Do we have a guardian angel?
Ask the rabbi.
CELEBRATING A BABY
Rabbi Raymond Apple
Q. Why do we have a celebratory meal when a baby boy is born?
A. It probably began with Abraham and Sarah, who made a feast to mark their son Isaac (Gen.21:8).
Any happy event has a Jewish celebration associated with it, originally because childbirth was associated with danger, and there was no guarantee that the mother and child would survive.
There was also a spiritual and intellectual danger. The unborn child is said to have learnt a great deal in the womb, but at birth, everything was lost, so subsequent education was like re-learning. Having a party to mark the birth was to console the baby for his loss of knowledge, and it reassured him that the family and community welcomed his arrival nonetheless.
All this applies when the baby is a boy, but many circles extend the celebration to the birth of a girl. The source is said to be the Talmudic report (Bava Batra 91a) that Bo’az had 120 children, 60 boys and 60 girls, and he believed in celebrating the birth of both sexes.
GUARDIAN ANGELS
Q. Do we each have a guardian angel?
A. Biblical teaching believes in guardian angels – “He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways” (Psalm 91:11).
There was an ancient belief that there was one angel for each person, but this developed into the notion of a host of angels who all look after us as necessary.
The traditional prayer before going to bed at night mentions four angels – “May Michael be at my right hand, Gabriel at my left, Uriel before me, Raphael behind me, and above my head the Presence of God”.
There is an idea that good angels seek our good, but evil angels oppose them. All depends upon the path we choose. If we perform good deeds, they take wings like angels; if we carry out less worthy deeds, they come to haunt us.
Not all views see the angels as actual beings; Maimonides regards them as spiritual energies or forces.
Rabbi Raymond Apple served for 32 years as the chief minister of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, Australia’s oldest and most prestigious congregation. He is now retired and lives in Jerusalem where he answers interesting questions.
