Vayerah: Angels (in Canaan)

 

Vayerah: Angels (in Canaan)

 

Angels are prominent characters in this parsha entitled “appeared.”

Angels are hard for to see in our times. They are a theologically difficult idea.  More than that they violet the modern sense of relativism.

 

First Gd appears to Avraham when he is sitting at the entrance to his tent.  The parsha also repeats this entrance to the tent idea repeatedly.  I think that it conveys an idea of looking out, actively waiting from a position of relative comfort, and a willingness to leave the comfort.

 

It is unclear whether the three heroes (anoshim) [who turn out to be angels] are the representatives of Gd alluded to in the first sentence; or if Avraham leaves the presence of Gd to greet the strangers.

 

It emerges that they (the Magi) bring a message, an annunciation, predicting the miraculous birth of Yitzchak (who will be brought onto the altar [and rescued by angels in the end]. 

 

The angels rescue.  They rescue Avraham from the fate of an inadequate heir.  They then rescue Abraham’s first potential heir, Lot, from Sodom (providing him with a great deal of accommodation).  They rescue Ishmael, the inadequate heir, after his expulsion into the desert.  And they rescue Yitzchak from the Akeida, as they accept Avraham into their ranks.

 

Angels abound, we merely need to look for them from the doorway.