Sermons

On the Subject of Angels
Erev Rosh HaShanah 5770
by Rabbi Sim Glaser

What do we really know about angels? Are they real?

I’ve been getting a lot of pop-ups on my computer recently and while I ignore most of them successfully, for some reason the picture of the remains of a mummified little fairy discovered in England caught my eye. Little hands and feet and wings and holding the wand and everything. I instantly believed it because it was on the internet so it has to be true, right? Just like the image of Jesus in the grilled cheese sandwich they found and someone sold on Ebay for 37,000 dollars. I almost changed religions when I saw that one!

So when I saw a “real” fairy I thought, wow, we can’t be far away from finding an angel encased in amber, and we’ll know they really exist once and for all.

Angels pop up in the Bible all over the place. Angels in disguise appear to Abraham and Sarah and tell them that they are going to have a child at the ages of 99 and 90 respectively. So we know that angels can be stand-up comics. Angels appear to Lot and his family and rescue them from the evil towns of Sodom and Gomorrah, and an angel appears to Hagar and saves her and her son Ishmael from dying of thirst in the wilderness, so we know that angels can be rescue workers. And in chapter 22 – which we read tomorrow morning, Akedat Yitzhak - an angel comes to the rescue at the very last moment and saves the life of Isaac! A very handy thing considering that there would otherwise have been no Jewish people after that.

Angels don’t get as much press as they probably could or should. Ever notice we Jews never put them on our holiday cards or as ornaments on the top of our Hanukkah bushes? (did I say something wrong?) Like, in Biblical times would we ever have read: "11th hour intervention by Angel saves Isaac's life!"

So children ask: Rabbi, do Jews believe in angels? And I answer: Well, look at all these stories in the Torah. I guess we do. For some that’s enough of an answer, but when they get older children want to know: where the angels are now? Do they still come to us in our time? Today? What do they look like? And what do they sound like? And that takes some more thinking.

Nowadays they don't come wearing wings and halos and playing harps like they used to in the books we read when we were children.

Jewish mysticism, or Kabbalah teaches that we do believe in angels, but they do not inhabit this world. They live in upper worlds that we can get to when we behave in certain ways. Angels are also curious creatures in that they also don’t have wills of their own. They don’t choose to do anything; they are simply messengers from God to us, and from us to God. They don’t just decide to come and visit. We energize them, we actually create them. This is why, in Jacob’s dream of the ladder reaching up to heaven, the angels are said to be going up and down. In that order. They are reporting to God what is going on down here and then coming down with a directive, a task for some earthbound creature like you and me to do. But they’re not doing it because they want to. They are messengers and that is their function. We give them the fuel, and then God gasses them up for the return trip.

Judaism also talks of good angels and bad angels. So we create those good angels when we choose to do mitzvoth, and we create dark angels when we behave poorly.

Tonight is special because it is Rosh Hashana and it is Shabbat. On Shabbat we sing:

Shalom aleichem, malachei hasharet, malachei Elyon
Shalom upon you, O ministering angels, angels of God on High

Some of you know that song. It was written way back in the 17th century for welcoming Shabbat, traditionally sung as the family gathers around the table on Friday night. According to the tradition, two ministering angels, one good and one bad, escort a person home from the synagogue on Shabbat eve. When he comes home and finds the candles lit, the table set, and the bed made, the good angel says, 'May it be God's will that it also be like this next Shabbat,' and the bad angel has to say 'Amen.' But if the house is not prepared for Shabbat, then the bad angel says, 'May it be God's will that it also be this way next Shabbat,' and the good angel has to say 'Amen.'

This is an interesting idea. Judaism doesn’t teach that angels are there granting us wishes. But we have direct connection with personal angels whom we can empower by our actions. If we ourselves are messengers of kindness and help, our good angel will offer the prayer that we should always be this way. And if we are not acting the way we should, the bad angels are saying a prayer that we should always be this way.

