Angelology

This week’s Torah portion is Terumah, which means portion or contribution. Terumah contains the request for the Israelites to give a freewill offering of materials needed for the construction of the Tabernacle, the portable site of worship and sacrifice that the Israelites carried with them in the wilderness, and also the instructions for building it. The Tabernacle, which many of us saw a reproduction of last year on our trip to Lancaster, PA, was a large rectangle comprised of posts and lace hangings. In the rectangle was an altar for sacrifice and a large bowl for washing. At the center rear of the Tabernacle was the Tent of Meeting. In the front of the tent was the incense altar, menorah, and a baker’s rack, called the table, holding 12 loaves of bread. A curtain partitioned the tent into two sections. Behind the curtain was the ark of the Covenant, in which were placed the stone tablets of the Ten commandments. The ark was a box covered inside and outside with gold, and had a crown around it. The ark cover was also made of gold. The Torah says of the ark cover, “You shall make two cherubim of gold, beaten, from both the ends of the lid…at its two ends. The cherubim shall be with wings spread upward, sheltering the lid with their wings with their faces toward one another, toward the lid shall be the faces of the cherubim.” And a sentence later, “I shall speak with you from atop the lid from between the two cherubim.” It seems strange that there should be a commandment to make representations of angels on the ark, especially because in the 10 Commandments, we are specifically prohibited from fashioning a likeness of anything, to worship it. In exploring the symbolism of angels and investigating what the cherubim might be trying to tell us, we might first ask, what are angels and are they real? We have spoken previously about angels – called malachim or messengers: those who visited Abraham and Sarah to tell them they would have a child; the angels who spoke to Abraham and saved Isaac from being sacrificed; and the angel who wrestled with Jacob before his reunion with Esau. The word for angels in this week’s portion is not malachim, messengers, but Cherubim. Nachmanides, cites the Talmud in saying that the word cherubim may come from the word that means lads, in which case k’rabim means “like lads.” So the cherubim were to look like children and Rashi comments, “they each had the image of a child’s face.” Angels then, must be something real, but surely they are not children. However they may be like children in certain ways. Children come from their parents, as energies come from God. We are like God in that children and energies come from us. Children, we know are pure, but are also bordering on the amoral: they have little natural sense of right and wrong, but can be educated and led to goodness. Martin Buber sheds light on the nature of angels when he writes in the Legend of the Baal Shem Tov, “From every deed an angel is born, a good angel or a bad one. But from half hearted or confused deeds which are without meaning and without power angels are born with twisted limbs or without a head or hands or feet. These teachings lead to the conclusion that angels are a personification of energies from us and from God, that accomplish things. When we work to accomplish things for the sake of Heaven, as is said in the Talmud’s Pirkei Avot, we work with God’s cosmic energies. And the converse, when we act selfishly or with confused intentions, our deeds sprout energies that can be ineffectual or even destructive.
There is a Kabbalistic tradition that we are protected by four angels below, while the Shechinah, God’s Eternal Presence, hovers above; Michael on our right, from the words, Who is like God; Gabriel on our left, from the words, God’s Power, Uriel ahead of us, from God‘s Light, and Raphael behind us, from God’s Healer. Michael according to Rabbi’s Gelberman’s book Physician of the Soul, is the angel of protection and balance; Gabriel the angel of Hope, Illumination, and Love, Uriel the angel of vision, leading us to God, and Raphael, the healer. The childlike faces of the angels and their wings remind us of God’s protection. There is that vulnerable place in us that always remains childlike and pure, and that place is precious to God. It is a part of us that trusts; that knows that a Divine Parent will always care for us, nurture us, and help us by making sure that we are fed, clothed, housed, and loved. The Faces of the cherubim remind us that it is through that vulnerability that we may approach God. When we identify our inner purity with our childlike nature that adores and is excited about life, that loves everyone without distinctions, and lives every day in joy, we attach ourselves to the Ultimate Purity and Simplicity of the Eternal Presence. Then we can touch our inner holiness, our inner reverence, and feel our connection with the Divine. When we approach God with our childlike nature, we allow God to speak to our highest selves, directly to our hearts, as it was written, I shall speak to you from between the two cherubim. May our deeds sprout beautiful angels//: like Michael, angels of trust that we are safe in the Universe, like Gabriel, angels of merciful justice and understanding, like Uriel, angels of light, and like Raphael, angels to heal the divisions between us and our brothers and sisters, and between us and the Divine Presence. May the angels we create spread goodness and shelter us; and may our faces always be turned to each other in love.

