[Avodah] Praying to angels

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 01:04:31PM -0400, Yitzhak Grossman wrote:
: > I phrased it as a machloqes between the Rambam and the OS on the Rambam,
: > in his essay "Hakol Tzadfui" on Hil' Teshuvah.

: The position you attribute to Rav Meir Simha is that of Ralbag
: (Commentary to the Torah, Bereishis 3:24):

In this and my citation of RSRH, I simply could only quote the sources I
actually knew existed. The MC is close to my maternal family, so I know
it better than the Ralbag.

: "But the upper intellects ("ba'alei sechel ha'elyonim") act
: consistently, even though they have free will, since they always choose
: good, ... but the person, since he is a combination of matter and form,
: ineluctably has opposite choices ..."
: 
: You have stated here and previously that Rambam disagrees; I don't know
: your source for this...

In the 5th ikkar the Rambam explicitly rules out any authority or control
by mal'akhim over their actions. (As well as the kochavim, galgalim,
yesodos and everything mixed from them.) They act according to their
natures (kulam mutba'im bif'ulaseihem), and they do Retzono Yis'aleh.

It also follows from the definition of mal'akh in the Moreh II:6.
"The natural forces and angels are identical". This comes from his
embracing of Aristo's physics. I discussed this idea in the following
posts (in order of what I found to be most to least clear):
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol12/v12n082.shtml#12
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol13/v13n057.shtml#15
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol03/v03n205.shtml#03

I don't know, therefore, what to make of Moreh 2:7 in light of ikkar
#5. But you asked where I got the notion from, and that's it. Perhaps the
relevent line is the opening one, telling us that he left a discussion
of angels in particular, and is now addressing the fact that mal'akh
is a homonym. But all the homonyms seem to be things listed in Peirush
haMishnayos. I admit I'm befuddled.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             With the "Echad" of the Shema, the Jew crowns
micha at aishdas.org        G-d as King of the entire cosmos and all four
http://www.aishdas.org   corners of the world, but sometimes he forgets
Fax: (270) 514-1507      to include himself.     - Rav Yisrael Salanter