How Angels look

B"H

One of my German readers asked me the following question:

What do ANGELS look like ?

My answer to this question only comprises the Jewish point of view ! 

Generally speaking, many famous Rabbis such as the Baal Shem Tov or the Rambam do not consider the angels as independent entities but as a symbolic expression of the different powers and actions of G - d. Thus angels do not exist individually but are rather part of G - d's inner being. 

The Talmud condemns human made images of angels as idol - worship. We are not allowed to draw or create any shape or form of an angel. As a result of that, people may be tempted to worship and angel and thus get involved into idol - worship.

A contradiction could be that  two Cheruvim were placed on top of the Ark (Aron HaKodesh). I once heard that, in this case, there exists a special explanation why those two angels were put onto the Ark. However, I haven't really dealt with the subject yet but, as far as I remember, Masechet Bava Batra brings up various explanations on the Cheruvim. 

A few further articles on the subject:

 http://shearim.blogspot.co.il/search/label/Angels

Cheruvim at the Gate to Gan Eden

B"H

It must have been in a certain Midrash or in one of the ZOHAR editions where I once read that the Cheruvim guard the entrance to Gan Eden (Paradise). When a Jew dies and his soul goes up, he may get to the entrance of Gan Eden where he has to pass the Cheruvim. Those angels may have children's faces but are actually the "Angels of Destruction". 

What do you do in order to pass those Cheruvim ?

It doesn't matter how important you were in this world and how much money you had. Those angels look into your soul and let you in according to what they see.

"Sefer Brit Menucha" on the "Tower of Bavel"

B"H

This Shabbat is "Shabbat Noach" where we read about about Noach, his generation and the Flood (Mabul). Many Jews still discuss whether Noach was a righteous person (Zaddik), as he obviously hadn't warned his generation that G - d was to bring about a Flood. According to Talmud Sanhedrin, Noach had warned his generation but got fed up, as people called him an old fool. After a while, Noach stopped warning others and continued silently with building the ark.

Many times, Noach is compared to Avraham. Why was Noach called "Zaddik" and was he a real "Zaddik" when we compare him to Avraham.
However, I think that we have to look at the times. Noach definitely was a Zaddik in his generation because he didn't associate with all the evil behaviour of his environment. This may sound so easy but it isn't. Especially not when you are the only one showing some moral in a completely corrupt society where people love about you.

Studying Parashat Noach is anything but easy, as there is plenty of Kabbalah, incl. soul reincarnation, involved.

Also part of Parashat Noach is the story of the "Tower of Bavel - Migdal Bavel". There are people who overlook the deep meaning of the story with Nimrod and his Tower. Okay, the people built a tower and G - d caused a mess with the languages, so what ?

What is fascinating is that there are countless of kabbalistic explanations when it comes to Nimrod and the Tower. Also here we find different soul reincarnations and their purposes. The people building the tower were split into a few groups with different purposes. Some were still scared after they heard about Noach's Flood. They wanted to sin but nothing being afraid of G - d's punishment. Others wanted to fight G - d and kill him.

The kabbalistic book "Sefer Brit Menucha" deals with the names of the angels and their tasks. The book is extremely hard to understand. If ever !
I bought it and I am still struggeling. Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote a commentary on the book but after going through his book I learnt that his commentary is even worse to understand than "Brit Menucha" itself.

At the end of the book, its author, Rabbi Avraham of Rimon, describes the angel world of the Tower of Bavel. How Nimrod was able to influence the angel world and almost got them to the point where they followed his will. At this point, G - d hat to act !

Rabbi Avraham doesn't tell us too much about what was going on outside the Tower but rather what was going on INSIDE. How offerings influenced angels and about Nimrod's magic powers.

Today we like to think that those old generations were mayby foolish. Look at us today ! If Nimrod came along, he would laugh about our lacking intelligence !


The entire "Brit Menucha" on PDF:

http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=31194&st=&pgnum=1&hilite==