"You're No Angel!"

Do you remember the story of the 3 angels that visited Avraham in his tent prior to the destruction of Sodom and Gemorrah?  What was their mission?  If you look at the text, they had three purposes that they fulfilled upon making the contact with Avraham.  1) It was a bikkur cholim visit, because Abraham had just been circumcised; 2) It was a revelation visit to let Sarah know that she soon would become pregnant even though she was advanced in age; 3) It was a visit meant to warn Avraham of the impending destruction of Sodom and Gemorrah where his nephew Lot lived.

 

Rashi, the great biblical commentator wrote:
One [man] to bring the news [of Isaac’s birth] to Sarah, and one to destroy Sodom, and one to heal Abraham, because one angel does not perform two missions. His explanation was that angels are messengers of G-d who are sent to accomplish only one mission.  In other words, angels are not multi-taskers.  They can only accomplish a singular task and as messengers of the Divine have no input into how that task will be accomplished nor whether that task will be tackled at all.

There’s no doubt in my mind, that we humans are not angels!  Think about it.  We multi-task all the time.  Anyone who has ever raised children, worked outside the home, and been involved in communal affairs, knows that if the phone rings while you’re busy at work or running a meeting, you will turn your attention to the call and respond quickly if you hear that your child has fallen ill or been in an accident.  Anyone who has ever paid attention to one family member for an extended period- of- time, knows that demands on their attention will come from other family members who also want to be noticed.

For those who multi-task on a regular basis, life might start to seem overwhelming.  Brains are always mulling over activities still needing to be done. Bodies may get neglected as more and more undertakings are crammed into one day. The mantra might be “I can juggle it all.” But the research is starting to say that multi-tasking leads to less productivity, more mistakes made, and a decrease in our ability to focus on achieving a goal. Short-term memory is also impaired by multi-tasking as is health. So maybe, the angels who worked on only one mission at a time knew something that we haven’t figured out!

There is another difference between humans and angels as noted in the text of traditional mystical Jewish sources, “ angels have no free-choice and are pre-programmed to serve G‑d, whereas the human is entrusted with the mission of serving G‑d—but is given the freedom to choose to do otherwise. As such, the mitzvot performed by the human are of much greater value than the angels' service, and propel him or her to infinitely greater spiritual heights, as opposed to the angels who are "trapped" in a consistent level of spiritual consciousness.”

Personally, I am thankful that we have been given the gift of free choice although it requires us to constantly evaluate the actions in which we will be engaged. There is something about choosing to do the right thing even when you are not forced to do so, that leaves one feeling content.

So where does this leave us….When someone says, he’s NO ANGEL, that statement might be seen in two different ways.  1) The individual has the ability to make choices about his/her actions  2) The individual tries to take on too much at the same time.  It does not mean the individual is lowly, or the individual is not worthy.  It merely means the individual is human and being human has its bonuses and challenges.