Angels? Shabbat Vayetze 5777

(10) Jacob left Beer-sheba, and set out for Haran. (11) He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. (12) He had a dream; a stairway was set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it.

(1) Early in the morning, Laban kissed his sons and daughters and bade them good-by; then Laban left on his journey homeward. (2) Jacob went on his way, and angels of God encountered him. (3) When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp.” So he named that place Mahanaim.

(7) An angel of the LORD found her (Hagar) by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the road to Shur....

(11)The angel of the LORD said to her further, “Behold, you are with child And shall bear a son; You shall call him Ishmael, For the LORD has paid heed to your suffering.

(1) The two angels arrived in Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to greet them ...

9)... they (the men of Sodom) pressed hard against the person of Lot, and moved forward to break the door. (10) But the men stretched out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. (11) And the people who were at the entrance of the house, young and old, they struck with blinding light, so that they were helpless to find the entrance. (12) Then the men said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? Sons-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else that you have in the city—bring them out of the place. (13) For we are about to destroy this place; because the outcry against them before the LORD has become so great that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.”

(22) But God was incensed at his (Balaam's) going; so an angel of the LORD placed himself in his way as an adversary...

(23) when the ass caught sight of the angel of the LORD standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. The ass swerved from the road and went into the fields; and Balaam beat the ass to turn her back onto the road.

(15) Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “Let us detain you and prepare a kid for you.” (16) But the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I shall not eat your food; and if you present a burnt offering, offer it to LORD.”—For Manoah did not know that he was an angel of the LORD. (17) So Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name? We should like to honor you when your words come true.” (18) The angel said to him, “You must not ask for my name; it is unknowable!” (19) Manoah took the kid and the meal offering and offered them up on the rock to the LORD; and a marvelous thing happened while Manoah and his wife looked on. (20) As the flames leaped up from the altar toward the sky, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flames of the altar, while Manoah and his wife looked on; and they flung themselves on their faces to the ground.—

(1) Satan arose against Israel and incited David to number Israel... (14) The LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel, and 70,000 men fell in Israel. (15) God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was about to wreak destruction, the LORD saw and renounced further punishment and said to the destroying angel, “Enough! Stay your hand!” The angel of the LORD was then standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. (16) David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand directed against Jerusalem. David and the elders, covered in sackcloth, threw themselves on their faces. (18) The angel of the LORD told Gad to inform David that David should go and set up an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. (19) David went up, following Gad’s instructions, which he had delivered in the name of the LORD. (20) Ornan too saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves while Ornan kept on threshing wheat... (26) And David built there an altar to the LORD and sacrificed burnt offerings and offerings of well-being. He invoked the LORD, who answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offerings. (27) The LORD ordered the angel to return his sword to its sheath.

(5) He (Elijah) lay down and fell asleep under a broom bush. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” (6) He looked about; and there, beside his head, was a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water! He ate and drank, and lay down again. (7) The angel of the LORD came a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.” (8) He arose and ate and drank; and with the strength from that meal he walked forty days and forty nights as far as the mountain of God at Horeb.

(1) As for the existence of angels, there is no necessity to cite any proof from Scripture, where the fact is frequently mentioned.

(2) We have already stated above that the angels are incorporeal. This agrees with the opinion of Aristotle: there is only this difference in the names employed--he uses the term "Intelligences," and we say instead "angels." ... But "angel" means "messenger"; hence every one that is entrusted with a certain mission is an angel.

The elements are also called angels. ... It is also used of ideals, perceived by prophets in prophetic visions, and of man's animal powers, as will be explained in another place.

(4) We have already stated that the forms in which angels appear form part of the prophetic vision. Some prophets see angels in the form of man, others perceive an angel as a fearful and terrible being, others see them as fire,

Another passage in Bereshit Rabba (ibid.) runs thus: "Before the angels have accomplished their task they are called men, when they have accomplished it they are angels."