Angels:

Living Creatures in the World of Formation

There are thousands of different angels operating in different “worlds”. Kabbalah describes 5 different worlds, yet they are not physical places rather different dimensions of being. Our souls come from different planes, or levels. Human beings operate on the lowest physical world known as the world of Action/ Asiyah. On a higher rung, there is the world of formation (the World of Yetzirah), which is primarily the world of feeling. The living creatures of this world are angels. Brought down by the mystical text, The Thirteen Petalled Rose by Adin Steinsaltz, there are 3 important things we want you to understand about angels.

1. Single Essence

   Whereas human beings are multidimensional and complex, an angel is a manifestation of one singular emotional essence. Angels are one dimensional, with one specific function and purpose. There are also camps of angels that express a more comprehensive emotion. For example, there is a whole camp of angels for love. As we know, there are innumerous tender feelings within the overarching theme of love. Just like there are no 2 loves that are exactly alike, similarly, each angel has the quality of one singular impulse or drive.

2. Messenger

   The name “angel” in Hebrew (malach) can translate to “messenger”. Angels are messengers between our physical world and higher spiritual worlds. They send messages in 2 directions:from G-d downwards, and also from our world upwards through higher realms. They carry prayers, thoughts, intentions, and deeds of ours to impact the spiritual worlds above. They also draw down insight and messages from G-d into our earthly world. Usually, the angel's message is disguised through the workings of nature and only a prophetic insight can perceive that it is the work of a higher force and not simply causality.

3. 2 Types

   Angels can be divided into 2: those that were created from the beginning of time, and remain eternal in the fixed universe, and angels that are continuously created anew. 

   How are these angels created anew?

   Our thoughts, deeds, and experience birth a multitude of angels. In fact, every mitzvah that we perform gives rise to a spiritual being. The spiritual essence of the mitzvah creates angels. In the words of Adin Steinsaltz, “the person who performs a mitzvah, who prays or directs his mind toward the Divine, in so doing creates an angel, which is a sort of reaching out on the part of man to the higher worlds”. Mitzvahs actually acquire spiritual substance and rise upward to higher worlds. 

   Just like we can create holy, positive angels, we can also create subversive destructive angels known as “demons”. These are angels birthed from fear, jealousy, negativity, and wicked deeds because “every act of malice or evil creates an abstract gnostic being, who is a bad angel, an angel belonging to the plane of evil corresponding to the state of mind that brought it into being”(Steinsaltz). No matter what, we give forth an abundance of angels that encircle us. It is up to us to create positive, holy angels, or negative, self-destructing ones.

   3 ways to birth holy, protective angels around you:

   1. Pray, or say Tehillim (Psalms). Envision angels with pure emotions surrounding you.

   2. Perform a positive mitzvah. Light shabbat candles, affix a mezuzah on your door, or help a friend in need. Know that your physical act forms a spiritual entity. 

   3. Learn Torah aloud- each word becomes an angel.