Hashem’s Angels

God’s chariot is twice ten thousand, thousands of Shin’an (angels). (Psalms 68:18)  

Today, the People of Israel face an existential battle that has tremendous impact in several dimensions of our lives. The battle begins with our innermost self – our thoughts. No one can avoid this conflict.   

The battle of thoughts is a vicious whirlwind that aims for domination. Which thought will be victorious – terror and fear, or emuna and bitachon (unwavering faith and trust in God)? Today the media is formulated to do our thinking for us. This passive thinking is reinforced by the social media element that exposes us to their brutal agendas. Often, our thoughts are dominated by terror and fear rather than  emuna and bitachon.  

The heart, our most vulnerable element, is anxious to flee from horror, yet it can become paralyzed in its grip. We are warned in the Shema blessing:    

Beware for yourself that you not be fooled by your heart and [eventually] turn away [from God] and serve other gods and bow down to them [in idolatry]. (Devarim 11:16)  

Media images and recordings give the impression of “absolute truth”. But only Hashem has pure Truth. We will comprehend His Truth only at the end of time, when God’s precise calculations for the thousands of souls, their reincarnations, and their physical and spiritual manifestations are revealed to us.   

How can we protect our hearts and thoughts from terror, fear, and falsehood?  What can the People of Israel do to strengthen one another in this crucial time?  

We can create thousands upon thousands of God’s chariots, or angels, through our prayers, expressions of gratitude, mitzvot, and kind deeds. Every time we choose emuna and bitachon rather than terror and fear, we create an angel. Each angel becomes, as it were, a beam of light that has the power to defy the laws of nature and to reach into the darkest side of our thoughts and hearts. Every angel that we create can transform another Jew with hope that Hashem is nearby:   

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)   

These angels might speak to Raz, the 4-year-old hostage before her liberation: “I dreamt I was going home.” Or perhaps they might inspire the Bedouin righteous gentile to say to himself, “I must go and rescue them” as happened with Youssef Ziadna during the Nova Party Massacre. Or perhaps they might give a family closure, as happened to the two sons of Yehudit Weiss. When her sons returned from praying at the Ohel of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in New York, they learned that their mother had been found dead.  

Know that as a Jewish soul, you have an unlimited capability to create angels and to tap into God’s glory and transform the very reality of this world. Use all the power that you have now, so that the People of Israel may merit the full redemption with compassion.