What’s in a Word?

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angel

מלאך · שליח · ציר · משחית · שלח · מלאכה

Bottom line

Malach is a messenger who stands in for the sender on a mission the sender would do himself (Pappenheim, Malbim); of Hashem's messengers it is an angel, and the same Hebrew word covers both. Shaliach is the plain agent or emissary, one who is sent (Rav Hirsch: merely a messenger; the Lissa Rav: one who chose to accept the mission). Tzir is an envoy, a diplomatic messenger who reports back (Malbim). The one thing not to get wrong: malach is not automatically "angel"; where the Midrash disputes whether Yaakov's malachim were angels or men, the English must leave the question open.

Distinctions

malach (מלאך)

Radak (Sefer HaShorashim): the root is ל-א-ך and the mem is not radical, which the column calls somewhat perplexing since no other Hebrew word has this root. It adds that archaeology has proven Radak correct: texts found at the ancient city of Ugarit, in modern-day Lebanon, are written in a Semitic language closely resembling Hebrew, and there the root of the verb for sending is not ש-ל-ח as in Hebrew but exactly ל-א-ך. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim of Breslau (1740-1814), in an approach the column calls similar to Radak's: from ל-ך, "go." Since "go" and "send" are near-identical, the difference from shaliach lies in the mission, and Pappenheim and Malbim agree: a malach is charged with the kind of task the sender would do himself, so the assignment is prestigious and the malach holds a position of honor rather than subservience; Malbim adds that a malach is not required to report back. From this primary sense the word is applied to the angels Hashem sends to work miracles or carry word to prophets. Ralbag, throughout his commentary to Tanach, consistently tries to explain every malach mentioned as a prophet and not an angel (and see Rambam, Moreh Nevuchim 2:6, for his view of angelology). Mecklenburg: malach is kin to melachah, creative labor, an agent carrying out a task. Rav Hirsch: melachah is the thinking man's power to realize his ideas through work; malach is that power personified in a proxy; and the word sometimes names Hashem Himself, who is ever engaged in the melachah of creation. On Yaakov's malachim to Eisav (Bereishis 32:4), Bereishis Rabbah 75:4 records a dispute, angels or men; Rashi takes angels.

shaliach (שליח)

Not in Tanach, but clearly a conjugation of shalach, "send." On Rav Hirsch's approach a shaliach simply denotes a messenger, while malach denotes the messenger's role in replacing the one who sent him. Rabbi Yaakov Lorberbaum of Lissa: a shaliach is given the choice to accept the mission and, having accepted, acts of his own volition; Hashem's angelic forces are named by task, a malach for benevolent missions and a mashchis for malevolent ones, so a malach is a kind of shaliach.

tzir (ציר)

Fewer than ten occurrences. The Vilna Gaon (to Mishlei 13:17) implies that a tzir is specifically an agent who has been used many times, a professional courier, which slightly separates the word from shaliach. The column adds that tzir is always used of a messenger in a diplomatic setting, an envoy, ambassador or attaché. Pappenheim: the word refers to the idea of attaching distant political entities, and he finds other words related to tzir that carry the concept of connection. Malbim: a tzir must not only relay a message for his dispatcher but report back to him (contrast malach).

Aramaic has two words for sending: shagar (whose primary meaning seems to be "flow", and from which Modern Hebrew takes shagrir, ambassador) and shadar, which entered the Hebrew vernacular as a contraction of shaliach d'rabbanan, emissary of the rabbis, used of rabbinic envoys sent to collect charitable donations for public institutions. In Modern Hebrew shadar means to broadcast, in the radio and television sense.

Rendering guidance

  • מלאך of Hashem, or where the context is plainly celestial: "angel." מלאך sent by a man: "messenger," "envoy." Where the identity is disputed (Yaakov's malachim; the three at Avraham's tent by some readings), write "messengers" and let a note carry the dispute.
  • שליח: "agent" in halachah (shaliach of a get, shelichus); "emissary," "messenger" in narrative; transliterate shaliach when the halachic concept is the subject.
  • ציר: "envoy," "emissary"; in Mishlei 13:17 (tzir emunim) "a faithful envoy."
  • משחית: "destroyer," "destroying angel"; never "angel" bare.
  • Trap: English "messenger" absorbs malach, shaliach, and tzir; and "angel" absorbs malach and mashchis. When two stand together, or when a derashah asks why the pasuk says malach and not shaliach, keep each word its own English: malach stands in for the sender, shaliach is sent, tzir carries word both ways.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Angels and Agents," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 14 Kislev 5778 (2017-12-02): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/7512-angels-and-agents.md. Primary loci the article cites: Bereishis 32:4 with Bereishis Rabbah 75:4 and Rashi; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim s.v. לאך; Rambam, Moreh Nevuchim 2:6; Ralbag on Tanach passim; Vilna Gaon to Mishlei 13:17. Bereishis 32:4 is the Hebrew numbering, which the article uses; in English Bibles it is Genesis 32:3. The Ugaritic evidence for Radak's root and the Modern Hebrew senses of shagrir and shadar are the article's own and are reported here as it reports them.