Tuesday, July 24, 2012

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:

3 comments:

  1. All angels look like Tom Selleck and Chuck Norris as "Walker Texas Ranger." Just kidding.

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  2. B"H

    I thought it would be Michael Landon playing the part of an angel in a series back in the golden 80ies.:-)

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  3. B"H

    By the way, I am going to put together a second part dealing with Talmud Bava Batra and the statements about the Cheruvim on the Ark !!!

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