Kaisipang Hudyo sa Josue 5:13: Derashot HaRan & Guide for the Perplexed

The answer, however, is that the angel which appeared to Joshua was the very angel spoken of here, viz. (Exodus 23:20): "Behold, I am sending an angel before you…" But Moses had forestalled the advent of this angel all the days of his life so that they be governed only by the Blessed One Himself. Therefore, after the death of Moses, it is this very angel that appeared to Joshua. And so it is written in Tanchuma (Mishpatim 18): "I am the one who came in the days of Moses, your master, but he rejected me and did not want me to go with him." And he added that no plenipotentiary was to be assigned them all the days of Moses. And when Moses died, that plenipotentiary reassumed his role and was seen by Joshua, as it is written (Joshua 5:13-14): "And it was, when Joshua was in Jericho … and he [the angel] answered: 'No, but I am captain of the host of the L-rd. I have come now…" This is foreshadowed in "Behold, I am sending an angel before you." And because Joshua knew this to be the angel of whom it was said "for my Name is within him," he saw it fitting to bow down to him as he would before the L-rd, and he did so. And this is the reason for its being written in this parshah (Exodus 23:24): "Do not bow down to their gods and do not serve them," which is, ostensibly, out of place here, this exhortation already having appeared in the Ten Commandments. The reason for its appearance here, however, is that since this angel being sent to the Jews was to be accepted and accorded honor approaching that accorded the Blessed One Himself — it being written "Take heed of him," implying that it was permitted and fitting to bow down to him — because of this there is repeated the exhortation "Do not bow down to their gods…" That is, though I have permitted you to defer and to bow down to this angel, do not take this as a license to bow down to the gods of the peoples (who also serve angels or the heavenly host). This angel alone may be bowed down to, for my Name is within him.

WE have already shown that the appearance or speech of an angel mentioned in Scripture took place in a vision or dream; it makes no difference whether this is expressly stated or not, as we have explained above. This is a point of considerable importance. In some cases the account begins by stating that the prophet saw an angel; in others, the account apparently introduces a human being, who ultimately is shown to be an angel; but it makes no difference, for if the fact that an angel has been heard is only mentioned at the end, you may rest satisfied that the whole account from the beginning describes a prophetic vision. In such visions, a prophet either sees God who speaks to him, as will be explained by us, or he sees an angel who speaks to him, or he hears some one speaking to him without seeing the speaker, or he sees a man who speaks to him, and learns afterwards that the speaker was an angel. In this latter kind of prophecies, the prophet relates that he saw a man who was doing or saying something, and that he learnt afterwards that it was an angel.

The same, I hold, is the case when it is said in reference to Jacob, “And a man wrestled with him” (Gen. 32:25); this took place in a prophetic vision, since it is expressly stated in the end (ver. 31) that it was an angel. The circumstances are here exactly the same as those in the vision of Abraham, where the general statement, “And the Lord appeared to him,” etc., is followed by a detailed description. Similarly the account of the vision of Jacob begins, “And the angels of God met him” (Gen. 32:2); then follows a detailed description how it came to pass that they met him; namely, Jacob sent messengers, and after having prepared and done certain things, “he was left alone,” etc., “and a man wrestled with him” (ibid. ver. 24). By this term “man” [one of] the angels of God is meant, mentioned in the phrase, “And angels of God met him”; the wrestling and speaking was entirely a prophetic vision. That which happened to Balaam on the way, and the speaking of the ass, took place in a prophetic vision, since further on, in the same account, an angel of God is introduced as speaking to Balaam. I also think that what Joshua perceived, when “he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold a man stood before him” (Josh. 5:13) was a prophetic vision, since it is stated afterwards (ver. 14) that it was “the prince of the host of the Lord.” But in the passages, “And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal” (Judges 2:1); “And it came to pass that the angel of the Lord spake these words to all Israel” (ibid. ver. 2); the “angel” is, according to the explanation of our Sages, Phineas. They say, The angel is Phineas, for, when the Divine Glory rested upon him, he was “like an angel.”