Do We Have Guardian Angels?

Who were the three visitors who came to Avraham (Abraham)?

Our parashah has more angels in it than any other. Three visitors come to Avraham’s tent. Two of them go on to Sodom. An angel calls to Hagar in the desert. And on Mount Moriah, “the angel of Hashem called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham” (Genesis 22:11).

But look at how the Torah first describes the three visitors: “lo, three men stood by him” (18:2). In Sodom, it calls two of them malachim (19:1). That Hebrew word means “messengers.” It can mean angels, and it can also mean people sent with a message (Numbers 20:14). So Jewish teachers have read this story in different ways:

• Angels who looked like men and really ate. The Torah says, “and they did eat” (18:8; 19:3). The Zohar agrees. It says angels “clothe themselves in air” when they come down to this world, and that they really ate, like fire that burns up fire (Zohar I:101a, 102a). An old midrash says, “Anyone who says the angels did not eat with Avraham has said nothing” (Tanna de-Vei Eliyahu Rabbah 12). This is how we read it in our shiur When Angels Fell.
• Angels who only seemed to eat. This is the Talmud’s view (Bava Metzia 86b). It is not how we read the verse, but it is an old and respected opinion.
• A vision. The Rambam taught that angels have no bodies at all, so Avraham must have seen the whole scene in a prophetic vision (Guide for the Perplexed 2:42). The Ramban strongly disagreed. He wrote that this idea goes against the plain words of the Torah (Ramban on Genesis 18:1). We side with the Ramban here.
• Men. Some say they were simply men, messengers sent by Hashem, just as the Torah first calls them.

The Talmud even gives them names. Michael came to tell Sarah she would have a son. Rafael came to heal Avraham after his circumcision. Gavriel came to overturn Sodom (Bava Metzia 86b). Why three? The Midrash says one angel is never given two jobs at once (Bereshit Rabbah 50:2; Rashi on 18:2).

So let’s ask the questions people really ask about angels. What are they? What did they do in the Bible? Are they with us now? Should we pray to them? Do we become angels when we die? And what will they do at the end of days?

What is an angel?

In Hebrew, an angel is a messenger, someone sent to do a job. The Psalm says, “Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire” (Psalm 104:4).

The sages asked when the angels were made. Some said on the second day of creation, and some said on the fifth. They agreed it was not the first day, so no one could ever say the angels helped Hashem make the world (Bereshit Rabbah 1:3). Hashem alone is the Creator.

The Talmud also says that new choirs of angels are made every morning. They sing one song before Hashem, and then they are done (Chagigah 14a).

The sages saw one big difference between angels and us. Hashem tells the high priest in Zechariah, “I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by” (Zechariah 3:7). Many teachers read it this way: angels stand, but people walk. We fall, we repent, and we grow.

That may be why the Torah was given to people. The Talmud tells a story. When Moshe went up to get the Torah, the angels said, “Give it to us!” Moshe answered them from the Ten Commandments: “Did you go down to Egypt? Do you have a father and mother to honor? Do you have an evil inclination?” (Shabbat 88b–89a). The Torah is for people who struggle.

What are the ten ranks of angels?

The Rambam teaches that angels are not all alike. In his law code he lists ten ranks, from the highest to the lowest (Mishneh Torah, Yesodei HaTorah 2:7). He did not make up the names. Each one comes from a word the Bible uses for heavenly beings:

1. Chayot HaKodesh, “the holy living creatures.” These are the four creatures Ezekiel saw carrying Hashem’s throne (Ezekiel 1:5).
2. Ofanim, “wheels.” In the same vision, wheels full of eyes moved with the creatures (Ezekiel 1:15–21).
3. Erelim, “the brave ones.” Isaiah says, “their valiant ones shall cry without” (Isaiah 33:7).
4. Chashmalim, from the shining chashmal, the glowing “amber” Ezekiel saw in the fire (Ezekiel 1:4, 27).
5. Serafim, “burning ones.” Isaiah saw them above the throne, each with six wings, calling “Holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:2–3).
6. Malachim, “messengers,” the everyday word for angels.
7. Elohim, “mighty ones.” The Bible sometimes uses this word for angels. The psalm says Hashem made man “a little lower than the angels” (Psalm 8:5), and the letter to the Hebrews quotes it the same way (Hebrews 2:7).
8. Bnei Elohim, “sons of God,” the heavenly beings who stood before Hashem in Job (Job 1:6; 38:7).
9. Keruvim, “cherubim.” They guarded the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24), and their figures stood over the Ark (Exodus 25:18–22).
10. Ishim, “men.” This is the lowest rank. The Rambam says these are the angels who speak with the prophets and appear to them. They are called “men” because their level is the closest to human understanding. Daniel calls Gavriel “the man Gabriel” (Daniel 9:21).