How High?

This week’s Torah portion is Mishpatim, which means ordinances or statutes. It contains a code of civil law that directly follows the giving of the 10 Commandments, and includes rules governing such areas as slavery, theft, accidental and intentional murder, negligence, and many other subjects. The 10 Commandments, heard in last week’s portion, are the minimum laws that God asks us and expects us to keep. But we know there are 613 commandments in the Torah, and in Mishpatim alone we find more than 50 commandments. How are we to regard this long list of obligations, some of which are as meaningful today as they were 3,000 years ago, such as you shall not taunt or oppress a stranger, and some that are antiquated, such as the laws pertaining to slavery and sacrifice?
There is a statement in this Torah portion, “People of holiness shall you be to me.” It indicates that the 10 Commandments are a start for becoming an ethical and holy people, but that they are only a beginning. The S’fat Emet speaks of straightening our paths; and King Solomon, in Ecclestiastes, wrote, God made man upright or straight; (but they have sought out many schemes7:29) but we know that we are not upright. In looking back over our lives each of us can recall things we did that we shouldn’t have done, things we did in the past that we would not longer do; how we failed to live up to our own standards or intentions. The rules of the 10 Commandments help us to live lives that are straight, to walk in God’s ways, as in the Psalmist’s claim, “All the paths of God are straight.” But we need more straightening. Life presents us with constant tests and opportunities to choose the even straighter over the not so straight; and in this the additional laws of the Torah are exceedingly helpful. Our sages taught that all the rungs of perfection already exist in us. If we go about setting right our actions they allow us to ascend the ladder higher and to straighten our lives even more. And there is no limit to how high we can ascend. However the is a correct way to ascend and an incorrect way. The Chassidic sage, the Kotzker Rebbe said, in effect, be holy because God wants Holiness on earth. The laws in Mishpatim all deal with real life on earth, with interactions between people. Even in the 10 commandments, of which there are only really 9, the first being a statement, I am God, and not a command: of the 9 Commandments only 3 deal with the relationship between people. In other words, they are laws for society. Our sages taught that it is of greater merit to repair our relationship with our fellow human beings than with God, and the Torah certainly reinforces that interpretation. Possibly it is more meritorious because making peace between people is harder than making peace with the Creator. But the irony of repairing our human relationships is that it must be for the sake of heaven and not only for ourselves. Everything we do to another person we do to ourselves and we do to God. Every YOU is really me. Every THEY is really us. It is all really God. It is circular and it is all One. We cannot help becoming better people by being better to each other, which helps us to draw closer to God. As we draw closer to God we also become kinder to each other. The pathway we choose, deeds or study, community or communion with the Divine, lead to the same result, if done correctly, that is, with good intentions. The Torah’s statutes are there to create a harmonious society and help us to climb a little higher, should we wish to do so. The S’fat Emet said that the quotation, “A people of holiness shall you be to me,” is not only a command but a promise. God promised us that we should and could reach the level of holiness that was given to us as our birthright and also as a sacred trust. The Divine Presence revealed the rules in Mishpatim to ensure that our innate holiness would one day be realized. It is there, waiting for us to discover it, to embrace it, and to choose it in our daily lives. May we climb the rungs of holiness that we find within us, and may the ascent expand our ability to dwell in the dimension of the holy.