LIFE AND LITERATURE from page 91
and sin which can be combated with
our capacity for good, given to us by
God.
•HAGAR — The Egyptian maid of
Abraham, Hagar was twice expelled by
Abraham's wife Sarah. On both occa-
sions, when Hagar feels the most help-
less, angels appear- to her out of the
wilderness. They are ambassadors of
God, bringing to her messages of
hope. In this story, angels exemplify
the good in a person's heart if that
heart is open to them.
•ABRAHAM — Perhaps one of the
most well-known angelic visitations in
the Torah is when Abraham's faith in
God is tested. On Mount Moriah he
binds his son Isaac to an altar to be
sacrificed. When he raises his knife to
strike, an angel intercedes, saying to
him, "Abraham! Abraham ... Do not
raise your hand against the boy ... For
now I know that you fear God, since
you have not withheld your son, your
favored one over Me." (Genesis 22:11-
12)
Here, through an angel, God con-
veys one of His most important
lessons, that no killing should ever be
done in His' name.
•JACOB — Dreams haunt the trou-
bled Jacob who was forced into exile
by his twin brother, Esau. In the
dream, Jacob sees a ladder that reaches
into the sky and angels of God are
going up and down it. He also sees
God who assures Jacob that He has
not left him and will fulfill the
covenant He has made with Abraham
and Isaac.
What is drawn from this tale is the
central theme of angels ascending and
descending the ladder between heaven
and earth. No matter how low on the
ladder of life you are, you are still in
the company of angels.
Later in the Torah, Jacob is sudden-
ly wrestling with a stranger until day-
break. Jacob's hip is wrenched by,the
man who then asks, "What is your
name?" He replies, "Jacob." Said he,
"Your name shall no longer be Jacob,
but Israel, for you have striven with
beings divine and human and have
prevailed." (Genesis 32:25-29)
In rabbinic literature, the man is
identified as the angel Gabriel who, by
sparring with Jacob, prepares him for
greater trial to come.
•MOSES — A bush that burns with
fire but is not consumed by it piques
Moses' curiosity. The fire is an angel of
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God who calls Moses' attention to the
voice of God who tells him of his des-
tiny. The burning bush reinforces the
monotheistic faith that God is intangi-
ble and invisible. His voice can be
heard, but He can never be seen. The
angel here mirrors the angel in the
Hagar story as a spiritual entity that
serves God.
•ENOCH — In Genesis 5:21-24,
Enoch is mysteriously brought into
heaven by God. The Apocrypha books
of Enoch describe Enoch's ascendence
into heaven and his transformation
into the fiery angel Metatron, who
ministers a variety of duties including
holding the keys to the mysteries of
the divine and watching over the
guardian angels.
The Zohar, as well, describes Enoch-
Metatron's heavenly existence. When
Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden,
his divine spark was forfeited and so it
entered Enoch, enabling him to attain
the spiritual perfection Adam could not.
In the mystical numerology of
gematria, Metatron's name is equiva-
lent to Shaddai, one of the several
descriptions of God. And later schol-
ars believe Metatron to be the embod-
iment of the ideal combination
between human and angel and a
metaphor for man's ultimate purpose:
to gather the angels within each of us.
•MICHAEL — Michael is consid-
ered by most to be the angel-in-chief,
the head of the entire angelic body. In
3 Baruch of the Pseudepigrapha,
Michael holds the keys to the king-
dom of heaven. In other literature, he
is also the intermediary between man's
prayers and God.
•RAPHAEL - Little is written of
Raphael, though he is well known as a
healing angel, his Hebrew name
meaning "Heal me, 0 God!"
In one story, a charitable and kind
man named Tobit had his property
confiscated and went blind in a
strange mishap. On the brink of sui-
cide, he prayed to God to end his life.
Raphael interceded with God to heal
Tobit's blindness.
•GABRIEL — As Michael embodies
mercy and Raphael embodies love, it
is Gabriel who embodies courage. It
was Gabriel who fortified Enoch's
resolve when he was transformed into
an angel and feared the face of God.
And again it was Gabriel who wrestled
with Jacob to strengthen him for his
encounter with his brother Esau.
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