23:20-23<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 20 Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by The Way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. According to Philo of Alexandria, this Angel was a manifestation of the Logos (the Memra, the Word, Reason).<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n For God, like a shepherd and a king, governs (as if they were a flock of sheep) the earth, and the water, and the air, and the fire, and all the plants, and living creatures that are in them, whether mortal or divine; and he regulates the nature of the heaven, and the periodical revolutions of the sun and moon, and the variations and harmonious movements of the other stars,<\/strong> ruling them according to law and justice; appointing, as their immediate superintendent, his own right reason (Logos),<\/strong> his first-born son, who is to receive the charge of this sacred company, as the lieutenant of the great king; for it is said somewhere, \u201cBehold, I am he! I will send my messenger before thy face, who shall keep thee in the Road.\u201d(Ex 23:20.)<\/strong> (52) Let therefore all the world, the greatest and most perfect flock of the living God, say \u201cThe Lord is my shepherd, and he shall cause me to lack nothing,\u201d (Ps. 23:1)<\/strong> (53) and let every separate individual say the same thing; not with the voice which proceeds from his tongue and his mouth, extending only through a scanty portion of the air, but with the wide spreading voice of the mind, which reaches to the very extremities of this universe; for it is impossible that there should be a deficiency of anything that is necessary, where God presides, who is in the habit of bestowing good things in all fulness and completeness in all living beings. (174) for until a man is made perfect he uses divine reason<\/strong> (Logos)<\/strong> as the guide of his path, for that is the sacred oracle of scripture: \u201cBehold, I send my angel before thy face that he may keep thee in the road, so as to lead thee into the land which I have prepared for thee. Attend thou to him, and listen to him; do not disobey him; for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in Him.\u201d (Ex 23:20-21.)<\/strong> (175) But when he has arrived at the height of perfect knowledge, then, running forward vigorously, he keeps up with the speed of him who was previously leading him in his way; for in this way they will both become attendants of God who is the guide of all things; no one of those who hold erroneous opinions accompanying them any longer, and even Lot himself, who turned on one side the soul, which might have been upright and inflexible, removing and living at a distance. The Talmud has an interesting comment about this phrase \u201cfor my name is in him\u201d. The Talmud records a debate between the Rabbis and the Minim in which we read:<\/p>\n\n\n\n R. Nahman said: He who is as skilled in refuting the Minim i.e., exchange Me not for him. But if so, why is it stated: Interestingly the Kaarite author Kirkisani had a different reading in his copy of this Talmud passage. His copy had Rabbi Idith saying \u201cThis is Metatron, who is the Lesser YHWH<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who were the \u201cminim\u201d being spoken of in this section of Talmud. Many scholars identify them with the ancient Nazarenes based on a statement by the so-called Church Father Jerome in a letter he wrote to Augustine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe matter in debate, therefore, or I should rather say your opinion regarding it, is summed up in this: that since the preaching of the gospel of Christ, the believing Jews do well in observing the precepts of the law, i.e. in offering sacrifices as Paul did, in circumcising their children, as Paul did in the case of Timothy, and keeping the Jewish Sabbath, as all the Jews have been accustomed to do. If this be true, we fall into the heresy\u2026 [of those who] though believing in Christ, were anathematized by the fathers for this one error, that they mixed up the ceremonies of the law with the gospel of Christ, and professed their faith in that which was new, without letting go what was old. \u2026In our own day there exists a sect among the Jews throughout all the synagogues of the East, which is called the sect of the Min\u00e6ans<\/strong>, and is even now condemned by the Pharisees. The adherents to this sect are known commonly as Nazarene<\/strong>s; they believe in Christ the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary; and they say that He who suffered under Pontius Pilate and rose again, is the same as the one in whom we believe. But while they desire to be both Jews and Christians, they are neither the one