Commentaire sur L’Exode 23:20

הנה אנכי שלח מלאך BEHOLD, I SEND A MESSENGER [BEFORE THEE] — Here they were informed that they would once sin and that the Divine Majesty would have to tell them, (Exodus 33:3) “for ‘I’ will not go up among thee” (cf. Exodus Rabbah 32:3).

BEHOLD, I SEND AN ANGEL BEFORE THEE. “Here they were informed that they would sin [by worshipping the golden calf] and that the Divine Glory would be saying to them, For I will not go up in the midst of thee.³⁹¹Further, 33:3.

הנה אנכי שולח מלאך לפניך, "Here I am sending an angel ahead of you, etc." The author feels that the angel described here is not an intermediary, one of G'd's ministering angels, but the "great angel," the one who redeemed the patriarchs, a concept familiar to Kabbalists. He says that by definition we do not recognise a force as an intermediary, i.e. an independent power to whom we have to show respect and obeisance. [I believe that the reason for this statement is that reading verses 21 and 22 could lead one to believe that G'd inserted some angel between Himself and us. Ed.] Only at the end of time, will the world recognise that G'd and His name (those speaking in His name, such as angels) are One; compare Zachariah 14,9.