Daf Yomi, Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, Torah and Psychology, Marriage Counseling, Psychotherapy
Our Gemara on Amud Beis discusses the sacrificial process of Manoach, Shimshon’s father. After being told that his wife would be the mother of a future savior and instructed to treat Shimshon as a Nazir, Manoach offers a sacrifice. The verse (Shoftim 13:19–20) describes what transpired:
“Manoach took the kid and the grain offering and offered them up on the rock to God; and a wondrous thing happened while Manoach and his wife looked on. As the flames leaped up from the altar toward the sky, the angel of God ascended in the flames of the altar…”
Apparently, the angel miraculously ascended along with the flames, indicating acceptance of Manoach’s offering. This is not a typical encounter with an angel; other biblical figures encountered angels without such a dramatic departure. What is the meaning of this?
Likkutei Halachos (Orach Chaim, Laws of Meals 5:49) explains that Manoach’s angel was from the same group of angels that met with Avraham. There is a mystical backstory. This angel remained trapped on earth all this time until Manoach’s era (the other two returned earlier by Yaakov’s ladder). Why were they detained?
To answer this, we must first recall the Aggadah about the angels’ reaction to the giving of the Torah (Shabbos 88b). The angels were indignant that human beings should receive something so divine. Moshe defended mankind by pointing out that the Torah addresses human struggle—work, family, temptation in its laws of honoring parents and other civil rules.
Avraham deliberately fed the angels to expose them to human physicality. According to Likkutei Halachos, the angels had to process the mundane physicality and elevate into something spiritual. It was not easy for them and it took two angels until Yaakov’s time and one angel until Manoach’s time to encounter the physicality and elevate it and be ready to go back to God.
Avraham wanted them to experience this first hand, and then they would understand human nature, its subjective challenges and how the earthly version of Torah is designed to help mankind. This is similar to the Aggadah of the fallen angels or Nephilim (see Pirke DeRebbi Eliezer 22.)
How fitting that this culminates with the birth of Shimshon, a Nazir who lives in abstention like an angel, yet must still struggle with desire.
Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation
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Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, LCSW-R, LMFT, DHL is a psychotherapist who works with high conflict couples and families. He can be reached via email at simchafeuerman@gmail.com