Musar zu Ijow 33:23

Rabbi Yochanan looks at the chain reaction which follows performance of the first מצוה and deems it as sufficient to attract blessings from G–d. He presumably took his cue from Job 33,23: אם יש עליו מלאך מליץ אחד מני אלף להגיד לאקדם ישרו, "If he has a representative (angel), one advocate against a thousand, to declare the man's uprightness." In line with the tradition that every מצוה performed results in the creation of a "good" angel, Rabbi Yochanan feels that such an advocate is already something substantive. When the Torah speaks about the curse in 11,28, it makes certain that the words לא תשמעון are followed immediately by the words וסרתם מן הדרך, "you depart from the path," a reference to action. While G–d grants blessing for a good intention even when it could not be translated into action, He does not curse for the mere failure to listen to the commandments, to Torah lectures. Only once such non-study and non-preparedness to listen results in violation of the commandments will the punishment take into account the attitude displayed which led to the violation. Midrash Shmuel on Avot 3,1 "then you will not commit a sin," points out that Akavyah does not speak about the sin coming to you but about you coming to the sin. With the right attitude you can stop yourself even when the sin has come quite close to you. The Torah uses the word ראה in the singular, instead of ראו, plural which would have matched the rest of the verse, in order to underline the importance of the performance of even a single commandment.

Therefore one must realize in general that the Holy One Blessed is He holds a person responsible even for his casual comments, not to mention for his deeds. He has many agents and many harsh punishments with which to requite those who do not live in accordance with His will. Therefore let every good deed seem precious in a person’s eyes. If the opportunity to perform a good deed comes before him, let him rejoice as if he discovered a precious jewel. Let him give praise to the Holy One Blessed is He for granting him this merit and enabling him to fulfill a commandment. And if there should come his way a commandment that no one else is concerned over, let him be especially eager and quick to perform it to the best of his ability, with his body, his resources and his soul. For a commandment that no one takes interest in is called a meis mitzvah [the name by which the Talmud refers to a corpse that has no one to bury it and that all are required to attend to]. Take hold of it and earn merit through it. At the same time you will be restoring and elevating the esteem of that commandment in the same way that the Holy One Blessed is He lifts us the poor and needy from the dung heap. Afterwards that commandment will be your defender and a just champion on your behalf before the Holy One Blessed is He. And if Heaven has decreed that some evil is to befall him, that commandment will stand up and confront the Heavenly court and plead for him until the decree is rescinded. Concerning this it states, “If there shall be for him one defending angel in a thousand to tell of the man’s uprightness” (Iyov 33:23).

The "one" angel then is the one of the "thousand" that is represented by the עולם העשיה.