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Subscribe to ourThe angel that wrestled with Jacob through the night, but could not prevail, told him (Genesis 32:27), “Let me go, for dawn has broken.” What is the meaning of this?
Rashi explains that the angel requested to be released because he had to “recite song by day,” as described in Isaiah 6:2-3, “Seraphim [angels] were standing above, at His service… And one would call to another and say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is G-d, Master of Legions; the whole world is filled with His glory.’ ” G-d’s angels must assemble for their praises in groups of “watches” throughout the periods of the day, which is why the angel of Esau demanded to be released from the grip of Jacob before the break of dawn, so it could return to its place in Heaven to recite its praises to G-d in the morning watch. That is the “spiritual side” of the angel of Esau.
On the other hand, the “materialistic” side of Esau’s angel is reflected its efforts to fulfill its specific mission to bring physical bounty and success to Esau. Esau was the father of the nation of Edom, which later became spiritually identified with the Roman Empire after its conquest of Judea.
G-d gives each angel a name in Hebrew that reflects the mission He gives it. However, several times in the Hebrew Bible, an angel comes to deliver a message from G-d, but it refuses to reveal its name, saying that its name is “hidden”. For example, the angel that wrestled with Jacob said (Genesis 32:30), “Why is it that you ask my name?” Rashi explains that the angel was communicating to Jacob that “We [angels] have no fixed name. Our names change according to the command of the task of the mission upon which we are sent.”
Another example is in Judges 13:17-18, which relates that “Manoah [the future father of Samson] said to the angel of G-d [without knowing that it was an angel], ‘What is your name, so that when your word comes about, we may honor you?’ The angel of G-d said to him, ‘Why is it that you ask for my name? It is hidden!’ ”
Why is this? G-d gives each angel a general mission in the heavenly realms, and He can also send an angel on specific missions in the physical world. Furthermore, an angel is never sent on more than one specific mission at the same time. If two missions need to be done at the same time, G-d sends a different angel for each mission. Since the life force of an angel comes to it through its Hebrew name, when it has to go on a specific mission it receives a special temporary and hidden name which is reflective of that mission. Thus, an angel can be given different specific consecutive missions. But it is only given one mission at a time.
In Genesis 18:2, G-d sent three angels to visit Abraham, and each one had a different mission. The archangel Raphael was sent to heal Abraham after his circumcision. The archangel Michael was sent to announce to Abraham and Sarah that she would conceive and give birth to Isaac. Along with them, the archangel Gabriel was sent on his way destroy the metropolis of Sodom. See Rashi there. He explains that the names of those archangels were not changed for those particular missions. Why? Because their main names in Hebrew were already reflective of the missions that they were being sent to accomplish.
Their general mission is to stand in their places among the infinite troops of angels. In the infinite levels of the Heavens, they sing praises to G-d at appointed times during the day. They assemble and proclaim, “Holy, holy, holy is the L-rd of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” With love, they rush toward a level of G-dliness that is spiritually beyond them. Then they immediately retreat in fear of that awesome G-dliness which is too great for them to behold.
Upon retreating, they are overcome with a longing to return toward that G-dliness, which they again rush toward. This advance and retreat in their service to G-d is described in Ezekiel 1:14. “The Chayos [angels with four faces] would run and return like the appearance of a flash.”
The angels’ repetitive rushing generates a periodic rhythm of spiritual energy on each level. The spiritual energy generated by the angels serving in a higher level is projected down. It thus becomes the spiritual life-force for the lower level and all of the angels within that lower level. Thus, the angels of an upper spiritual level are the souls of the angels of the next lower level. This is described in Ezekiel 1:21 – “for the will of the [higher] Chaya-angel was in the [lower] Ofanim-angels.”
This oscillating spiritual energy gets projected down to lower and lower levels (analogous to alternating electrical current that is reduced by a series of step-down transformers), until it finally reaches the physical realm. That is why all the manifestations of physical nature are in the form of orbits, cycles and waves – from the astronomical level to the quantum mechanical level – because the life-force for our universe is generated from the angels by their constantly oscillating spiritual movement.
For more information about the angel of Esau as the “prince” (sar in Hebrew) angel assigned over the Roman Empire, please see this page on our site: https://asknoah.org/faq/angel-of-esau-and-rome
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