Vayeitzei: An Interesting Midrash In Targum Yonatan on Bereishit 28:12

In parshat Vayeitzei, in the third pasuk (Bereishit 28:12)
וַיַּחֲלֹם, וְהִנֵּה סֻלָּם מֻצָּב אַרְצָה, וְרֹאשׁוֹ, מַגִּיעַ הַשָּׁמָיְמָה; וְהִנֵּה מַלְאֲכֵי אֱלֹקִים, עֹלִים וְיֹרְדִים בּוֹ.
"And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."

Targum Yonatan translates:

וחלם והא סולמא קבוע בארעא ורישיה מטי עד צית שמיא והא תרין מלאכיא דאזלו לסדום ואיטרדו מן מחיצתהון מן בגלל דגליין מסטירין דמרי עלמא והוו מטרידין ואזלין עד זמן דנפק יעקב מבית אבוי והינון לוון יתיה בחיסדא עד בית אל ובההוא יומא סלקין לשמי מרומא ענין ואמרין איתון חמון יעקב חסידא דאיקונין די ליה קביעא בכורסי יקרא דהויתון מתחמדין למחמי יתיה בכן שאר מלאכי קדישיא דה' נחתין למסתכלא ביה

"And he dreamed and behold a ladder affixed in the ground and its top reached the exit of heaven, and the two angels that went to Sodom and tarried from מחיצתהון (their wall?) because דגליין מסטירין דמרי עלמא, and they tarried until the time that Yaakov left his father's house, and they escorted him with Chessed until Bet El, and on that day they ascended to heaven, saying "Come see Yaakov the Chassid whose visage is inscribed in the Kisei HaKavod, that they (the other angels) desired to see him. Therefore the rest of the holy angels of Hashem descented to see him.

פירוש יונתן comments on the last part, "נחתין למסתכלא ביה," explaining that the drash is taking וְיֹרְדִים בּוֹ to mean descending for him, rather than descending on it, the ladder.

He also comments on the first postion, about the two angels. First he notes that the probable correct text of דגליין מסטירין דמרי עלמא is with a ת, not a ט. The word is then מסתירין which means secrets, from סתר. The angels revealed (דגליין) the secrets of Hashem, so they were forced to wait until Yaakov left his father's house, in order for them to return to their rightful place. What did they reveal? That Sodom was going to be destroyed. For these angels were only sent to save Lot, not to destroy Sodom. And even though the secret was eventually going to be revealed (when Sodom was leveled), they shouldn't have told especially since Hashem was preventing the opportunity to do teshuva.

Alternatively, פירוש יונתן writes, it could still be דגליין מסטירין דמרי עלמא with a ט. If so, דגליין means galut, that they were garash from, and מסטירין comes from sitra, so they were sent waway from the side of Hashem, which he still things is problematic.

I have some major problems with פירוש יונתן's explanations. First, he claims that the angels were sent to save Lot but not to destroy the city. However, if we look at the second pasuk of וירא, Bereishit 18:2

וַיִּשָּׂא עֵינָיו, וַיַּרְא, וְהִנֵּה שְׁלֹשָׁה אֲנָשִׁים, נִצָּבִים עָלָיו; וַיַּרְא, וַיָּרָץ לִקְרָאתָם מִפֶּתַח הָאֹהֶל, וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ, אָרְצָה.
"and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood over against him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed down to the earth,"

and we look at the Targum Yonatan there, Tg Yonatan says that there were 3 angels because an angel can only be appointed to do a single task. One was to tell Avraham that Sarah would bear him a son, one to save Lot, and one to destroy Sodom and the other cities. If so, then one of the angels *was* sent to destroy Sodom, and not like Perush Yonatan suggested. It could be these are two conflicting midrashim, but it is strange that Tg Yonatan would contradict himself.

Also, Perush Yonatan claims that there was no opportunity for the people of Sodom to do teshuvah, but we see that when Hashem tells Avraham about Sodom, in Bereishit 18:20-21
וַיֹּאמֶר ה, זַעֲקַת סְדֹם וַעֲמֹרָה כִּי-רָבָּה; וְחַטָּאתָם--כִּי כָבְדָה, מְאֹד.
אֵרְדָה-נָּא וְאֶרְאֶה, הַכְּצַעֲקָתָהּ הַבָּאָה אֵלַי עָשׂוּ כָּלָה; וְאִם-לֹא, אֵדָעָה.

"And the LORD said: 'Verily, the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and, verily, their sin is exceeding grievous.

I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know.' "

and Targum Yonatan translates וְאִם-לֹא אֵדָעָה as "if they do teshuvah, then I will reckon it as iff they did it beshogeg, that is not knowing (so לֹא is attached to אֵדָעָה). If Tg Yonatan says that there, how could we claim here there was no potential for teshuvah.

