There is a custom to begin reviewing the Haggadah 30 days prior to the holiday. There is also a custom to read parts of the Haggadah on the Shabbat afternoon preceding Passover.
As I was glancing at the Haggadah last Shabbat, I was thinking about a very famous and noticeable question and conflict in the text.
A great theme of the story is that G-d redeemed the Jewish people from Egypt, himself. Directly, no intermediary. “Lo al yedei malach, lo al yedei saraf.” Yet, the involvement of Moses and Aharon, as messengers of G-d in helping redeem the people, is central to the Exodus. Their negotiations with Pharaoh and his advisors regarding the plagues are part and parcel of the Exodus journey.
Moses, in particular, is viewed almost as a proxy for G-d in the story. He is the linchpin. He executes the Exodus. In fact, Moses’s role is so pivotal that the effort was made to ensure his absence from the Haggadah so as not to confuse him with G-d, the redeemer. Yet, when it comes to the actual word in the Biblical text for a messenger or a proxy, a malach, Rashi’s commentary directly names Moses.
Different chapters in the Exodus narrative seem to oscillate between questioning whether G-d ought to send a messenger or not. Ultimately, for the final plague, there is a malach, a messenger; but its more immediate association is angel. So it seems that there are two different layers of messengers of G-d, a celestial one and a human one. When the Haggadah quotes G-d, “I and not a malach” [took the people out of Egypt], it speaks of the final plague. Perhaps the point of this usage is this: Because the 10th plague is gruesome, and potentially morally thorny, the specific targeting of the firstborn Egyptians, G-d so to speak is stepping up and saying: This one is directly on me; no human messengers have anything to do with it.
In general, the emphasis on the unmediated nature of the Jewish people’s Exodus (“Lo al yedei malach, lo al yedei saraf”) implies that while there were messengers, be they human or angels, it is I, it is G-d, Who is actually the redeemer and orchestrator here. The messengers were there were merely G-d’s proxies, so to speak.
There is also the distinction between the prelude to the Exodus — the plagues, and the Exodus as a process — and one and only Exodus night, “‘leil shimurim, night of watching.” Could we say that at one stage of the process, G-d’s role is more dominating, lacking any human messenger, while at another stage, G-d does not play the exclusive role? Perhaps we can introduce a third possibility, that the Jewish people themselves play a role in their own redemption?
At the inception of the process of redemption, the Jewish people is passive, broken in spirit. Miracles happen to them and for them. But in the end, they take part, leaping and rushing to their own redemption.
So what does G-d saying “I and no intermediary, Ani le-lo malach” mean? The malach, the angel accompanies the Jewish people leaving Egypt. Yet, this is none other than G-d’s angel. G-d directs the process, yet it may be expressed in our reality by messengers and angels who walk with us along the way.
All this got me thinking that it would be interesting to explore all the places in the Torah where the word malach appears to arrive at a deeper understanding of the word’s meaning. Years ago my curiosity was struck by how the word was used in the Joseph story. I got to thinking about redemptions. Being redeemed and playing a role in redeeming ourselves from the narrow places we may find ourselves in — perhaps it’s a messy endeavor after all. Even as G-d guides the world and we pray that G-d guides redemptive moments and junctures in our lives, in the life of our people and in the entire world, we too lean on the help of G-d’s messengers and angels. We too ultimately must be active in actualizing the process.
Even in redemption as miraculous as the Exodus from Egypt.
Perhaps in an inversion of the meaning of “Ani v’lo malach, I and not an intermediary,” these words assigned to G-d can mean that at times leaving narrow places can be up to me, without depending on a messenger or an angel. I must internalize “Ani ve-lo malach.”
Yet, where in the world would we be without those guardian angels sent by G-d who, sometimes daily, get us through?
Perhaps, this is also another layer of Elijah’s presence on the seder night. To learn to receive G-d’s angels, there for us in our lives, and to be those angels in the lives of others.
Ani, v’lo malach.
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