What makes one rank higher than another? The Rambam says it is not power or size. It is how much each one understands of Hashem. Each rank knows more than the ranks below it, but even the highest cannot fully know Hashem as He knows Himself (Yesodei HaTorah 2:8).

Now think of our parashah. The Torah calls Avraham’s visitors “three men.” In the Rambam’s list, “men” is the rank of angels that comes closest to people. Of course, the Rambam himself thought Avraham saw them in a vision, so he would not read the story the way we do. But the name fits.

These ranks are the Rambam’s teaching, not a list the Torah spells out. Other Jewish teachers, including the Zohar, give different lists and orders. The Rambam also went further than most. He taught that the forces of nature can be called angels too, because they also carry out Hashem’s will (Guide for the Perplexed 2:6). That is his own view, and not every teacher agrees with it.

What did angels do in the Bible, from Sinai to the empty tomb?

Angels were at Sinai. Moshe said, “Hashem came from Sinai… and he came with ten thousands of saints” (Deuteronomy 33:2). Stephen said Israel “received the law by the disposition of angels” (Acts 7:53), and Paul says something similar (Galatians 3:19).

On Mount Moriah, the angel says something surprising: “thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me” (Genesis 22:12). From me? The angel speaks as if he were Hashem. Hashem had promised Israel an angel like this: “Behold, I send an Angel before thee… obey his voice… for my name is in him” (Exodus 23:20–21).

The Mishnah has a rule that helps here: “A person’s agent is like himself” (Berakhot 5:5). When a messenger speaks, the one who sent him is speaking. This is also how Benei Avraham understands Yeshua. He said, “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me” (John 7:16).

Angels appear all through Yeshua’s story. Gavriel, who said “I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God” (Luke 1:19), came to Zecharyah and to Miriam. Angels sang to the shepherds near Beit Lechem. At the tomb, the women saw “two men… in shining garments” (Luke 24:4). A few verses later, Luke calls them “a vision of angels” (24:23). Men or angels? It is the same question as in our parashah. And when Yeshua was taken up into heaven, “two men stood by them in white apparel” and said that “this same Yeshua… shall so come in like manner” (Acts 1:10–11). In Luke’s story, the angels’ last words are a promise that he will come back.

Could Michael have been Yeshua before he came to earth?

We believe it is possible that the angel Michael was Yeshua’s heavenly form before he was born on earth. The Bible does not say this outright, so we hold it as a possibility, not a doctrine. But there are good reasons to consider it.

• His name is a question. Michael means “Who is like God?” It is not a claim to be God. It is a question that points to God.
• He is Israel’s prince. Daniel calls him “Michael your prince” (Daniel 10:21) and “the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people” (Daniel 12:1).
• He is a priest in heaven. The Talmud says that in the heavenly Temple there is an altar, “and Michael the great prince stands and offers an offering upon it” (Chagigah 12b). The letter to the Hebrews says Messiah is our high priest in the heavenly sanctuary (Hebrews 8:1–2).
• He defends Israel. The Midrash pictures Michael and the accuser standing before Hashem like a defense attorney and a prosecutor, with Michael speaking up for Israel (Shemot Rabbah 18:5). John calls Yeshua “an advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:1).
• The glory comes with him. One sage said the angel in the burning bush was Michael (Shemot Rabbah 2:5), and the Midrash says that wherever Michael appears, the glory of the Shechinah is there.
• Hashem’s Name is in him. Hashem said of the angel He sent before Israel, “my name is in him” (Exodus 23:21). The Abarbanel, a great Torah commentator of the 1400s, wrote that this angel is Michael, the great prince.
• He comes with the shofar. Paul says that “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). Jude calls Michael “the archangel” (Jude 9).
• Yeshua had glory before the world. Yeshua prayed, “glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5). He is called “the firstborn of every creature” (Colossians 1:15). We believe Hashem alone has no beginning, and that the spirit and mission of Messiah were prepared by Hashem before creation.

