In this week’s Parasha, it says, VYishlach Yaakov Malachim, Yaakov sends angels.
Where did these angels come from? From the end of last week’s Parasha, when Yaakov was leaving Lavan and saw a camp of angels. He called the place Mahanayim/Two camps, for his camp and the camp of the angels.
What was the need for this camp of angels to suddenly appear for Yaakov Avinu? The Ramban explains that Yaakov Avinu was going to fight against Esav and Hashem did not want him to despair and be afraid. Therefore, He showed him this camp of angels. Ramban says it was to show him, “There are more with us than are there with them.”
In other words, Yaakov you have angels with you. Esav is coming with 400 people, but you have many more.
The Midrash says it was 600,000 angels that Yaakov Avinu had- many more than Esav. Where does the Ramban get the line, “We have more than they have?”
It goes to a story in Melachim with Elisha HaNavi. The king of Aram was setting up ambushes against the Jewish people, but none of them worked because Elisha warned them about where the ambushes would be. The king of Aram was getting very disturbed. He thought there was an infiltrator in his cabinet leaking the information to the enemy.
He wanted to figure out who this infiltrator was.
Then one of the servants said, “King of Aram, there's no infiltrator. The Jews have this prophet called Elisha, a man of God. And he knows what you're talking about in your bedroom.” So the king sent an army to surround the yeshiva where Elisha was with the students.
That morning, his aid went outside and saw that they were surrounded by the army of Aram. He was petrified and went to Elisha asking, “What are we going to do?”
Elisha says to his aid, “Don't worry, we have more than they do!”
But the lad didn’t know what was going on. What do you mean, he wondered, we're 20 Yeshiva boys. What are you talking about? Elisha prayed to Hashem to open up the eyes of the lad, and Hashem opened up his eyes and he saw chariots and horses of fire on the mountain with thousands of chariots of angels.
He saw that they did have more than they had.
This is an important principle. And it’s not just for Elisha HaNavi or Yaakov Avinu.
There’s a Ben Ish Chai from the Arizal that when someone walks someone out, when he's going on a trip, he's supposed to say goodbye from a Halacha. The Ben Ish Chai says to say (and many Sephardi Jews do so, I don't know if it's a custom in the Ashkenazi world), “If you have a small amount of rabbis and a large amount of rabbis, the Halacha is like the majority,” the majority rules.
And the question is, why is that the halacha? It's a halacha on how to be posek halacha. Why don't you say Mayim Ahronim Hova, as is the custom to say at a meal just in case you didn't say a D’var Torah. Why they choose this Halacha ?
The explanation as follows: You're going out on a trip and you might meet up with some bandits or something. So we tell the man when he's leaving, “Yachid B’Rabim Halacha K’Rabim.”
We have more- we follow the majority. You are the majority.” Those might be three bandits, but you have a thousand angels with you.
And that's why the Ben Ish Chai says the Rashei Tevot of Yachid V’Rabim Halacha K’Rabim ( Yud, Vav, heh and Chaf) are the same as the sofei tevot/end letters of Ki Malachav VYitzaveh Lach/ God will send His angels with you ( Yud Vav heh and chaf) Because the angels that go with you become the majority. We don't see the angels, but those angels are there. They're protecting us and watching over us. We have to believe in the power of God's angels to protect us. Yaakov Avinu merited to see them; we don't see them. We have to believe in them if we find ourselves in a dark alley, or a difficult situation, even in parnasa. The angel helped Yaakov Avinu, in last week's perasha, by moving the sheep from side to side. Angels are there.
“Shalom Alechem,” we sing to the angels every Friday night.
We believe we have this special protection of the angels. Yachid B’Rabim Halacha K’Rabim.
Have a Shabbat Shalom!