Malachim Demystified

Title: Electrifying Torah Insights About Angels

By Rabbi Yehoshua Alt

184 pages

Rabbi Yehoshua Alt’s latest book, Electrifying Torah Insights about Angels, opens a window for the Jewish reading public into one of the Torah’s fascinating yet often overlooked subjects: malachim.Inspired by what he saw as a largely unexplored area, Rabbi Alt – a prolific writer and lecturer, and a student of Rabbi Mordechai Friedlander’s, zt”l – set out to make the world of angels accessible, coherent, and relevant to everyday Jewish life in this comprehensive treatment of the topic.

A malach is not a winged figure of folklore, but a spiritual being created solely to carry out Hashem’s will. The very word for angel, malach, is related to melacha (task), and malei (to be full or complete, or to fulfill). A malach exists only to fulfill its mission – and once that mission is complete, the malach ceases to exist. This is demonstrated by the angels who were sent to Avraham Avinu to heal him, to announce the birth of Yitzchak, and to destroy Sedom. Each angel had one assignment and nothing more (Bereishis chapters 17-18).

One of the book’s themes is that not all malachim are alike. Some are appointed to specific roles in Creation, such as directing grass to grow (see Bereishis Rabba 10:6). Others are created through human action (Avos 4:13). Every mitzvah we perform generates a malach. Conversely, destructive forces can also be created through wrongdoing. While the topic is complex, the book presents it with clarity, guiding the reader through a subject long shrouded in mystery.

Unlike other works that address areas of life we interact with daily, the study of malachim introduces us to a concealed realm. Yet this hidden world can strengthen our emunah. Malachim exist whether we see them or not, just as Hashem is present even when His presence seems concealed. By learning about angels, the reader gains a deeper awareness that nothing in life is random and that Divine guidance is always at work.

Rabbi Alt shows how malachim are involved in daily life in very real ways. Citing Rabbi Aharon Roth (1894-1947) in his sefer Shomer Emunim, he explains that when a sick person is healed, it is not the doctor who brings about the recovery. Rather, Hashem sends an angel to assist the doctor. The physician is the physical vessel; the angel is the spiritual agent carrying out the refuah. The caliber of the doctor reflects the stature of the angel working through him.

This idea sheds light on the practice encouraged by the Belzer Rebbe to seek out the best doctors – not merely for their expertise, but because of the greatness of the angel that accompanies the doctor, which draws down a higher channel of healing. Angels, Rabbi Alt demonstrates, are not distant abstractions; they are actively involved in the unfolding of our lives.

In the chapter entitled “Malachim in Motion,” Rabbi Alt quotes Rashi’s explanation of “Vayishlach Yaakov malachim” to mean that Yaakov sent “malachim mamash,” actual angels (Bereishis 32:4) to Esav. What does the word “mamash” come to tell us when the pasuk already told us that Yaakov sent angels to Esav?

One explanation is based on the fact that there are malachim created from the performance of mitzvos, and these were that kind of angels. Rabbi Meir of Premishlan enlightens us that the word mamash can be read as an acronym for malchaim mi’mitzvos she’asa – angels formed from the mitzvos he performed.

Another interpretation of “malachim mamash” focuses on the word mamash as meaning substance or reality. The more devotion and passion a person invests in performing a mitzvah, the more complete and perfected the malach that he creates from it becomes. Conversely, the less passion a person has while performing a mitzvah, the more defective the malach. A mitzvah performed with devotion creates a malach of real substance. Yaakov, who performed the mitzvos with total dedication, produced angels of extraordinary strength.

The book also includes electrifying stories that bring these ideas to life. Rabbi Eliyahu Dovid Rabnowitz-Teumim and his brother Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda shared a story in the name of Rabbi Avraham, the Vilna Gaon’s brother. When Ravina and Rav Ashi completed the Talmud Bavli, they sent it to the Mesivta D’rakiya, the Heavenly Yeshiva, to be approved as Torah She’be’al Peh, the Oral Law. The word Gemara serves as an acronym for the four angels who signed off on this status: Gavriel, Michoel, Refael and Uriel.

Rabbi Alt shares another story involving a woman who was walking home alone late on a Friday night through a deserted area after having visited her sick sister in the hospital. Feeling frightened, the woman began saying the passage from Krias Shema al HaMitah which includes the text: “May Michoel be at my right, Gavriel at my left, Uriel before me, and Refael behind me, and above my head, the Presence of Hashem.” She continued repeating this passage until she felt calm. Meanwhile, as she was walking and saying these words, the police arrested a man who had been hiding behind a nearby bush. The man was an escaped convict whom the police had been searching for. He had been following the woman for quite a while. When asked why he did not assault the woman, the man responded that suddenly there were four men who were accompanying her and he was waiting for them to leave. These “men” were the very angels she had invoked: Michoel, Gavriel, Uriel, and Refael.