nor the other. I therefore beseech you, who think that you are called upon to heal my slight wound, which is no more, so to speak, than a prick or scratch from a needle, to devote your skill in the healing art to this grievous wound, which has been opened by a spear driven home with the impetus of a javelin. For there is surely no proportion between the culpability of him who exhibits the various opinions held by the fathers in a commentary on Scripture, and the guilt of him who reintroduces within the Church a most pestilential heresy. If, however, there is for us no alternative but to receive the Jews into the Church, along with the usages prescribed by their law; if, in short, it shall be declared lawful for them to continue in the Churches of Christ what they have been accustomed to practice in the synagogues of Satan, I will tell you my opinion of the matter: they will not become Christians, but they will make us Jews.<\/em> \u201cMin\u00e6ans\u201d was apparently Latinized from Hebrew MINIM (singular is MIN) a word which in modern Hebrew means \u201capostates\u201d but was originally an acronym for a Hebrew phrase meaning \u201cBelievers in Yeshua the Nazarene\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Returning to our Torah Parsha, Rashi<\/a> writes of the phrase \u201csince my name is in him\u201d (Ex. 23:21)<\/em><\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n for My Name is within him<\/strong>: [This clause] is connected to the beginning of the verse: Beware of him because My Name is associated with him. Our Sages, however, said: This is [the angel] Metatron, whose name is like the name of his Master (Sanh. 38b)<\/strong>. The numerical value of \u05de\u05b5\u05d8\u05b7\u05d8\u05b0\u05e8\u05d5\u05b9\u05df [314] equals that of \u05e9\u05b7\u05c1\u05d3\u05b7\u05bc\u05d9 [314]. -[From Tikunei Zohar 66b]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nachmanides<\/a> writes of the phrase \u201cI am sending the angel before you\u201d (Ex. 23:20):<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026But the True interpretation of the angel whom they are promised here is that he is the \u201credeeming angel\u201d of Gen. 48:16, who has God\u2019s name \u201cin him\u201d (v. 21)- \u201cFor in Yah the LORD you have an everlasting Rock\u201d (Is. 26:4). It was this angel that told Jacob, \u201cI am the God of Beth-el\u201d (Gen. 31:13), for it is the way of the King to swell in His House. though the text calls him an angel because the world is managed entirely under the particular divine aspect that he embodies. Our Sages call him Metatron, the one who shows the way, as I have already explained in my comment to 12:12.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And in his comment to Exodus 12:12 he writes, \u201c\u2026\u201cMetatron\u201d means \u201cone who shows the way,\u201d as in Sifrei, where the finger of God is the metatron that points Moses toward the land of Israel\u2026. \u201c<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the “Angel of the Covenant” referenced in Malachi 3:1 as we read in the Zohar:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
21 Take heed of him, and hearken unto his voice; be not rebellious against him: for he will not pardon your transgression, for My Name is in him.
22 But if you shall indeed hearken unto his voice, and do all that I speak: then I will be an enemy unto your enemies, and an adversary unto your adversaries.
23 For My angel shall go before you, and bring you in unto the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the P\u2019rizzite, and the Kena\u2019anite, the Hivite, and the Y\u2019vusite: and I will cut them off.
(Exodus 23:20-23 HRV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
(On Husbandry 51b-55)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Migration of Abraham 174-175)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
as is R. Idith, let him do so; but not otherwise. Once a Min
said to R. Idith: It is written, And unto Moses He said,
Come up to the Lord (Ex. 24:1). But surely it should have
stated, Come up unto me! It was Metatron, he replied,
whose name is similar to that of his Master, for it is written,
For my name is in him (Ex. 23:21)<\/strong>. But if so, [he retorted,]
we should worship him! The same passage, however,
\u2014 replied R. Idith says: Be not rebellious against him,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
He will not pardon your transgression? He answered:
By our troth we would not accept him even as a messenger,
for it is written, And he said unto him, If Thy [personal]
presence go not etc. (Ex. 33:15).
(b.Sanhedrin 38b)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Jerome; Letter 75)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n