Creating Angels

And he took butter and milk and the calf he had prepared and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree and they ate.        Genesis 18:8

          Rashi, quoting the Talmud [Bava Metzia, 87b], comments that the angels pretended to eat (since celestial beings do not require eating). The angels’ behavior is not a trivial matter, as the Sages derive a practical moral lesson from this behavior: one should not diverge from the local custom.

          Malbim offers an alternate explanation of the angels’ “eating”. The root word “echol” (eat) refers to that which sustains someone or something. Thus, Hebrew can speak of fire “eating” wood (generally translated as “consuming”, but literally “eating”), since it is the wood which sustains the fire. Similarly, a number of verses refer to sacrifices as the “bread of God”, since the sacrifice maintains and sustains the Shechina in the lower world.

          Our Sages teach us that angels are created through the performance of mitzvot. In essence, an angel is the agent of divine providence to provide recompense for one’s good deeds.

          The three angels sent to Abraham were angels of mercy, created through the acts of kindness (g’milut ḥassadim) and hospitality of Abraham. Rashi comments that any given angel has but one task, therefore, each of the three angels who appeared to Abraham had a unique function. It was due to Abraham’s acts of g’milut ḥassadim that an angel was sent to “heal” Sarah of her infertility and prepare her for childbirth. Through these mitzvot of Abraham, a second angel was dispatched to rescue Abraham’s nephew Lot. Though the mission of the third angel was the destruction of Sodom, he too was an angel of mercy. The acts of the Sodomites, being diametrically opposed to mercy (“ḥessed”), required the evil city’s destruction.

          Thus, the final phrase of our verse can be translated “and they were sustained”. As an act of ḥessed, the meal which Abraham served his angelic guests (whom he thought to be mortal travelers) gave vitality to, and created these angels.