ANGELS AREN’T TEAM PLAYERS by Rabbi Johnny Solomon If you ever watch young boys or girls play football (aka soccer), it is easy to determine the character of the player by the manner in which they play. Some children are natural team players. They are happy to pass the ball to their teammates; they make opportunities for their team to score and they celebrate with the same enthusiasm whether they or another teammate scores a goal. Other children, however, are not so team spirited. They will try and score even if they are poorly positioned, and will rarely pass the ball to others; and while they may rejoice when a teammate scores, they will probably be thinking that it should have been them scoring the goal instead. So here’s a question: Are angels team players? Do they work together to praise God, or are they like those children who don’t pass the ball? One of the most extraordinary statements I have ever read in the Talmud (1) teaches that ‘Israel are dearer to the Holy One than the ministering angels, for Israel sing praises to the Lord every hour, whereas the ministering angels sing praises but once a day.’ In trying to make sense of this claim, the Maharal (2) explains that each angel is responsible for a single element in the world, and since they only have reason to praise God when their element has been used for a positive purpose, they only praise God once a day. Conversely, humans are responsible not only for themselves, but also for all others in the world. Whenever there is reason to praise God, we do so. Simply put, while humans are team players and concern themselves with the successes of others, angels are not. Given this explanation, we can offer a deeper meaning to the famous dream of Yaakov (3) where he saw angels going up and down a ladder. While many have offered different suggestions as to the symbolism of this dream, I was deeply moved by the explanation given by Rabbi Shalom Mordechai Schwadron (3) who explains this dream in light of the Talmudic statement above. He writes that when we fulfil our obligations and thereby concern ourselves with not only ourselves but others too, we become greater than angels; but when we do not, we become inferior to angels. Angels look for opportunities to score goals while humans make opportunities for others to score goals too. By celebrating the successes of others, we become greater than angels because we increase the praise of God in the world. (1) Talmud Bavli, Chullin 91b (2) Chiddushei Aggadot, ibid. (3) Bereishit 28:12 (4) In his Torah commentary ‘Techelet Mordechai’ on Parshat Vayetze
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 21:39:01 +0000
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