is necessary to unravel the bizarre visions that the prophet witnesses. In the passage, the angel literally walks through Zechariah's visions with him, explaining and teaching him as they go along so that Zechariah properly understands God's intended meaning (Zechariah 1:9–5:11).--> ==In rabbinic literature==

As a subcategory of heavenly beings, mal’akim occupy the sixth rank of ten in Maimonides' Jewish angelic hierarchy. Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael Numbers Rabbah names four angels who would later be known as archangels, surrounding God's throne: Affinities between angels and sages in the rabbinic literature The Babylonian Talmud contains a reworked ancient tradition of the myth of the fallen angels – here, this narrative is invested with new significance and accordingly, these are the distinguished rabbis who are portrayed as the heavenly messengers' offspring. The most explicit presentation of this notion is found in Tractate Shabbat. The text recounts the sages' halakhic discussion in which Rabbi Hizkiya praises Rabbi Yohanan's competencies by exclaiming "this is not a human!". Right after his remark a following passage appears.Rabbi Zeira said that Rava bar Zimuna said: If the early generations are characterized as sons of angels, we are the sons of men. And if the early generations are characterized as the sons of men, we are akin to donkeys. And I do not mean that we are akin to either the donkey of Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa or the donkey of Rabbi Pinḥas ben Yair, who were both extraordinarily intelligent donkeys; rather, we are akin to other typical donkeys.Although on the façade this appears to be a humorous allegory, this passage represents a broader tradition of associating angels and rabbis that manifests in other passages dispersed in the Babylonian Talmud. This tendency has two components, and, on the one hand, the text compares the sages to angels in various respects such as knowledge (e.g., the sages should be good teachers playing the function of the angel of the Lord in Hagigah, some of their halakhic decisions are labeled as angelic in origins in Pesachim), or appearance (e.g., according to Shabbat Rabbi Yehudah bar Ilai's Sabbath attire resembles the garments of the angel of the Lord, in Kiddushin the Babylonian scholars are compared to the ministering angels). On the other hand, the Babylonian Talmud portrays the angels as highly reminiscent of the rabbis themselves: they are proficient halakhists (e.g., in Menachot an angel disputes the laws of fringes with Rabbi Kattina, in Avodah Zarah the angel of death betrays his deep familiarity with the rules of ritual slaughter), linguists (e.g., in Bava Batra Gabriel and Michael scrutinize the semantics of the term kadkod known from Isa. 54:12), and teachers (e.g., in Megillah and Sanhedrin an angelic prince admonishes Joshua for neglecting his Torah studies). On the whole, the quantitative data show that the sages are frequently juxtaposed with angels, and the main dimension of comparison is their intellectual proficiency. When it comes to the mapping of specific rabbinic competencies onto the angels, the most popular is the ability to engage in halakhic scrutiny and teaching. In sum, this presentation of the sages as angels can be taken as an expression of the sense of elitism entertained by the Babylonian sages. ==Angelic hierarchy==

Rankings Maimonides, in his Mishneh Torah, counted ten ranks of angels in the Jewish angelic hierarchy. The Zohar, in Exodus 43a, also lists ten ranks of angels. Jacob Nazir, in his Maseket Atzilut, also listed ten ranks of angels. Abraham ben Isaac of Granada, in his Berit Menuchah, also listed ten ranks of angels. All of them are ranked with 1 being the highest, and all subsequent numbers being lower ranks. In Kabbalah The Kabbalah describes the angels at length. Angels are described in Kabbalah literature as forces that send information and sensations between mankind and the Tetragrammaton. They are analogized to atoms, wavelengths, or channels that help God in his creation, and it is therefore reasoned that they should not be worshipped, prayed to, nor invoked. They are not physical in nature but spiritual beings, like spiritual atoms. Therefore, the Kabbalah reasons, when they appear in the Hebrew Bible their description is from the viewpoint of the person that received the vision, prophesy, or occurrence, which will be anthropomorphic. However, they are not material beings but are likened to a single emotion, feeling, or material, controlled by God for his purpose of creation. == In Jewish liturgy ==

