Kesher Talk

Do angels have free will? This was a heavy question I laid on my orthodox uncle last year, as my fiancee and I started wrangling with it at Yom Kippur. We usually read that angels are more perfect than humans, partially because they can only obey God's will. Or something along those lines. And yet, at Yom Kippur we read that it is not only us humans being judged for our sins by God, but angels as well. What gives? I have found an answer of some form, courtesy of AskMoses.com:

Generally we say that only human beings have freedom of choice and that angels just do what their told. They have no evil inclination, so they wouldn’t want to do anything wrong even if they did have the choice.

But, we do find that certain angels were punished, which would imply that they do have freedom of choice.

For example, the Talmud (Bava Metzia 65b) relates that Elijah the prophet once revealed to Rabbi Judah the Prince that if Rabbi Chiya and his sons would pray simultaneously the Messiah would arrive. Rabbi Judah then called a public fast day and during the prayer service ordered Rabbi Chiya and his sons to lead the service. (On a fast day, three people lead the services.) When they reached the prayer of “He restores life to the dead,” an allusion to the Messianic era, the world shook. A voice was heard in heaven: “Who revealed secrets in the world?”—referring to the secret of how to bring the Messiah. And the reply was: “Elijah.” Elijah was then brought and administered sixty lashes of fire.” This story seems to imply that Elijah, an angel, has freedom of choice and can incur punishment by choosing wrongly.

Furthermore, the Talmud (Chagigah 14b-15a ) relates the story of four sages who entered heaven by reciting G-d’s ineffable Name. Only one of them emerged unscarred from the experience. One died; another went crazy; and a third became an apostate. Why did this last one become an apostate? He saw the angel Matat who had permission to sit while recording the merits of Israel. He said, “Hasn’t it been taught that in Heaven there is no sitting…and no weariness? Perhaps [G-d forbid] there are two divinities in Heaven?” Matat was then ejected and administered sixty blows of fire.

The exact meaning of these stories aside, they seem to imply that angels do in fact have free choice and can therefore be punished.

Some commentators maintain that these “punishments” should not be taken literally and they are merely metaphoric. However, Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch, a 19th century mystic, says that although angels in general do not have free choice, the two angels mentioned in the above stories, Elijah and Matat (who was originally Enoch), were actually humans who had ascended to heaven and became angels. So even in their celestial state they still maintained their human capacity to choose.

Source: Mi Camocha 5629 (end)

posted by Howard @ 6/21/2002 01:33:58 PM