Creating A Malach

To many skeptics the story of how the Beis Yosef created a malach (angel) to teach him the innermost secrets of the Torah seems like pure fantasy. However, the Degel Machaneh Ephraim taught that each and everyone of us (וזה יכול להיות בכל אדם ואדם) literally has the potential to create a malach as the Beis Yosef did if we approach our learning with true sincerity.

During his last visit to the United States, I had the priviledge of learning Degel Machaneh Ephraim on the phone with the Sudilkover Rebbe on a number of occasions over the summer. The Rebbe once explained to me that a person can only attain a real success in learning when he learns solely with the intention of uncovering and seeking to put into practice the ratzon Hashem in the sefer that is in front of him at that time. If a person approaches his learning in such a manner he can be assured that it will create a malach that later teach him Torah.

The Rebbe said that we should not think that this malach will be a winged Tinker Bell from Peter Pan flying in front of us, but rather it is an invisible presence that may at times cause new insights to be revealed to us at the time of our learning.

Later I realized, however, that this malach that taught me Torah was neither invisible nor had the appearance of Tinker Bell; it had a black hat, peyos, and shining face. My yearning and years of davening to truly understand Degel Machaneh Ephraim had indeed created a malach; the Sudilkover Rebbe, whose explanations brought this sefer out of the darkness and into the light.