Shalom Aleichem is a Jewish hymn, first documented in the 17th century, that is commonly sung on the eve of Shabbat, either upon returning home from services, or at the dinner-table. Before going to sleep, many Jews recite a traditional prayer naming four archangels, "To my right Michael and to my left Gabriel, in front of me Uriel and behind me Raphael, and over my head God's Shekhinah ['the presence of God']." The formula of this prayer appears on incantation bowls and amulets, and may have originally come from folk magic practices. Michael and Gabriel appear in these incantations on the right and left (though sometimes their positions are swapped), but the name's of the angels in front and behind the speaker or subject vary. == In popular belief ==

In the ancient Near East, Jews understood the sun, moon, and stars to be angels, just as others in the same region viewed them as divine beings. Philo of Alexandria identified angels in Judaism to be the same being as daemons in Hellenistic thought. In Late Antiquity, the two most popularly invoked angels among Jews were Michael and Gabriel. Some Jews seem to have understood pagan deities or figures, such as Abraxas, Figures who "entered heaven alive", such as Elijah, are sometimes interpreted by Jews as having been transformed into angels (historically and currently). Jews during Yom Kippur services are especially likened to angels, even today, by wearing white (alternatively, this is also associated with the dead), fasting (angels do not need to eat or drink), standing straight up (a posture attributed to angels), setting aside differences and co-existing, and devoting the whole day to prayer. Beyond the imitation of angels in prayer, some Rabbis believed that humans were created in the image of angels, such as Rabbi Pappais (Rabbi Akiva's opinion that humans were made in the image of God and God alone has enjoyed greater official popularity). Jews also developed a belief that each nation had an angel presiding over it, and that angels of different nations sometimes battled each other. Rabbinic interpretations sometimes alluded to this belief as well. Angels in the Mishnah are mentioned only subtextually, and often in the context of condemnation. For example, at one point the Mishnah says a sacrifice in the name of mountains, hills, seas, rivers, or wilderness is invalid. While angels are not directly mentioned, it is evident from contemporary literature that angels were sometimes associated with all these things. A parallel condemnation is found in the Tosefta, where it is explicitly mentioned that sacrifices to the angel Michael are invalid. Rituals invoking angels for amulets may have involved sacrifice. Jewish laity may have seen this as acceptable because in Judges 6, Gideon offers a sacrifice to an angel as a test to prove it's divine status, which is accepted by the angel making the sacrifice be consumed by sudden magical fire. It is both historically and currently believed that good people have guardian angels. In the past, it was also believed that each person has a good angel and a bad angel assigned to them, or that good people have good angels and bad people have "angels of satan" ("satan" here used generically to refer to an ill intentioned person). These beliefs were also recorded in Rabbinic literature. There are also "evil angels" that generally punish misdeeds of a people. Angels historically were not understood to be "good" as an entire group, and "evil angels" were never equated to demons. There is no known evidence of God using demons (mazikin) as messengers or servants in scripture or ritual texts. These beliefs lead to the development of prayers to angels (such as those said before going to the bathroom), though people were cautioned not to pray in Aramaic. It is believed that angels do not understand Aramaic, though this was likely a practical measure to encourage prayer in Hebrew. There are multiple, slightly different beliefs about if angels have their own will, thoughts, and emotions. Some Jews think of angels as something like divine automatons. Some think that while angels cannot act directly against divine will, they may protest or have emotional reactions towards commands given by God. They especially may feel fondly for the mortals they are in charge of, and seek to protect them. There are also apocryphal writing where angels are depicted as able to disobey God, such as the Watchers, and more mainstream (but still not well known) stories of angels fulfilling orders, but doing so in a way that purposely circumvents the reason the order was given (such as Gabriel not completely burning Jerusalem). Angels in Rabbinic Judaism are usually understood as immune to sin or as lacking yetzer hara (evil inclination, something akin to a part of the soul in some traditions). Angels names often indicate what they have power over and when it is appropriate to invoke them. Raphael is one of the most well known, with a name that has connotations of healing. Another common example is 'Anael, who Late Antique Jews invoked as someone who listens to prayers and answers them (the verb '-n-h means "to answer" in Aramaic). 'Anael was also understood as being partial to women and especially responsive to them. Localized angels may have names like Nahariel ("nahar" for river) as well as more abstract concepts like Sadqiel ("justice"). == See also ==