Vayishlach - 600,000 Angels of Protection

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari goldwag recorded with aam's never ending assistance in rap Israel 5785 2024 this week's para is and at the very beginning of our para yobu is returning to Israel and to preempt to preempt his brother asov from having any negative feelings towards him or wishing to harm him in any way yeah sends sends Messengers before him to his brother asov to where he lives to the land of SE the field of Edom all different names for for asov the word malim the the agents theim that he sends the word malim of course can mean literal agents but it can also mean malim angels angels are messengers of Hashem right when Hashem has Angels he sends them to us to protect us to help us but they're his Representatives as it were in the Physical Realm realm Hashem God is completely Transcendent he's Beyond this realm but of course he interacts with our realm and he does so sometimes directly if a person is on that level but sometimes through malim sometimes through angels and we're going to read the mes together which actually connects the last verse of last week's paraa and the first verse of this week's paraa and it's going to tell us little preview that the malim the angels that Yakov sent the The Messengers that yov sent were actually Mal and they were actually Angels but they weren't just any Angels they were Angels who were part part of a group of angels that yov saw when he returned to Earth Israel so this is what I'd like to share with you today like to speak about the 600,000 angels that Yakov saw we're going to talk about the context what is the idea of 600,000 600,000 Angels we're going to talk about other places where we see the idea of 600,000 most famously we know that at har SII at Mount Si there were 600,000 Jews 600,000 men and then another 600,000 women and children and we'll see what the significance of that is and we'll also see other places again where this number 600,000 perhaps Angels perhaps Jews comes into play this is a mes actually at the very end of last week's para connecting it to the beginning of this week's Para yakob went on his way after having a meeting with lovan a rather perhaps unpleasant meeting but a meeting nonetheless with laan creating a pack they wouldn't e neither side the crossover into the other's area and that pack occurring somewhere in Syria which is appropo to today's current events but that place where the the that location was the crossover location between Andel and as Yakov enters into the land of Israel he meets Angels just like we spoke about previously when he left Israel so he saw angels going up and down the ladder when he comes back into Israel again he sees Angels this time it seems that it wasn't in a dream but rather it was an open Revelation while he was awake and he bumps into the Angels so to speak and when he sees them he says when he meets them he says this is an encampment of God which is very interesting because an encampment if you think about it usually it refers to it's a camp a camp of soldiers an encampment of soldiers it's usually soldiers who are on the move they're moving right soldiers don't live in any particular location they're busy fighting they're on the move but they encamp when they come to a place where they need to rest so yakob sees them and he sees this awesome sight of angels He says this is an encampment of hasem and what is he call it he calls that place means encampment which is plural already and then our as a men we're going to see it inside but it implies that the angels that he sent to asov and we need to understand why why it had to be this way the Angels The Messengers that he sends to as of were from amongst the angels that he saw as he came into Israel and they saw this encampment as we'll see double encampment of angels he sends from these angels to asov these are the messengers that he sends to asov to try to it's not clear exactly what the purpose of them is to try to perhaps feel out if ASA still has animosity towards him or perhaps it was to threaten him to prove to him that he has spiritual power we'll see exactly perhaps what was the idea behind them but connection between last week's para this week's para he meets these Angels he sends the angels to as now let's read the M goes on his way he meets the Angels the angels of can you picture the scene is returning to Isel really Y is returning and Isel is coming into Isel for the first time yov and his sons and his wives and a host of those who are accompanying them the animals the slaves and here they come in and there's an Entourage that has come out to greet them a huge amount of angels are coming out and they're in in circles they're in circles says the m and they're dancing they're doing incredible Circle dance and how many Angels were there of 600,000 mean 60 times 10,000 600,000 Angels came out to dance what an incredible scene Y is returning to land of Israel can you think about this each time another member of the Jewish people people returns to the land of Earth Israel 6 million of us 7 million of us strong so far the Angels come out to dance for this person that's me talking but me says they came out for Yakov 600,000 Angels what's the significance of 600,000 Angels so let's understand as here explain it's called aim says when he sees them he sees the Angels he sees 600,000 angels dancing in a circle for him to greet him says this is an encampment of Hashem we have a general principle when he wants to be when he wants to manifest his divine presence it doesn't get man ested unless you have at least 600,000 the number 600,000 represents the number of Jews at arcen Mount siai which is obviously an event that's going to take place far in the future another 400 years later or so maybe a little less long time in the future but 600,000 is the number of Jews that when you have that amount you 600,000 men and as we'll see 600,000 women and children God places allows his divine presence to be manifested in such a way that it's palpable it's an experience there's a huge spiritual experience says the mes it's not just true if you have 600,000 Jews by har by m but it's also true that you can have an encampment what does the encampment mean this is a place you talk about KES has aov the the vision ofel was a he sees these angels and he sees God as it were riding upon the Mah the encampment of angels he sees