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And a man found him (Joseph), and
behold he was wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying: “What do
you seek?” Genesis
37:15
The “man” was the angel
Gabriel.
Rashi, quoting a Midrash
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In last week’s parasha,
Joseph’s father, Jacob, encountered a “man” as well:
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And
Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the break of day. Genesis 32:25
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Our
Sages identify this man as the angel of Esau.
The question arises: since each of
the angels is described simply as a man, how did our Sages determine that the
one encountered by Jacob was Esau’s angel, while it was Gabriel whom Joseph
met?
Rabbi Leib Mochiaḥ of Pressburg
notes that at the end of his wrestling match with the angel, Jacob requested
that the angel bless him, to which the angel replied (based upon Rashi’s
explanation [32:27]): “I must go to praise God.” An angel who cannot take a few
seconds to help a human being must be the angel of the evil Esau. The
angel (“man”) whom Joseph encountered, no doubt had an obligation to praise
God, as did the angel who wrestled with Jacob,
yet he asked Joseph in what way he can be of help, and was willing to
delay praising God in order to assist a person in need. Such an angel must
be the good angel Gabriel.
When the “Tzaddik of Jerusalem,”
Rabbi Aryeh Levin (1885 – 1969) related the comment of Rabbi Leib, he added
that the introduction to the amida, the heart of the morning prayers, is
“Rock of Israel, arise to help Israel”: teaching that helping Israel precedes
prayer.
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