Kaisipang Hudyo sa Genesis 32:3: Derashot HaRan & Guide for the Perplexed

In any event, it is clear from the words of Daniel that the fourth creature is Amalek. For he reckons those peoples symbolized by the creatures, each of which seized the reign from its neighbor, and it is known from the words of our sages that Amalek [Rome] seized the reign from Greece and asserted its power over her. And it is Amalek that exiled us from our land, which is the domicile of the Shechinah, as revealed to Jacob in his prophetic vision of the ladder and by the singling out of that place Beth-El [the house of G-d], for the vision. For He showed him when he left Lavan and returned to the land of Israel that that land possessed a great eminence over other lands and that the soul was there disposed to cleave to the Celestial Light, as it is written (Genesis 32:2): "And Jacob went on his way and angels of G-d met him." "met him" implies that angels always walk in that land and so are to be met by one who enters it. And it is for this reason that Jacob called that place Machanaim [camps]. For there are three levels of habitation: the habitation of the celestial encampment, the heavens; the habitation of the terrestrial encampment, the entire earth — with the exception of the land of Israel; and the land of Israel itself, which is both the habitation of the terrestrial encampment (human beings dwelling there) and the habitation of the celestial encampment ("for I have met there a camp of angels"). That place, then, was well worthy of the appellation "camps." And this is the intent of (Ibid 3): "And Jacob said when he saw them: 'This is the camp of G-d,' And he called that place Machanaim."

We have already stated above that the angels are incorporeal. This agrees with the opinion of Aristotle: there is only this difference in the names employed—he uses the term “Intelligences,” and we say instead “angels.” His theory is that the Intelligences are intermediate beings between the Prime Cause and existing things, and that they effect the motion of the spheres, on which motion the existence of all things depends. This is also the view we meet with in all parts of Scripture: every act of God is described as being performed by angels. But “angel” means “messenger”; hence every one that is intrusted with a certain mission is an angel. Even the movements of the brute creation are sometimes due to the action of an angel, when such movements serve the purpose of the Creator, who endowed it with the power of performing that movement; e.g., “God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths that they have not hurt me” (Dan. 6:22). Another instance may be seen in the movements of Balaam’s ass, described as caused by an angel. The elements are also called angels. Comp. “Who maketh winds His angels, flaming fire His ministers” (Ps. 104:4). There is no doubt that the word “angel” is used of a messenger sent by man; e.g., “And Jacob sent angels” (Gen. 32:4); of a prophet, e.g., “And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim” (Judges 2:1); “And He sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt” (Num. 20:16). It is also used of ideals, perceived by prophets in prophetic visions, and of man’s animal powers, as will be explained in another place.