I think the place that establishes the destruction of Sodom as a secret is in 18:17-19:

וַה, אָמָר: הַמְכַסֶּה אֲנִי מֵאַבְרָהָם, אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי עֹשֶׂה.
וְאַבְרָהָם--הָיוֹ יִהְיֶה לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל, וְעָצוּם; וְנִבְרְכוּ-בוֹ--כֹּל, גּוֹיֵי הָאָרֶץ.
כִּי יְדַעְתִּיו, לְמַעַן אֲשֶׁר יְצַוֶּה אֶת-בָּנָיו וְאֶת-בֵּיתוֹ אַחֲרָיו, וְשָׁמְרוּ דֶּרֶךְ יְהוָה, לַעֲשׂוֹת צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט--לְמַעַן, הָבִיא ה עַל-אַבְרָהָם, אֵת אֲשֶׁר-דִּבֶּר, עָלָיו.

"And the LORD said: 'Shall I hide from Abraham that which I am doing;

seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him.'"

I think the place where they revealed what they should not have is not telling Lot, for they would have to in order to get him to leave, but rather here, in Bereishit 19:12-13:

וַיֹּאמְרוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים אֶל-לוֹט, עֹד מִי-לְךָ פֹה--חָתָן וּבָנֶיךָ וּבְנֹתֶיךָ, וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר-לְךָ בָּעִיר: הוֹצֵא, מִן-הַמָּקוֹם.
כִּי-מַשְׁחִתִים אֲנַחְנוּ, אֶת-הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה: כִּי-גָדְלָה צַעֲקָתָם אֶת-פְּנֵי ה, וַיְשַׁלְּחֵנוּ ה לְשַׁחֲתָהּ.
וַיֵּצֵא לוֹט וַיְדַבֵּר אֶל-חֲתָנָיו לֹקְחֵי בְנֹתָיו, וַיֹּאמֶר קוּמוּ צְּאוּ מִן-הַמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה, כִּי-מַשְׁחִית יְהוָה, אֶת-הָעִיר; וַיְהִי כִמְצַחֵק, בְּעֵינֵי חֲתָנָיו.

"And the men said unto Lot: 'Hast thou here any besides? son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whomsoever thou hast in the city; bring them out of the place;

for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxed great before the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.'

And Lot went out, and spoke unto his sons-in-law, who married his daughters, and said: 'Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy the city.' But he seemed unto his sons-in-law as one that jested."

In other words, the people of Sodom were not to have known (even though previously in Tg Yonatan there was mention of the possibility of teshuva).

Jastrow has an alternative explanation of מסטירין. Even with the tet it means secret, from the Greek word musterion, a secret rite. (I would add: or From Latin mysterium, which took it from the Greek.)

From dictionary.com's writeup:

[Middle English misterie, from Latin mysterium, from Greek musterion, secret rite, from mustes, an initiate, from muein, to close the eyes, initiate.]

I would offer (and disprove) an alternative. Mystery means a secret as above, but it also, archaicly, means a trade or occupation from:

[Middle English misterie, service, craft, from Medieval Latin misterium, craft-guild, from Late Latin, alteration of Latin ministerium, occupation, from minister, assistant, servant. See mei-2 in Indo-European Roots.]

An angel would service, or minister, to Hashem. But then what would דגליין מסטירין דמרי עלמא mean? The mem of מסטירין is part of the root, so you cannot say they were exiled from the service. It would have to mean they revealed their service. If so, secret is much better.

Anyway, according to Jastrow, מסטירין means secret as well, so there is no reason to understand דגליין as exile.

For a minute, though, let us entertain the idea that מסטירין means from the sides. Why not from the *side*. Perhaps this would be a midrash corresponding to the idea (which I will only touch briefly upon here) that only two of the Anashim that Avraham saw were angels, and the middle one was not Gavriel, but was Hashem himself. If so, they were on the two sides of Hashem. Hashem sent them on to Sodom, which is why only two angels arrived. The third angel did not ascend to heaven (as Tg Yonatan states that he did, having completed his mission of telling Avraham about Sarah's pregnancy), but there was no third angel, and it was Hashem who told Avraham about Sarah's pregnancy. Hashem stayed with Avraham to inform him about Sodom, and sent the two angels on. If so, they lost their ride home, and had no way of getting back. Instead they tarried and then accompanied Yaakov, who had his visage on the Kisei HaKavod. Once they got to Bet El, they were able to ascend to heaven via the ladder in Yaakov's dream.

It is also interesting that there appears to be a joint in this midrash. The first midrash is about the angels being the two sent to Sodom who tarried. The seconf midrash is about angels accompanying Yaakov to Bet El, ascending, and telling other angels to take a look at Yaakov who had his visage on the Kisei HaKavod.

If we look at the fragmentary corresponding Targum Yerushalmi, they only have the second midrash, which makes the ones who ascended a general host of angels, and not necessarily only 2 and not necessarily those who went to Sodom. Tg Yonatan seems to link two midrashim, and adds the word שאר to the phrase שאר מלאכי קדישיא דה. Alternatively, it was originally one midrash and the first part was cut off in Tg Yerushalmi. Note that the first midrash explains עֹלִים while the second explains וְיֹרְדִים בּוֹ.