Q. Does Judaism believe in angels?

A. What do you mean by "believe"? Judaism always believed that angels existed, though there were objections to praying to them or regarding them as middle-men between God and human beings. The angel, as the Hebrew name "malach" implies, is merely a messenger or agent of the Almighty.

God sent an angel to find Hagar in distress in the desert (Gen. 16:7). He sent an angel to stop Abraham sacrificing his son (Gen. 22). God's angels accompanied Jacob on his wanderings and the Children of Israel on their way to the Promised Land. Angels do not need to have quasi-human characteristics; the forces of nature (the wind, the fire, etc.) also act as God's messengers (Psalm 104:4). At no stage are the angels independent of God, nor, despite some folklore, can they rebel against Him. The well known story that God had to stop the angels from singing when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea is not an indication that angels can disobey but that they sometimes act with an excess of enthusiasm.

In post-Biblical Judaism some groups elevated the angels and thought of them as higher than mortals. The classical philosophers promptly downgraded them. Maimonides argued that man was a higher being in that he had the capacity to perfect himself and to rise closer to God intellectually.

The Kabbalists, however, restored status to the angels and ascribed to them an important influence on earthly events. Some of the popular meditations in the Siddur, introduced in kabbalistic circles, mention angels with great respect. More rationalistic schools of thought regard these references as poetry and colourful imagery. They accept that God can and does utilise many methods of governing the world and there are many forces that influence human character and conduct; all of these are "angels" in a metaphorical sense.


BAR-MITZVAH - IT GREW ON US

Q. In a recent answer you criticised current Bar-Mitzvah procedure. But are not Maftir and Haftarah obligatory?

A. The answer is no. Nowhere in the Bible is there any reference to Bar-Mitzvah or to a Bar-Mitzvah ceremony. The name appears in rabbinic literature in relation to any Jewish adult male obliged to observe the laws of the Torah. This obligation begins at 13; Pirkei Avot 5:24 says, "At 13 (the age is reached) for the fulfilment of the commandments." The Midrash acknowledges that 13 is usually the age when one is mature enough to make decisions (for girls the age is 12); thus at 13 Esau opted for idolatry and Jacob for Torah (Gen. R. 63:14).

Not until about the 8th century was there a form of ceremony to mark the age of 13; the late tractate Sof'rim (18:5) states that a boy of 13 is taken to the elders for a blessing and a prayer that he may merit to learn Torah and do good deeds. One version of this passage actually calls the boy a Bar-Mitzvah. By the 14th century in Germany there was an accepted Bar-Mitzvah ritual; the Shulchan Aruch takes it for granted that a Bar-Mitzvah is called to the Torah and there is a festive meal and a discourse (Orach Chayyim 282; Magen Avraham ad loc.). But there is no absolute requirement that when a Bar-Mitzvah is called to the Torah he should read Maftir and Haftarah, and this is not the universal custom.

In my view, as my earlier answer indicated, it takes so much time and effort for most boys to learn Maftir and Haftarah that the time would be better spent in getting the boy thinking about Judaism as a whole and preparing a D'var Torah that gives voice to his own thinking.


THE LEVIRITE MARRIAGE

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Shabbat Shalom!