B"H
THOUGHTS ON ANGELS
Dear Friends:
Are angels real?
Somebody recently told me that everything in the Torah is a metaphor; nothing is real. Excuse me, but I would say exactly the opposite: EVERYTHING IS REAL!
I remember the words of Rabbi Avraham ha Levi Jungreis ZT"L before our first trip to Israel: "Just remember, children, that even in English you can learn a Torah thought. What does the word, "ISRAEL" tell you? It IS REAL! When you walk the Land, you are walking in the footsteps of our fathers Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. Everything in the Torah is real."
Our Father Abraham welcomed angels into his tent. We, his children, welcome angels into our home every Friday night. I try to have that in mind when we sing Shalom Aleichem. We mean it literally; we are really welcoming actual angels into our home! As Rashi says concerning the angels that Jacob sent ahead of him, "malachim mamash," literally angels. [1]
In the same way, we say every day in our prayers that G-d fashions "ministering angels," who proclaim, "with awe, together, loudly, the words of the living G-d and King of the universe. They are all beloved, they are all flawless; they are all mighty and they all do the will of their Maker with dread and reverence...."
As I recount in by book, FROM CENTRAL PARK TO SINAI: How I Found My Jewish Soul, I used to stand and watch the school bus go down the street every morning when our children went off to yeshiva, and ask
G-d to send angels with them. I am still asking G-d to send angels with them.
You will also meet angels in my new book, 2020 VISION.
We are now in the month of Teves. Aside from the final days of Chanukah, Teves contains no holidays, only a fast day. It is a dark month. The light of Chanukah is behind us, and we now peer ahead into the darkness. We hear sounds of war; we see blackness all around us, and we wonder whether it will ever end
But I seem to hear angels.
Our enemies throw bombs at us. These bombs are guided by very sophisticated instruments, but in the darkness an angel nudges that bomb and it hits an inch, or a foot or a mile from its intended target. Or perhaps it hits a second, or a minute later than planned. Or perhaps it falls in midair or it explodes harmlessly in an empty field.
Man does not guide the affairs of this world. "Hakol bidai Shomayim chutz m'yiras shomayim," everything is in the hands of Heaven except for the fear of Heaven.
In the darkness I hear voices. I also believe that there is a great light whose rays are becoming visible on the eastern horizon.
Forty-three years ago, my wife and I were students at the University of Michigan. As I recount in FROM CENTRAL PARK TO SINAI, it seemed as if our marriage was coming undone. It seemed as if my life was falling apart. I woke up in the middle of the night, crying. I looked back on my life, which resembled a long corridor with hundreds of doors. I had opened each door and they all led nowhere! There was no truth, no hope, no peace, no meaning in this world.
And then a crazy thought came to me: "COULD THERE BE A G-D?"
No way! Roy Neuberger, the sophisticated intellectual doesn't believe in G-d! But then I realized: if your life is falling apart, YOU NEED G-D! There is no other way to survive!
I actually believe an angel visited me that night in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My life has never been the same. It was, I later found out, the 18th day of the Jewish month of Teves! This month! In the middle of the night, an angel visited our home.
Thirty five years later, on that same day, a son, Yaakov Moshe ha Kohain Hess, was born to our daughter Miriam in the Holy City of Jerusalem!
Last year my wife and I were returning from a simcha late on a Saturday night. We were traveling in the middle lane of a New York City Highway. A car passed on our left at about ninety miles per hour, went out of control, crossed over the center and right lanes in front of us, hit and bounced off the right-hand barrier, spun around and shot forward directly at us from the front. I braked. At that moment another car hit us from the back and we were sandwiched between two cars at sixty miles per hour!
And then all was quiet. I looked at my wife. WE WERE ALIVE!
Somehow I maneuvered the car off to the shoulder.
We just sat there and looked at each other, repeating over and over: "We are alive. We are alive! We are alive! Thank you, G-d."
After three hours on the side of the highway, with police, firemen and ambulances all around, we left for home (in a cab). The car was totaled.
We did not have a scratch! NOTHING!
The cops couldn't believe it! They said, "There is never a crash here without injuries!"
An angel was guarding us!
That was the 14th of Teves, this month, one year ago!
Every night we say "Ha malach ha-goail ...." May the Angel who redeemed me from all evil bless the children.... [2] In fact, as I write these words, we are in the week of Parshas Vayechi, the very parsha in which our Father Jacob says those words.
My friends, we are surrounded by angels. And they seem to be very active at this time of year. All may seem very dark, but we have seen and continue to see many miracles.
Do not think the world is dark. We must know that the guiding Hand of G-d is working at this very moment toward Redemption for His beloved children, the House of Israel.
My friends, the dawn is not far off. The angels are at work bringing relief and peace to our tortured Land of Israel, the maligned and abused children of Israel, and they soon will bring our Eternal Bais ha Mikdosh to its proper place upon the Temple Mount in the Holy City of Jerusalem. Do not fear, my brothers and sisters, it will not be long. G-d sees our suffering and hears our prayers. But let us redouble our prayers, and intensify our mitzvos and Torah learning. Our Father in Heaven will help us, and soon, at the time He chooses, we will hear the Shofar Gadol announcing our Final Redemption!
The angels are working in the darkness. Moshiach is close!
With hope in the imminent Redemption, Roy S. Neuberger