Having said this, I have to confess that angels call me regularly. They also email. They’ll say things like: did you know that George was in the hospital, or that Jean hasn’t felt much like living since her husband died? Or that Carol has dementia and she’s at Sholom Home and though she herself doesn’t have the memory to know who her rabbis are, or even what congregation she used to belong to, Rabbi, I think she’d love a visit. So I visit, and it turns out she did love the visit. How did the angel know?

And I walked alongside an angel one afternoon the streets of North Minneapolis to knock on doors and tell people, give them the message, that there were better times ahead for them and that they could improve on the housing deal they had. I didn’t want to necessarily go to some of those houses because I didn’t know who was going to answer the door and whether they would be suspicious of me hanging out in their front yard and knocking on their door. But the angel who accompanied me said: go ahead. Go and tell those people about this opportunity to get out of poverty. The more you do it, the more you’ll be likely to do it again. The more you ignore the problem, the more likely you will continue to ignore the problem.

Real angels are the people who help you do the right thing, because they make suggestions and when you do that right thing they celebrate you. They say amen. They say – may she always behave like this. They are like cheerleaders. I’ll bet everyone in this room has one or two.

They may be reporters who bring us stories of those in need. They may be our parents who say – look how sweet you were to your friends today – I hope you are always like that to your friends – Amen! They may be the folks who come and work in our Temple Shelter and smile at children who don’t see a lot of smiling.

We begin our Shabbat meal by singing the song that welcomes the invisible angels into our home so that we may realize that there are angels, all around us, who may be invisible, who may not like angels but who can be recognized by what they do.

Do Jews believe in angels? Of course - we do!

Each of us has the power to be an angel and to make this world a better place. Kindness and compassion are inherent qualities that exist in Angels and in us. Each one of us has the power to be a messenger of God and the strength to protect those who are less fortunate.

The Torah is full of Angeles - so is this room! This New Year we need to ask - Who needs our protection? Who needs our cheerleading? Who needs us to carry a message of hope to another in need?

You may be wondering, well, how do I power up those good angels? Where is the start switch? How do I log on to goodangels.org?

I’ll finish with the one story I know about an angel who actually did refuse to be God’s messenger. She had to appear before God’s throne and plead her case. “I’m not going to punish you,” God said, “but you do have to do something to make up for not being the messenger you were supposed to be. I want you to go into the physical world, the earth, and find for me the most precious thing in the world.

The angel was thrilled to have a second chance and she roamed the earth for many years and visited every country on the planet looking for the most precious thing in the world. She came upon a brave soldier who had fought bravely for his country and was dying. She took a drop of blood from the solider and quickly flew back to heaven.

“This is indeed a precious thing. Those who stand up and fight for what they believe in are very important to me, but return and search more.”

She came to a great city where there was an enormous hospital and in that hospital the angel saw one nurse who was taking care of over 100 patients. She was sweating and looked to the angel to be getting ill herself, but she did not stop working. The angel took caught some of the breath of this unselfish nurse and brought it back to heaven.

“This is very nice,” said God. And appropriate. One who gives all their strength to help another is very beautiful, but please, return and search again.

This time the angel was very confused and frustrated. What was God looking for? How could this angel become a good messenger? She was sitting in a forest when she saw a man with a sword and spear headed toward a small home where the angel knew lived the keeper of the forest. The angel guessed what was going on. This was a hunter whom the keeper of the forest had imprisoned for hunting where he was not supposed to. For months the hunter had plotted his revenge.

The hunter got off his horse, looked into the window of the hut, saw the mother putting their children to bed and saying their evening prayers. When he saw this, the hunter stopped, put down his weapons, and sat down. A tear rolled down his cheek, and the angel scooped it up flying faster than ever back to God’s throne room.

Now you have brought the most important message any of us can hear, said God. This is the tear of a person who did what even Angels cannot do. He changed his mind. He chose goodness over evil.” And to this, the angel said: “amen”.