Our Gemara on Amud Aleph discusses the standard width of a line in order to determine the acceptable width of a blank section between the closing line of the contract and the witness’s signatures. As we discussed on daf 162, this is a safeguard against cheating, to prevent the later insertion of fraudulent obligations and conditions.

The yardstick used by the rabbis is comprised of two words, which contain tall and short letters, so as to account for extra space typically required above and below a line:

Space enough to write the Hebrew word lekh, and then the Hebrew word lekha, this word on top of that one. These two words each consist of the two letters lamed and final khaf; the former has a projection that fully occupies the interlinear space above it, and the latter has a projection that fully occupies the interlinear space below it. Writing these words one under the other, then, would require an additional interlinear space above and below both lines. 

Of course the most famous use of letters that manifest this up and down are the word and letter combination which is from God’s first direction to Avraham (Bereishis 12:1):

God said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

The Hebrew phrase is “lech lecha”, and is difficult to translate. Literally it is saying, “Go to yourself”, which doesn’t make sense. The popular interpretation, based on the Midrash and Rashi, is “Go out for yourself”, meaning this journey will bring greatness and goodness to your life. 

Kli Yakkar says a beautiful peshat. It actually does mean to go to yourself. Hashem was saying, go and discover yourself. By going inside and connecting to your soul, you will become your true self and thereby bring about prophetic attachment to God. 

The process of finding oneself in God and God in oneself is somewhat reminiscent of the Rambam’s famous interpretation of Jacob’s Ladder in his dream (Guide for the Perplexed I:15).  It is notable that the angels in Yaakov’s dream first ascend the ladder and then descend. That is not logical as presumably angels originate in heaven, so the order should be descending and ascending. The answer hinges on what is the true translation of Angel. In Biblical Hebrew the word we translate as angel is malach, which actually means messenger, (see for example Bamidbar 20:16 where it is used in a secular sense.) This is why prophets are also referred to as malachim, since both prophets and angels bring God’s message and are His messengers. 

Therefore the “angels” in Yaakov’s dream are those who bring the word of God down to people, be they actual angels, prophets, or those who teach the word of God in their words and deeds. Now we understand the order. One first ascends in order to achieve spiritual connection and then descends in order to bring down the word of God.

Yaakov was to continue his grandfather’s mission, to discover his full self, his soul, and thereby bring the word of God to others. This is poignantly portrayed in a dream that he has when leaving his birthplace. He, like Avraham, had to embark on a long journey, externally traversing the physical world, but internally by becoming his fullest self. 

It occurs to me that this idea is symbolically represented in the actual letters of the words, “Lech lecha.” The Lamed reached above the line to Heaven and Kaf extends downward to bring the message to Earth.

One last point I cannot resist. I try to employ true understanding of Biblical Hebrew to decontaminate from subtle incorrect cultural attitudes and beliefs. These mindsets and world views are unconsciously incorporated as a result of powerful influences on thought that come from the implicit categorization and depictions in each language. We must always strive to use our best objective thinking to comprehend and translate Torah and be wary of words that may be loosely similar in English, but actually are different. A scholar pointed out to me an example that had not occurred to me; as I was duped by the English word. In English we have basically one word for Angel, but in Hebrew we have many, such as cherubim, ofanim, chayos hakodesh and seraphim (see for example, Yechezkel’s vision, Chapter one.) The Hebrew Bible never depicts malachim as having wings; only perhaps ofanim, chayos hakodesh and seraphim, and most famously the cherubim on the ark and in Shlomo Hamelech’s Temple. Therefore we have been duped by hundreds of years of Christian paintings, which ended up becoming part of our mental and physical art gallery. I do not know any Jew who studies Yaakov’s dream or who recites Sholom Aleichem Friday night without imagining winged entities. We have been bamboozled and deprived of true comprehension. Malachim are messengers, heavenly or otherwise. You might think, this is all semantics, who cares if we think angels have wings or not?  It is important to notice the subtle influence of language on thought. If we think of angels with wings whenever we see the word malach, we are missing an opportunity to understand more.  God has many messengers aside from angels. We certainly ought to welcome angels to our Shabbos table, and hope we merit that God will send His messengers to bless us. These may be human intellectual and moral faculties that God enlightens us with, prophecy, or hopefully even divine entities, such as angels. But one thing for sure to keep in mind is that they do not have any wings!

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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