the angels and this is what Yu sees as well an encampment of angels and the the divine presence is upon this encampment ronri K say that there wasn't just 600,000 Angels there was 1.2 million Angels because the says that he called that place which means encampments plural one would be indeed 600,000 when you have the doubling you get 1.2 million what does this mean so at har you have two levels of 1.2 million what do I mean you have the men and the women right you have 600,000 men 600,000 women and children and you also have at as I believe I saw one of thefor can't read it to inside because I don't remember exactly where I saw it but you have 600,000 Angels you have 600 ,000 Jews 600,000 men you have a dual layer at our SII but Yakov as we'll see only has a single layer he has this layer of angels as he comes in so he has incredible protection he has Divine the divine presence it's a symbol it's a he sees the angels and he knows it's aim God is with him and God is not just with him on an individual level but God is with him with an incredible host of angels to protect him says says he took from each of these encampments of angels interestingly there's two encampments of angels he takes from each of them and these it's plural he sends angels before him to as so he takes from each of the encampments and he sends these angels to ASV what is the idea what is the concept what are these what are these angels what do they clearly they represent the fact that Hashem is with him why are they sending why is yob sending these angels to asov so I'd like to share with you another place there's a MAG shirim that brings this very same idea but also gives us other contexts other places where these angels appear the P says in return return means the perfect one I want to see you is saying P Hashem is saying the the male figure in in the story of of is the female figure is it's speaking of the relationship of the Jewish people with Hashem with God Hashem says to come back I want to see you I want to see you so the Meer says an amazing thing there's actually something else going on here we could understand the me says the nations of the world say to am Israel the nations of the world say to the Jewish people take become part of us become part of us we want we want to see you we want to use your talents the Jewish people are incredibly talented PE people brilliant people people who are moral who care who IDE istic we are leaders we are powerful the nations of the world say come on our side do our thing use your talents for secular Pursuits use your talents the mag puts it for a Zara he I says what can you see in Us in in our Perfection you want to use our greatness our Perfection for you but did you ever see where our Perfection leads us when we use it correctly like the double circle uses the same word in the which means double encampment and means a circle circle dance of encampment so this should ring a bell because we just spoke about a circle of encampment the angels of Yakov they came to greet him they made a huge circle dance and he saw the but there's another place where there is a circle and a a a circle and an encampment and that was am Israel in the midbar the Jewish people in the wilderness was set up in a circular formation around the mishkon which was the place of the place of the divine presence Mish on the Tabernacle the Levites surrounded actually mosha Aon and those and their families surrounded directly and then the the next concentric Circle was the Levites and then the next concentric Circle was the 12 tribes and these parallel each other clearly these parallel each other this 600,000 Jews parallels the 600,000 Angels so the nations of the world say Isel we want you to use your beauty use your talent use your idealism for what we are idealistic about for Liberal ideals for perhaps other spiritual ideals not toic heaven forbid for idolatrous ideals now still says hold on a second where are we perfect we're perfect in our look at the forefathers look at and abrah is and Jacob did they use their talents to serve Idols they didn't misuse their talents they didn't use their idealism for any other ISM except for Judaism says to the nations of the world can you do anything can you give us anything can you offer us anything like what Hashem offers us when we do his will when we use our talents and our idealistic nature for the true idealism for God's will what does Hashem give us when when yobu is in a state of right yob refers he splits up his right unbelievable in order to deal with ASF he splits up his encampment to two encampments so yov comes into with two encampments and corresponding to that there's a double encampment of angels and the double encampment of angels has upon it the divine presence and Yakov knows that his his encampment which is all about serving Hashem which is all about coming back to AR Israel to the place which is the only place that we can truly serve Hashem that dance that he sees the Angels doing is the dance that he's doing with his two encampments what what what greater Revelation can you nations of the world offer me then what Hashem offers me when I am in a state of perfection of shulamis and then the me here brings the me that we just read when he left the house of love on which means he got out of the nations of the world he got out of the the base love was a place of idolatry he runs after them looking for his idols that somebody took to destroy them ra took he escapes from the house of Lov and which is all about just materialism and no spirituality that's when Angels appear 1.2 million says to the Nations maybe you think that you could offer me the kind of of circle dance that Hashem provided for me when we came out to the Sea Amel comes out 600,000 strong 1.2 million strong says how hasem took the Mal of hem as it were Ro upon the Mal whatever this means like a chariot and he places his protection takes the Malik and he places the Mal between the mitz between Egyptians and the people of Israel and he protects am Israel from the idol worshippers separates us makes us special so that we can be the vehicle for his Revelation in the world can you offer us that oh nations of the world can you offer us the the circle dance the M the encampment of angels that Alisha experienced sh in second Kings chapter 6 ver1 15 they were surrounded the Jewish people in in shron were surrounded by enemies completely surrounded