Some believers point to Hebrews 1, which says the Son was “made so much better than the angels” (Hebrews 1:4). Those who see Michael as the Son answer that this verse describes what happened when Yeshua was raised and exalted, and that “archangel” means the ruler over the angels, not one of the crowd. Faithful people disagree on this, and we hold it humbly. Some early followers of Yeshua thought along these lines too. An early writing called the Shepherd of Hermas speaks of “the great and glorious angel Michael, who has power over this people.”

How could Yeshua be born of a virgin and still be the son of David?

The prophets say the Messiah must come from David’s own body. Hashem promised David, “I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels” (2 Samuel 7:12), and “Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne” (Psalm 132:11). Paul says Yeshua was “made of the seed of David according to the flesh” (Romans 1:3). Peter says Hashem promised David that “of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up” the Messiah (Acts 2:30). And Matthew traces Yeshua’s line through Yosef, “thou son of David” (Matthew 1:16, 20).

But Matthew also says that Yosef “knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son” (Matthew 1:25). And the angel told Miriam, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee” (Luke 1:35). How can both be true?

Jewish tradition teaches that angels have a part in every birth. The Talmud says there is an angel appointed over conception. He takes the drop of seed and brings it before Hashem, who decides what kind of person the child will be (Niddah 16b). The angel Raziel is called the angel of secrets (Targum on Ecclesiastes 10:20). The book that carries his name, Sefer Raziel HaMalach, was kept in Jewish homes for centuries as a blessing for having children and as protection for mothers and newborns. Some teach from Sefer Raziel that an angel can carry a man’s seed to a woman to bring about a miraculous birth.

We believe this could be how Yeshua was miraculously conceived: by the power of Hashem, through His messenger, without Yosef and Miriam coming together, and yet truly from the seed of Yosef, the son of David. Then both things are true: the miracle the angel announced, and the promise the prophets required. The Bible does not spell out how it happened, and believers understand the virgin birth in different ways. But this shows how seriously we take the prophets. The Messiah had to be David’s son in the flesh.

Do we have guardian angels today?

The Bible says a lot about this.

• “The angel of Hashem encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them” (Psalm 34:7).
• Yeshua said about children: “in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father” (Matthew 18:10).
• When an angel freed Peter from prison and he knocked at the door, his friends inside said, “It is his angel” (Acts 12:15).
• “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14).

The Rambam adds something lovely. He says that a person who wears tefillin and tzitzit and has a mezuzah on the door is guarded by them. “These are the angels that keep him from sinning,” he writes (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Tefillin 6:13). The mitzvot themselves guard us.

But Yeshua also warned us not to test this. The tempter quoted a psalm about angels to him on the roof of the Temple: “cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee.” Yeshua answered, “Thou shalt not tempt Hashem thy God” (Matthew 4:6–7). Angels are not a safety net for showing off.

Jewish life is full of angels:

• Friday night. The Talmud says two angels walk home with each person from synagogue. If they find the candles lit, the table set and the beds made, the good angel says, “May it be like this next Shabbat,” and the other angel has to say “Amen” (Shabbat 119b). That is why we sing Shalom Aleichem to them at the table.
• Bedtime. Before sleep, many families say or sing a prayer that names four angels around us. We will look at it more closely in a moment.
• Every good deed. The Mishnah says, “One who does one mitzvah gains one advocate” (Avot 4:11). Many commentators say this advocate is an angel. The Hebrew word is praklit, from the Greek parakletos. John uses the same word for Yeshua: “we have an advocate with the Father, Yeshua the Messiah the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

Yeshua also said, “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:10). And from our parashah comes this: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2). Avraham did not know who was at his door.

