A famous saying by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov goes: "The physical life of a Jew is a spiritual thing." Sounds great, but what does it mean?
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In some other rabbinic articles the angels who ascended the ladder to the heaven, are mentioned as the angels of Babel, Persia, Greece and Edom-Rome. The last angel ascended highest.
How can I interpert these different stories and which of the two stories is the right one?
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that's a good question. How can we interpet the two stories and which is right?
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In your article you said that as Jacob reenters Eretz Israel he, " Once again there are two camps of angels. This time, however, we don't find one group giving way to the other -- they both remain with Jacob (Genesis 32:2-3; Rashi, ibid.)."
But, the commentary for these same verses in the artscroll chumash (citing midrash and Rashi) says, " They [the holy-land angels] came to meet him to accompany jacob to the holy land, replacing the angels that had been with him outside the Land. This reversed the changing of the gaurd that took place when he left Eretz yisrael"
Why is one commentary saying that both angel sets stayed with jacob when he returned to Israel and the other saying only the holy-land ones did? this is esspecially wierd since both commentaries are atributied to Rashi! So which one is it did they stay or switch?
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What about angels who hurt people? And this sometimes happen.
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If you look in Rashi, you'll see that he does not say anything about the Holy Land angels "replacing" the non-Holy-Land angels, nor anything about "reversed the changing of the guard that took place when he left Eretz yisrael." Furthermore, Rashi is explaining the meaning of the name "Two Camps"--implying that (at least in that place) both angels were there simultaneously.
You may wish to look at the original essay by the Rebbe on which this thought is based. It is published in Sefer HaSichot 5751, pp.155-166.
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This is a very deep essay. I will give it some thought. Thank you for writing it.
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