| |
Retrieving Angels 12:6
Translation and commentary by Rabbi David Slavin
Regarding our previous topic [on the means through which one's
soul is "collected" after death], the angels Gabriel and Samael themselves don't
take the [departed] soul, rather they send an underling. These forces are known
to have been created from the particles that fell during the Shattering of the
Vessels. Their root is in the name of Sag. From there comes the Evil
Inclination for each individual.  | | " ....as soon as they accomplish their mission they disappear." | | |
The initials of Samael and Gabriel are Sag,
that is, the essence of the verse, "they were all dross [in Hebrew, 'Sag']"
(Psalms 53:4). In other words, each one that takes people's souls is of the
servants of Sag. And as soon as they accomplish their mission they
disappear. As is stated, "...together they have become depraved" (ibid.), for both
the man and his Evil Inclination die together. [As the verse declares,] "There
is no doer of good, there remains not even one", being that the Angel of Death,
the Evil Inclination, and the Satan are one in the same, therefore there is no
good. In other words, each of them entice for bad, for he will seduce, then
prosecute and then take the soul, simultaneously ending his own existence. That
is what is meant by the verse "There remains not even one" (ibid.): even the
angels cease to exist. This is true despite the fact that he himself knows and
even sees from others before him that he will terminally perish as soon as the
soul is taken from the Jew. The reason for this is that they are only satisfied
with the soul of one Jew, much more that with a thousand gentiles. To return to the previous article in this series on the Land of Israel,
Inheritance of Jacob, click here
To continue on to the next article in this series on the Land of Israel,
Burial in Eretz Yisrael, click here
|