hundreds of thousands of soldiers and and and horses and chariots and Alisha who was a prophet said to his his uh his mishar his his servant said to him how are we going to how are we going to win how are we going to be victorious over such a huge Army Alisha says it looks like they're much stronger than us but we have much more than them we have so many so many more fighters on our side we have spiritual iron domes we have spiritual airplanes that can destroy all of their Weaponry the the m servant of Alisha was able to suddenly see his eyes were opened by Hashem he saw what Alisha saw which was the the angels that were there to protect am which were so much greater so much more powerful than the enemy armies unbelievable and says can you offer us that and say can you offer us what's going to be in the future where there's going to be a mikim a circle Dance of the righteous circling Hashem God's divine presence upon them so it's interesting because sometimes it seems for Alisha in the time of Alisha they didn't have a huge Army to battle them but they had the spiritual Army of the angels and indeed the Angels caused the other Army to fall he says they were struck with blindness they weren't able to fight spirit they they won caused them to win sometimes we have both the angels and the amount of people that are needed there's one more little medish we're running out of time here but later in the paraa in our para this week so we have that son violates Dina and shim and Ley go and they kill out all the inhabitants of the city of is upset he says to them see you've darkened me you've made trouble for me the the the barrel was was the water was clear inside the barrel but you you mixed everything up and and the drags came up from the bottom and now things are things are dark why the Canaanites they have a they have a tradition that they're going to fall in our hands in the hands of the people of Israel which was what happened eventually a couple of hundred years later when returns there to but says there's a m Yakov had that we can't fight until we have 600,000 it's very interesting 600,000 which by the way can't get into but in 1967 there was 600,000 men 600,000 women in this country 1967 6 day war Mel had the numbers we had the seay now there's over six million Jews imagine when all of returns and we have 6 million men and six million women what a power we'll have even today but yaku says I don't yet have I have the spiritual Angels but when you guys are fighting if there's this is how I understand it when you have just the Angels when you have just the Angels you have the power to to defeat your enemies spiritually without doing anything without doing anything that's what happened in the times of Alisha when shim and Ley go out they say we're going to do this ourselves and Yak says but we don't have the the physical numbers that are needed we have to depend on the Angels themselves that's the only way to to defeat them is with full fully relying on hem being when we have the the 600,000 Jews we're at har we have the 600,000 corresponding Angels We Have the we can defeat anybody we can walk into Israel and defeat anybody but if you don't have the numbers then we just we have to rely on the angels as it were on Hashem himself only we can't go into battle that's what that's what yob was saying to toim lei it was a mistake or it was dangerous if if this is the understanding of what's going on here we can start to understand why yakob sends from these angels what is hasem signifying what is Hashem showing Yakov when he sends him 600,000 angels from him to see as he comes back in there Israel he's saying you can come in here and you can conquer the world you have the spiritual power you might not have the number of Jews yet it's going to take another few hundred years until you are so fruitful and you multiply but you have the spiritual power you have a on your side hasem is with you you have the encampment you have the encampment and it's manifest in your two encampments as well you also will have two encampments but there's there's like a a duality here because physically they don't yet have the power but spiritually they do so what does it mean when yakob takes from the angels and he sends the angels to asov as I understand it it's saying he's taking those that represent his spiritual power those that represent that hasm is with him and he's sending the message to asov I have returned and I've developed to the point through being sh I've been in the house of loveing but I remain steadfast and now I'm returning here with an incredible spiritual power with 600,000 or 1.2 million angels on my side which really means Hashem is on my side and I don't have to do anything I don't have to I don't have to fight with you you will just fall by yourself you will just fall by yourself that's what Yakov a was implying with sending these very angels He was saying we're like Elicia I have the angels on my side I don't need to fight I don't even I'm not even like like Amel coming into Isel when they will come and destroy the Canaanite Nations I'm not even like that I'm just I'm just all spirituality here and I'm all faith in Hashem that we're going to win L Isa ASA comes he it's a scary moment it seems like he might have to fight him directly physically which he's afraid he doesn't have that power and that's the H of the story but really he has the spiritual pow ASV is vanquished he does arrive and he and yako fights with the angel and he wins and he wins in that battle he wins spiritually but the bottom line of it is and the message to take on for us is that when we completely depend on hem when we have the Angels completely with us we don't have to have so much physical power is it a Mila to is it an advantage to have 600,000 Jews that can fight there's something about us doing it who wants us to to fight too that's what's going on today but there's something about Hashem doing it for us there's something about Hashem doing it for us so I want to bless you and I ask you to bless me we should be able to have the the faith the trust the recognition the realization that hem has all of his angels surrounding us which means there's an encampment and a dance when we're trying to do the will of hem we're trying to come into s Israel Hashem is with us hem is going to protect us and take care of us thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]