[Mesorah] Shalom Aleikhem

[MPoppers at kayescholer.com]

Micha replied:
> I'm asking about two Jews who meet on the street, and greet eachother
with "Shalom Aleikhem". Are we greeting their entourage of mal'akhim
too? <
Yes, that was the hypothesis I proposed last Friday.

> The same 4 mal'akhim accompanied /me/ all day as well, why suddenly
greet them? <
I don't know about you, but I don't know enough about Malach Mechanics to 
state definitively that the malachim who hopefully accompany me are 
exactly the same as the malachim who accompany you.  In any case, I'm not 
greeting the malachim who are accompanying me -- heck, I'm not even 
greeting you & your malachim by name -- so I don't think they can be too 
upset at your malachim being included in my greeting to you, especially 
given my positive intent.

> And as you note in the MmD essay (URL below), the greeting derives from
the exchange in Rus. But there the fieldhands greet Boaz in the
singular. The answer therefore can not be overly inclusive, as it would
run counter to the pasuq. <
As you know, I privately suggested to you that the change to the plural 
has something to do with the popularization of the concept of being 
accompanied by malachim.

All the best from
Michael Poppers * Elizabeth, NJ, USA
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