Rabbi Uri C. Cohen
Former Shaliach in Syracuse (1999-2001) and Princeton (2003-2005)
Currently a teacher at Midreshet Moriah, and online at WebYeshiva

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Clich here for PDF
 

They keep saying you can’t compare apples and oranges. I can. An apple is red and distinctly non-spherical; an orange is orange and nearly spherical. So, what’s the big problem?
– George Carlin, Brain Droppings (1997), p. 201
 
In Parashat Mishpatim, Hashem speaks of sending a malach (angel) to lead the Jews (Shemot 23:20f). To whom is this referring? Some commentaries say it’s literally an angel. Others think it means either Moshe or Yehoshua, a human being acting as Hashem’s malach (messenger). But why would the Torah refer to a person with the word that normally means “angel”? After all, an angel is completely spiritual, while we humans combine the spiritual with the physical. Even the greatest human being cannot be an angel!
 
Nevertheless, any two things or beings can be compared to each other. Even apples and oranges, the classic example of items that are different from each other, still have some aspects in common; this is presumably what the comedian George Carlin meant in his observation above. So too, comparing a person to an angel is reasonable if it is understood that the comparison is limited; it merely means that the person is like an angel in some sense. The question then is: in what meaningful way can a person be like an angel?
 
This question is often addressed in the course of explaining the following Gemara:
 
Rabbi Yochanan said: What is the meaning of that which is written (Malachi 2:7): “For the kohen’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek Torah from his mouth; for he is an angel of the Lord of hosts”? The verse is teaching: If a rabbi is similar to an angel of the Lord of hosts, they should seek Torah from his mouth; but if not, they should not seek Torah from his mouth (Chagigah 15b).
 
Since the Gemara requires a Torah teacher to be like an angel, it’s pretty important for us to understand how a teacher is expected to be angelic!
 
Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik explains based on the double meaning of the word “malach” – angel and messenger. An angel is the perfect messenger, who views himself as a tool of his Sender and doesn’t add or subtract anything from the message he has been told to convey. Devoted completely to his Sender, an angel is not interested in his own benefit. So too, a teacher should consider himself a messenger of Hashem, and view teaching not as a profession but rather as a Divine mission.
 
A variation on this approach points to the midrashic idea that one angel cannot perform two tasks. Rabbi Nisson Alpert elaborates on this:
 
Humans can multitask, not angels. This isn’t a limitation in malachim; it’s a sign of greatness. They have a shlichut, a mission, and to do anything besides that would take away from the perfection of that assignment. They are completely and wholly dedicated to their assignment, and this precludes them from focusing elsewhere. . . . [Teachers] must be like a malach in that they are completely dedicated to their shlichut.
 
In other words, it is by being dedicated to the mission of teaching that a teacher is like an angel. What a powerful message for Torah MiTzion's shlichim: You are doing the work of angels. Keep up the good work!
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Rabbi Uri Cohen and his wife Dr. Yocheved Engelberg Cohen were the first members of the Torah MiTzion Kollel in Syracuse, New York. Rabbi Uri teaches in Jerusalem at Midreshet Moriah, and online at WebYeshiva. Dr. Yocheved works in Hebrew-to-English translation, and is currently working on Rabbi Eliezer Melamed's Peninei Halakha series. They live in Ramat Beit Shemesh.