Wild Angels-Catalog-small-with-cover

W i l d A n g e l s orders like choirs on stages, and voice their praises. But their singing is like “a great clamor,” it disturbs the heavens and diverts stars from their orbits. The skulls of those who hear them sing will break, and their bodies will be destroyed. Even Merkabah mystics were only permitted to repeat the highlights of the angels’ singing. They do not stand in front of the heavenly throne singing only songs of glory and praise. They also chant songs of lamentation, crying and weeping. An angel, while still in the highest heavens, in the celestial dwelling, sings songs of mourning and his voice weeps. The Zohar tells that among the guards of angel there is a guard of lamenting angels who mourn over the destruction of the temple and the exile. The singing of some is a soft prayer, and is even sometimes called “a still small voice.” But this stillness also retains the life of divinity. The angels in heaven were familiar with the quality of voiceless singing even before they descended, before they fell from heaven, and before they were muted on Earth. And perhaps this kind of voice does not foretell only death, which is the fate of all creatures who are born and die on Earth, but the very essence of those whose existence is hidden in silence. “Silence” is indeed one of God’s names. The inanimate state is one form of existence. The silence of angels is the beginning and the end of all forms of existence, and the key to every form of speech. The angel, before descending with a sigh from the universal stage of poetry, while still a poet and performer of greater songs, already knew the secret of silence. But no one is willing to consider his return to the stage, even though there are signs that he might return to roam the land as a guest for a moment. His Divine image is mutilated and has been reshaped into a demonic and all-too-human aspect. The angel, who was once the epitome of a deserving messenger and a figure of “disembodied intelligence” interpreted only through prophecy and poetry, is gone from the world. The image he has left us with is a testimony of the highest order to the beauty of the unknown. III In Nogah Engler’s paintings, the angel returns to roam the land, and his outstretched wings witness the beauty of everything that is created and becomes extinct on Earth. When silent, the angel implies the experience of death. His silence is also a testimony to bloodshed and destruction. Falling on the earth, the angel bears witness to the brevity of life. But his silence should also be interpreted differently. We are familiar with angels who do not belong with the “falling angels” and do not bear a message of death or dying. They are sent as spies, take on a human form and