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Parashat Vayishlach In this week’s Torah reading we find the encounter, after 20 years, of Yaakov en Eisav. Yaakov sends emissaries to check on Eisav… Our sages explain that those emissaries were real angels… Based on Likutei Sichot, vol. 10, p. 100

Vayishlach: Angels, Mission, and Staying Connected Above

This week’s Torah portion, Vayishlach, opens with the dramatic moment when Yaakov (Jacob) sends emissaries to his brother Esav (Esau) after twenty long years of separation. Their parting, of course, was far from peaceful: Yaakov fled his parents’ home because Esav wanted to kill him. Yaakov then spent two decades in the house of Lavan, where he married four wives and became the father of eleven sons and a daughter.

Now, after all those years, the brothers are about to meet again. Yaakov sends messengers ahead to assess Esav’s intentions. They return with alarming news: Esav is approaching with 400 armed men. Understandably, Yaakov prepares for what could be a violent confrontation—dividing his camp, praying, and sending gifts.

Yet the encounter ends not with war, but with a hug and a kiss. Our sages debate whether that kiss was sincere or whether Esav attempted to bite Yaakov. But whatever happened, the story is rich with meaning.

Angels or Emissaries?

The Torah uses a precise and loaded word to describe the messengers Yaakov sent: מלאכים (malachim). In Hebrew, this word can mean emissaries, but it is also the word for angels.

Rashi, the classic commentator from 11th-century France, addresses this ambiguity directly. He writes just two words:

“מלאכים ממש” — “literally angels.”

Rashi insists that Yaakov did not send human messengers. He sent actual angels.

The Maggid of Mezritch: A Deeper Reading

The Maggid of Mezritch, Rabbi Dov Ber—the successor of the Baal Shem Tov—offered a profound mystical explanation in his final days.

He explained that the word “mamash” (literally) also carries another meaning: the tangible, physical aspect of something.

With this in mind, the Maggid says:
Yaakov sent only the tangible, physical aspect of the angels to Esav,
while their spiritual essence remained with Yaakov.

But why would Yaakov divide the angels in this way? After all, in our experience you cannot separate body from soul. When they part, a person dies. And in fact, we acknowledge this miracle every day: after using the restroom we bless G-d “who formed the human being with wisdom… and performs wonders.” One explanation is that the “wonder” refers to the miracle of uniting physical and spiritual—two opposites—into one living being.

So how could Yaakov send just the “body” of the angels?

Body Below, Spirit Above

The Maggid’s teaching is not about metaphysics—it’s about our mission.

Human life, like the angels in the story, has two dimensions:

We were placed in this physical world to make it a home for G-dliness—through the 613 mitzvot for Jews, and the 7 Noahide laws for non-Jews and their many details.

But the only way to fulfill this mission without being swallowed by the world’s influences is to live like those angels:
physically present below, but spiritually connected above.

If the angels had severed their connection to Yaakov entirely, the Maggid explains, they would have been affected by Esav’s negative spiritual atmosphere. Their protection came from maintaining a link to their source.

And so it is with us. Our bodies engage with the world, but our inner identity—our awareness, our priorities, our “heart and mind”—must stay connected to holiness.

Because once a person forgets their spiritual purpose—why they are here—it becomes easy to be swept away by the world’s distractions and pressures.

Where You Feel You Are, There You Truly Are

The Baal Shem Tov famously said:
“A person is found wherever their thoughts are.”

If your consciousness is attached to G-dliness, that connection shapes and protects you, even as you navigate the physical world and its challenges.

A Question for Us

We understand the mission. We’re here to act, to build, to elevate.
But the question is:

How connected do we feel?
Do we live like those angels—rooted above even as we walk below?
Is our “mamesh,” our tangible life, guided by a spiritual core?

Because our success in the world depends not only on what we do, but on where our hearts and minds are anchored.

Talk from Rabbi Tuvia Serber


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