Who are the four angels of the bedtime Shema?

Many Jewish children fall asleep to this prayer. It is often sung as a lullaby, B’shem Hashem:

“In the name of Hashem, the God of Israel: Michael on my right, Gavriel on my left, Uriel in front of me, Rafael behind me, and above my head the Presence of God.”

This prayer is old. It already appears in the Machzor Vitry, a prayer book from the school of Rashi, about nine hundred years ago. But the picture behind it is even older. It comes from a midrash about the camp of Israel in the wilderness (Bamidbar Rabbah 2:10).

In the wilderness, the twelve tribes camped around the Mishkan in four groups, one on each side, each under its own banner (Numbers 2). The midrash says Hashem’s throne in heaven is surrounded the same way, by four angels. Each angel matches one of the camps, and each name teaches something.

• Michael, “Who is like God?” He stands on the right, matching the camp of Reuven in the south. The midrash says his name comes from two verses. Moshe sang, “Who is like unto thee, O Hashem” (mi chamocha, Exodus 15:11). And before he died, he said, “There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun” (ein ka-El, Deuteronomy 33:26). Put mi cha and El together, and you get Micha-El.
• Gavriel, “God is my strength.” He matches the camp of Yehudah in the east, the tribe of kings. The midrash ties his name to Yehudah’s strength (gavar, 1 Chronicles 5:2) and to the Messiah’s title “The mighty God” (El gibbor, Isaiah 9:6).
• Uriel, “God is my light.” He matches the camp of Dan in the north. The midrash says Dan brought darkness into Israel, because one of the golden calves of King Yerovam stood in the city of Dan. So Uriel stands there, because Hashem gives Israel light through the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings.
• Rafael, “God heals.” He stands behind, matching the camp of Ephraim in the west. Yerovam came from Ephraim, and he broke the kingdom in two. Rafael stands there to heal that break.

Notice one small difference. In the midrash, Uriel is on the left and Gavriel is in front. In the prayer, they are switched. Nobody is sure why, but the meaning is the same: Hashem surrounds us on every side.

Another midrash pairs two of them. “Michael is all snow and Gavriel is all fire, and they stand next to each other and do not harm each other” (Devarim Rabbah 5:12). That is how the sages explained the verse “he maketh peace in his high places” (Job 25:2). Michael came to stand for mercy and Gavriel for judgment, side by side in peace.

Where else do we meet these four?

• Michael and Gavriel are the only angels the Tanakh calls by name, both in Daniel (Daniel 8:16; 10:13; 12:1). Gavriel also came to Zecharyah and to Miriam (Luke 1:19, 26), and Michael fights the dragon in Revelation (Revelation 12:7).
• Rafael is not named in the Tanakh. He is named in the Talmud as one of Avraham’s visitors (Bava Metzia 86b), and in the book of Tobit, an ancient Jewish book that is not part of the Tanakh.
• Uriel is not named in the Tanakh either. Outside this midrash, he appears in older Jewish writings that are not part of the Bible, like the book of Enoch (1 Enoch 9:1, 20) and 4 Ezra.

So when we sing this at bedtime, we are not praying to the angels. We say it “in the name of Hashem, the God of Israel.” We are picturing ourselves where Israel was in the wilderness, camped safely around the Presence of God. And the last line matters most: above all four angels is Hashem Himself.

Is it okay to pray to angels?

Most Jewish teachers say no, and so do we. The Jerusalem Talmud puts it in Hashem’s words: when trouble comes, “let him not cry out to Michael or to Gavriel, but to Me, and I will answer him” (Jerusalem Talmud, Berakhot 9:1). In John’s vision, when he bowed down to an angel, the angel stopped him: “See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant… worship God” (Revelation 19:10). Paul warned against the “worshipping of angels” (Colossians 2:18). The Talmud warns about this even with the greatest angel, the one the mystics call Metatron. It reads Exodus 23:21, “Beware of him… provoke him not,” as Hashem saying, “Do not exchange Me for him” (Sanhedrin 38b).

