Angle on Angels

Q)
Angels, what are they? what's their purpose and how did they come to be? Are they entirely spiritual or do they have some kind of physical form? Do they have souls? and finally what do they mean to me?

A)

The Jewish scriptures and other traditional works from the Talmud, Medrash and Kabbalah provide many insights into the nature of Angels or Malachim in Hebrew. Here is a digest.

Angels are creations of G-d, limited to the performance of 1 mission. This mission could be to offer praise to him in the higher worlds or to act as Hashem's messenger down in this world. They do not have a physical form, although they can appear in this world in the form of physical beings. Great example being the 3 angels that appeared to Avraham after his bris. They enclothed themselves within a physical form. Note that there were 3 Angels, would not 1 suffice? No! three Angels, three missions. Angels are not Souls. An angel although the loftiest form of creations are still created beings, created ex-nihilo (something from nothing). Souls on the other hand are "ELOKUS" G-dly or essentially divine. Meaning that souls always existed and will always exist. This is in direct contrast to most Angels. Once an Angel has fulfilled it's mission and purpose it ceases to exit. The Angel returns to the ether from where it was created from. Angels unlike humans don't have free choice. G-dliness is such a palpable reality to them that all free choice is stripped from them.

The descriptions of the Angels found in the Nevi'im/Prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah are metaphoric. They represent anthropomorphic characteristics of the particular type of Angels being described. For example ''wings''. Wings in Kabbalistic thought are often understood to refer to the 2 emotions of Love and fear of Hashem. It is these 2 emotions when aroused during prayer, Torah study and Mitzvah observance that lend "wings" to these acts of divine service and send them soaring aloft to the higher worlds to generate a corresponding elicitation of love from Hashem himself down into this world and upon us.

What do Angels mean to me?

To quote a saying of our sages, " When a person does a Mitzvah an Angel is created as his defending representative on the day of judgment after death the opposite is true when she commits an aveirah/sin."

Furthermore, the study and familiarization of the ways in which the different Angels serve Hashem can be totally inspiring. To read of their purest intentions and learn about their unadulterated emotional experiences of Love, fear and awe of Hashem motivate us to be more enthusiastic in our Mitzvah observance and study of Torah.

Hope this sheds some light on he subject, thanks for asking.

For an excellent treatment of this subject in more detail click here