Yaakov sent angels ahead of him to his brother Eisav, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. Rashi explains that Yaakov literally sent, angels mi¦k ̈`§l©n y ̈n©n (Midrash Rabbah 75:4). The Chasam Sofer asks an obvious question: What was the purpose of sending angels to Eisav? Even a regular human being cannot see an angel, which is a spiritual entity, without the permission of Hashem. How would Eisav, who was an evil person, a "rashah," be able to see an angel? The Chasam Sofer quotes an interesting Ramban in Parshas Vayeira (17), who says that in the beginning, when Yaakov sent the angels, Eisav wasn’t able to see the angels, and only when Yaakov was misled that Hashem should open Eisav’s eyes did he see the angels. Therefore, Yaakov understood that even though Eisav could not see a spiritual angel, through prayer, Hashem would open Eisav’s eyes, and he would see the angels. The Chasam Sofer asks: If this were the case, why did Yaakov send the angels if he realized that Eisav would not be able to see them?
The Chasam Sofer answers: We find elsewhere the concept of Hashem opening the eyes of an evil person. Avimelech saw an angel in the merit of Avraham: Bereishis 20:3. Lovon also saw an angel in the merit of Yaakov (42:13). We also see, with regard to Bilaam and his donkey: The Torah (Bamidbar 22:27) states, The donkey saw the angel of the Lord, and it crouched down under Bilaam. Only the donkey saw the angel; however, Bilaam didn’t see the angel. Bilaam hit the donkey when she acted weirdly. Afterwards, the Torah says: Hashem opened Balaam's eyes, and he saw the angel standing in the road. Only at a later stage does Hashem open the eyes of Bilaam. This was in the merit of Klal Yisrael. We derive from here that Hashem opens the eyes of evil people to be able to see a spiritual angel when there is a benefit to a Yid. Therefore, Yaakov was sure that Eisav would see the angels in his merit. However, Yaakov began to realize that Eisav was such a “rasha” that Hashem would not allow him to see an angel, even in the merit of Yaakov. Therefore, Yaakov had to pray that Hashem should open Eisav’s eyes. With this insight from the Chasam Sofer into the power that prayer can achieve, we can explain why we pray every day in Shacharis. Hashem, unite our hearts to love and fear your name. If fear of Hashem is only in the person’s hands, how can we pray to Hashem that He should help us fear Him? The answer is that prayer can achieve everything; just as Yaakov prayed that Eisav should see angels, a Yid can pray for Yiras Shamayim.
Another way to understand the sending of angels to Eisav and how the prayer of Yakov worked is: The Zohar Hakadosh in Parshas Bamidbar says that an angel, when he enters the atmosphere of the universe, which is materialistic, falls from his level and can be seen as a human being. As we see by Avraham, when Hashem sent the three angels, it says Looking up, he saw “three people” standing near him. Perceiving this, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them. We see that Avraham thought they were people. He even offered them to eat and said, “Let me fetch a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves; then go on.” The answer is that when the mission of the angel is to be a person, they fall from their spiritual level. Yet when the angels came to Yaakov in our parsha, they were elevated back to their level. On the other hand, 32:25 when Yaakov was left alone. “And a person wrestled with him until the break of dawn.” Now this was an angel, yet Yaakov thought it was a person! The answer is that Hashem controls the level of the angel according to the needs of the mission. When the angels came to guard Yaakov they were at the level of real angels. However, when the angel came to wrangle with Yaakov, it fell from the level and Yaakov thought it was a person.
With this, we can understand that Yaakov sent the angels, who were on a higher level, with the knowledge that as soon as they met Eisav, they would fall from their level and seem to be people. Now if Eisav would fight with the angels, they would return to the level of an angel, and since they were already with Eisav, he was able to see them as angels, and was afraid to fight an angel.
This same idea was by Billaam. At first the angel was at its level and Bilaam couldn’t see an angel. Afterwards the mission changed and the angel was seen as a person, and Bilaam saw the angel.
(Yehuda Z. Klitnick)
