We Are Never Alone

In one of the closing episodes of Parshat Mishpatim, we are presented with a dilemma. In it, God promises Moshe that an angel will accompany the children of Israel on the continuation of their journey through the desert:

I am sending before you an angel (malakh) to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place that I have made ready. Pay heed to him and obey him. Do not defy him, for he will not pardon your offences, since My name is within him; but if you obey him and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes… (Exodus 23:20-22)

This promise, however, seemingly contradicts a previous divine promise made to Moshe:

I (God) have come down to rescue it (the children of Israel) from the hand of Egypt and to bring it from the land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…. (Exodus 3:8)

This “downgrade” from being God-guided to being angel-led perplexed the sages and inspired attempts to try to reconcile this perceived discrepancy. In one rabbinic midrash, it was turned into a tense, dramatic debate between Moshe and God with some religiously provocative results:

Moshe said to Him (God): ‘Are You sending an angel with me? Were these the terms? Didn’t You say: “I have come down to rescue it from the hand of Egypt and to bring it up from that land [to a good and spacious land]” (Exodus 3:8), and now You say: “Behold, I am sending an angel before you” (Exodus 23:30)? “If Your presence does not go, do not take us up from here”’ (Exodus 33:15). [God] said to him: “For I will not ascend in your midst” (Exodus 33:3). Moshe said: ‘You said angel, and I say: “If Your presence does not go,” let us see whose words will stand’; that is what is written: “Moshe said to the Lord: See, You (God) say to me: [Take this people up, but You did not inform me whom You will send with me]” (Exodus 33:12). The Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘As you live, “My Presence will go, and I will give you rest”’ (Exodus 33:14). The Divine Spirit cries out: “Since the king’s rule is in his word, [who will say to him: What are you doing?] One who observes a mitzva will know no evil matter” (Ecclesiastes 8:4–5). (Shemot Rabbah 32:8)

This intense dialogue between Moshe and God was finally resolved with an incredible quotation and interpretation of two verses from the book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) of all places. According to the pshat or plain meaning of the first verse, it is to be read as a rhetorical question emphasizing the absolute nature of the rulings of kings, while the second verse asserts that only by obeying the king will a subject be safe and secure.

This midrash, radically reinterprets these verses, giving them an entirely different meaning. For the midrash, the first verse is read as a question: Who can say to him (God), what are you doing? The second verse is then turned into an answer to this question, asserting that God allows those who observe the mitzvot (commandments) to overrule his divine decrees! Consequently, Moshe, as the master of mitzvot, ultimately won out in his debate with God, causing God to accede to personally lead the people into the land! The bottom-line message of this midrash speaks of the theurgic power (the power to influence God) of the observance of God’s commandments.

In a similar but more radical message, the Sfat Emet, Rabbi Yehudah Arye Leib Alter (the third Gerer Rebbe, 19^th-20^th century Poland), redefines exactly what is meant by “malakh (mem, lamed,alef, kaf) – angel”, by comparing it to the word – malakha (mem, lamed, alef, kaf, hey):

Regarding days of the week when work is done, it is written: “Six days you shall labor” (Exodus 20:25), namely, do work (malakha – mem lamed alef, kaf hey). And even so, there is holiness hidden also in real labor and it is as if it (our labor) was a malakh (an angel) and a messenger, for all things [in the world] have a life force [given] from God may He be blessed and were sent into the world in order to do God’s will, for there are mitzvot in all human acts. It is just that they are garbed in this-worldly-matters and need more careful guardianship… Only it is necessary to know that this is also the [product of the divine lifeforce for My (God’s) name is within them and they [too] serve God…  (adapted from Sefat Emet Mishpatim 5631, Or Etzion ed. p. 218)

The essence of this message is that all of our acts as human beings have the potential to make us God’s angels since the essence of God is to be found in all of God’s creations. Or, in other words, when we carry out God’s will by making God’s world more “God filled”, everything we do brings God into our presence and, in doing so, we are never left alone.