Some Jewish sources do picture angels carrying our prayers up to Hashem. The Talmud speaks of an angel named Sandalfon who “weaves crowns for his Maker” (Chagigah 13b). The Tosafot say he makes those crowns out of the prayers of the righteous. The Zohar says Sandalfon is the angel in charge of Israel’s prayers, and that he weaves them into a crown (Zohar I:167b). These are mystical pictures, not the plain meaning of the Tanakh, but they say something beautiful: our prayers are not lost. They go up.

We draw the line this way. Worship, avodah, belongs to Hashem alone. Honor is different. We may greet the angels on Friday night. Some people also say the Selichot prayer Machnisei Rachamim, which asks the angels to bring our prayers before Hashem, though some rabbis objected to it. What we never do is pray to angels instead of to Hashem.

What we do with the angels is sing. In the Kedushah we repeat their song from Isaiah: “Holy, holy, holy, is Hashem of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3). John heard the same song around the throne (Revelation 4:8). The sages even taught us to stand with our feet together when we pray, like the angels Ezekiel saw (Berakhot 10b).

Do people become angels when they die?

People often ask this at funerals. The Bible does not say that people turn into angels. Yeshua said that in the resurrection people “neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). He said as the angels, not that they become angels. The Bible teaches that the dead sleep until the resurrection (Daniel 12:2; John 11:11), and then rise as themselves, in bodies.

Where are the souls of the righteous while they wait? The Talmud says they are kept under the Throne of Glory (Shabbat 152b). John saw the same thing in his vision: “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God,” and they were told “that they should rest yet for a little season” (Revelation 6:9, 11). They rest with Hashem until the resurrection. They are kept safe, but they do not become angels.

What will angels do at the end of days?

The prophets give angels important work at the end. Here is some of what Scripture says.

• Michael stands up. “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people” (Daniel 12:1). If Michael was Yeshua’s heavenly form, as we believe is possible, this may point to the day Messiah stands up for Israel. Daniel was also told that the nations have “princes” in heaven, like “the prince of the kingdom of Persia” (Daniel 10:13). An old midrash teaches that Hashem set an angel over each of the seventy nations, but kept Israel as His own portion (Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer 24; see Deuteronomy 32:9).
• Heaven and earth are judged. “Hashem shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth” (Isaiah 24:21). An old midrash says Hashem judges a nation’s prince in heaven before He judges the nation on earth (Mekhilta, Shirata 2).
• The angels gather the harvest. “The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels” (Matthew 13:39). “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him” (Matthew 25:31). Zechariah saw it first: “Hashem my God shall come, and all the saints with thee” (Zechariah 14:5).
• Good news for every people. John saw “another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (Revelation 14:6).

And then comes a surprise. Paul asks, “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” (1 Corinthians 6:3). The letter to the Hebrews says, “unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come” (Hebrews 2:5). Peter says the good news of Messiah is something “the angels desire to look into” (1 Peter 1:12).

Our own sages had a similar idea. When Bilaam blessed Israel, he said, “according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!” (Numbers 23:23). Said by whom? The Jerusalem Talmud answers that in the age to come, the righteous will stand closer to Hashem than the angels, and the angels will come and ask them, “What has God done?” (Jerusalem Talmud, Shabbat 6:10; 6:9 in some editions). That is a midrash, not the plain meaning of the verse. But it is a beautiful thought: the angels, who never fell, may one day learn from people who fell, repented and were raised.

Why are there angels at the gates of the New Jerusalem?

Look at how the Bible ends. John sees the New Jerusalem with “twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes” (Revelation 21:12).

In our parashah, Avraham sat at the door of his tent, watching for strangers, and angels came to his door. He ran to meet them, washed their feet and fed them. At the end of the Bible, angels stand at the doors, and the gates carry the names of Avraham’s children.

So here is what Vayera asks of us:

1. Sing Shalom Aleichem and mean it. Remember who sent the messengers you are welcoming.
2. Gain an advocate. Choose one mitzvah and do it on purpose.
3. Open your door. Invite a stranger. You may not know who you are feeding.

Let’s close with the psalm that calls the angels and us to the same job:

“Bless Hashem, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word… Bless Hashem, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless Hashem, O my soul” (Psalm 103:20–22).

Shabbat shalom.