Why Angles Won't Multitask

When I was in the first grade, just beginning to study the book of Genesis, I was fascinated by the stories, the personalities and the drama. But nothing captured my imagination more then the angles. There was something so mysterious about them, they would show up at the right place in the right time, often disguising themselves as ordinary people.

But, from the first time we learned about the angles, we knew that they had one weakness. They could not do more then one thing at a time. Why did three angles come to visit Abraham as he was sitting at the entrance of his tent hoping to find people to invite? Rashi explains:

And behold, three men: One to bring the news [of Isaac’s birth] to Sarah, and one to overturn Sodom, and one to heal Abraham, for one angel does not perform two errands. You should know that [this is true] because throughout the entire chapter, Scripture mentions them in the plural, e.g., (below verse 8): “and they ate” ; (ibid. verse 9): “and they said to him.” Concerning the announcement, however, it says (ibid. verse 10): “And he said: I will surely return to you.” And concerning the overturning of Sodom, it says (below 19:22): “For I will not be able to do anything”; (ibid. verse 21): “I will not overturn”. And Raphael, who healed Abraham, went from there to save Lot. This is what is stated: “And it came to pass when they took them outside, that he [the angel] said, ‘Flee for your life.’” You learn that only one acted as a deliverer.

So despite their super natural ability they can't do two things at the same time. To the young child I was at the time, this thought was comforting. Maybe I can't fly like an angel, but in some ways I am superior, after all one angel cannot even manage to 'walk and chew gum' at the same time; the angel cannot talk to Sarah while healing Abraham.

Now, a few years later, I ask myself why is it so important for Rashi to keep emphasizing?  Why is it so important for every child studying Genesis to know that angles cannot perform two things at once?

Perhaps it's because this is not a handicap; perhaps this is the greatest quality of the angel. Perhaps Rashi tells us about the angles as a critique of the human condition. Perhaps his point is that, although we will never able to achieve the goal completely, we must always try our best to be like the angel and loose the ability to multitask. 

The angel cannot do more then one thing because the angel identifies with the mission completely. The angel as no other dimension to his personality other then fulfilling God's mission. The angel has no personal name, no personal agenda and is completely identifies with the mission, to the point that he is nothing but the mission. As such he cannot perform two acts because it's impossible to be, fully, in two places at once. 

The human on the other hand, even when doing the will of G-d never looses his own ego, the human always maintains I sense of an independent identity engaged who happens to be engaged in the mission. As such he can never become one with the mission, and therefore, some aspect of his identity will always be able to engage in something else.

Rashi understood that the child reading the story is no angel. Yet Rashi is trying to teach me how to be more like an angel. How to be fully engaged in what I am doing to the point that I forget abut everything else. How to help someone else, and, while doing so, loose my own ego and know of nothing else in the world. How to speak to my child, look her in the eyes, and listen. Listen as if, at this moment, I have nothing else going on in my life. As if I have no emails, no deadlines coming up and no other interests.

He is teaching me listen like an angel.