This excerpt from “7th Heaven: Shabbat With Rebbe Nachman of Breslov” explores the significance of angels in Jewish theology, focusing on the accompanying angels that visit the home each Shabbat. Moshe Mykoff suggests that human beings’ unique combination of physical and spiritual components enables us to have influence over the spiritual world, including the angels. The Shalom Aleichem liturgy was composed by Kabbalists (Jewish mystics) in the 17th century and integrated into the weekly Shabbat evening ritual as a way to greet the Shabbat angels who have come to visit. Moshe Mykoff is a Breslover Hasid who has authored and edited many works about the practices and teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810).Â
7th Heaven: Shabbat With Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (pp. 97-99)
Angels – the channels of spiritual energy to which we open ourselves and which we lay open in our mystical journey called life; those nonphysical, undetectable powers that administer every event in the world, from the fall of mighty empires to the growth of every blade of grass (Bereishit Rabbah 10:7).
Angels – the messengers of God, sent to carry out the Divine Will in the world; those agents from the spiritual dimension that appear in varied forms, whether as ordinary human beings, as the translucent figures that bore God’s Throne in Ezekiel’s vision, or as the gentle, guiding hand on intuition.
To these angels – these celestial beings so unfathomable yet palpable to the instinct – we direct our song: Greetings, O ministering angels, angels of the Exalted One…
The Talmud relates:
No one returns home alone from the prayers of Shabbat eve. Two angels, one minister of good fortune and one minister of misfortune, escort each of us. If when we arrive we find the candles lit and the table set, the angel of good declares, “May it be this way again next week,” and the angel of misfortune begrudgingly responds, “Amen.” But if we arrive home to a dark house with nothing prepared in honor of the Shabbat, the angel of misfortune declares, “May it be this way again next week,” and the angel of good perforce responds, “Amen” (Shabbat 119b).
We humans are unique. While everything else in the world is either physical or spiritual, we human beings are the one creation in which these two altogether different elements are allied: the spirit of the soul and the substance of the body. This union leaves us singularly positioned to affect both the physical and the spiritual realm: our physical actions influence the spiritual forces – the angels.
Although in this world human beings stand on a lower spiritual plane than do angels, the human soul is rooted in a place that is loftier than the haven of angelic forces. If we but cultivate and harness our souls’ spiritual power, we garner influence over the angels to bring them to channel greater blessing into the world.
With our Friday preparations we have realized those powers. From our bathing in hot water and donning fine clothing to preparing our homes and readying our tables in honor of Shabbat, we’ve infused spirit in the physical and material elements of our lives. And these same preparations that have readied us for a higher perception of God have likewise enabled the angels and assisted them in investing every detail of this world, even each blade of grass, with greater spiritual energy. Without exception, in ways we cannot begin to comprehend, our preparations have elevated and inspirited every facet of creation.
And so as Shabbat makes its appearance, when the wellsprings of spiritual bounty and blessing are bursting forth, the angels accompany us home from the synagogue. We approach our Shabbat tables – set bountifully for a grand banquet, with candle burning brightly – and from there engage the spiritual forces that have entered our homes.
With the authority of souls empowered, we call on the spiritual forces to channel even greater blessings: “Greetings, O ministering angels, angels of the Exalted One…Bless me… O angels of peace.”
Seeing that we have put the previous week’s bounty to good use, the angels declare, “May it be this way again next week.” To ensure that this indeed happens, these channels of spirit expand so that in the week ahead even greater bounty can come our way, and can, through us, be disseminated to all of creation.