Shabbat Parashas Vayishlach - 5783

Shabbat Parashas Vayishlach - 5783

Rabbi Hal Miller And Yaakov sent malachim before him to Eisav his brother to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. [Bereshit 32:4] Malachim literally means messengers, but is often used to refer to the messengers of God, meaning angels. Rashi here writes, "literally angels". Onkelos, Ibn Ezra, Radak, Rav Hirsch, Ramban and others say it means mortal messengers rather than angels. What is the difference? At the end of the portion last week, [32:2] says "Yaakov went on his way and angels of God encountered him." There, clearly, malachim refers to angels. Why would it not be the same two verses later? Then in [32:7], "the malachim returned to Yaakov saying, 'we came to your brother, to Eisav and he is heading toward you with four hundred men'." Any messengers, mortal or Divine, could bring such a message, but then Yaakov decides to divide his camp and pray, asking in [32:12], "Rescue me, please, from the hand of my brother." Is he there speaking directly to God, or to these malachim? If they were mortal, why would he do that? Thus they must be, as Rashi says, "literally angels". Rav Soloveitchik brings the verse in Bamidbar, "And Moshe sent malachim from Kadesh to the king of Edom" and points out that there it does not use the word l'fanav, "before him". Yaakov sent malachim directly in front of him to guide him, something mortal messengers would not be able to do, thus they were angels. So what are the other commentators arguing about? Ramban points at the next verse, [32:5] and reads it, "Thus shall you say, 'To my lord Eisav, so said your servant Yaakov'" meaning that the messengers were to refer to Eisav as their 'lord', which would not apply if they were angels. Rambam considers the event a dream and Yaakov would not send actual angels pursuant to a dream. Onkelos looks at the context of [32:2] and our verse, that the earlier one has the malachim sent from God, while here they are sent by Yaakov, thus must be humans. Bereishit Rabbah [75:4] brings many proofs that they might be angels, but ends up concluding, "These were none but human messengers." Rav Moshe Feinstein asks why Yaakov might send angels when he could just as well send human messengers, "since one who benefits from a miracle pays for it by losing merits that would otherwise have increased his reward in the World to Come." He adds that Yaakov's faith was such that he was no more impressed by a miracle than he was by a seemingly natural occurrence, so did not need Divine messengers. This implies that Eisav might have been more impressed since his faith was nowhere near as complete as Yaakov's, in which case angels might do a more thorough job. But Eisav in fact had little to no faith, and would not have been impressed by anything other than the natural, so sending angels would have been a waste, possibly even counterproductive. Yaakov sent humans because Eisav would not understand anything else. Who we send depends both on the message to be conveyed and the tendencies of the one to receive it. Good lesson for communication in general.