Sources and Reasoning:
Why Death Is Not Mentioned Regarding Enoch
Bereishit 5:24: “And Enoch walked with God, and he was no more, for God took him.”
In Pesikta Zutrata (Midrash Lekach Tov) on this verse, it asks why the Torah does not use an expression of death regarding Enoch. This is the wording of the Pesikta:
A matron once asked Rabbi Yosei, saying to him: We do not find death mentioned regarding Enoch. He said to her: Had it said, “And Enoch walked with God,” and stopped there, I would have said as you say. But when it says, “and he was no more, for God took him,” he was no longer in this world. “For God took him”—and because Enoch was a righteous man, son of a righteous man, it altered the wording concerning him and said, “for God took him.”
Midrash Aggadah (Buber) presents a dispute in this matter between Rabbi Akiva and the Sages. This is the wording of the Midrash:
“And Enoch walked with God.” He walked with the angels for three hundred years; he was with them in Gan Eden and learned from them the calculation of leap years, seasons, constellations, and many forms of wisdom. “And he was no more, for God took him.” Because he was righteous, the Holy One, blessed be He, took him from among mankind and made him an angel, and he is Metatron. There is a dispute between Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues in this matter. The Sages say: Enoch was sometimes righteous and sometimes wicked. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: While he is righteous, I shall remove him from the world—that is, cause him to die—as it is stated: “Behold, I am taking from you the delight of your eyes through a plague” (Yechezkel 24:16).
Their dispute is based on the fact that the term “taking” may refer both to death and to ascent to Heaven. As explained in the work Kohelet Yaakov, Ma’aneh Lashon—Leshon Torah, under the letter lamed, section 580, concerning the word lakach (“took”): Chazal said regarding the verse [Bereishit 5:24], “for God took him,” that taking means death, as it is stated [Yechezkel 24:16], “Behold, I am taking [from you] the delight of your eyes.” At times, however, taking means removal without death, as it is stated regarding Eliyahu [II Kings 2:3], “for today Hashem is taking your master.” Bereishit Rabbah, parashah 25 [section 1].
We likewise find in the Midrash that ten righteous people entered Gan Eden alive, and they are: Enoch son of Yered, Eliezer servant of Avraham, Bitya daughter of Pharaoh, Serach daughter of Asher, Eliyahu HaNavi, Mashiach son of David, Hiram king of Tyre, Eved-Melech the Cushite, Yaavetz son of Rabbi, and Yehoshua ben Levi.
Enoch Is the Angel Metatron
As stated above, according to Rabbi Akiva, the Holy One, blessed be He, took Enoch from among mankind and made him into an angel, namely Metatron.
The Rosh likewise explained this in his commentary on Bereishit 5: “And Enoch walked with God”—he was enclosed among the angels, and this is what Iyov said: “Behold, my witness is in Heaven, and my testimony is on high.” The numerical value of edi (“my witness”) is equivalent to that of Enoch, and the numerical value of vesahadi (“and my testimony”) is equivalent to that of Metatron. From here we learn that Enoch is Metatron. End quote.
Yonatan ben Uziel likewise translated the verse as follows: “And Enoch served faithfully before Hashem, and behold, he was no longer with the inhabitants of the earth, because he was taken and ascended to the firmament by the word of Hashem, and his name was called Metatron, the Great Scribe.” End quote.
In Zohar Chadash, vol. 1, Parashat Terumah, p. 71b, it writes concerning Enoch:
In Enoch is included the image of the hidden world. He is the throne of his Master, who performs missions in the world. When judgment issues upon the world, he is called Metatron, master over all the upper hosts; and the elder is a youth, passing from world to world, and wrath is settled. This image spread in the spreading of the kaporet, and in that spreading two images were formed, one male and one female; and two beloved youths stand, joined in love one to another. This is the secret of “In the beginning God created”—the hidden spreading of the kaporet.
The Greatness of the Angel Metatron
In Sefer Sodei Razaya, part II, Hilchot Metatron, I found lofty statements concerning the stature and role of the angel Metatron, as follows:
Metatron is the prince over all princes, and he stands before He who is exalted above all gods. He enters beneath the Throne of Glory and has a great abode of light Above. He brings silent fire and places it in the ears of the Chayot so that they should not hear the voice of the Divine speech.
When Moshe ascended on high and fasted one hundred and twenty-one fasts, until the fountains of the Chashmal were opened to him, and he saw that its heart was like the heart of a lion, and he saw companies of hosts surrounding him to burn him, Moshe sought mercy for Israel and afterward sought mercy for himself. Then He who sits upon the Chariot opened the windows above the heads of the Cherubim, and one thousand eight hundred advocates for Israel emerged, with Metatron, the Prince of the Presence, among them. They received Moshe’s prayer and placed it upon the head of the Holy One, blessed be He: “Hear, O Israel, Hashem our God, Hashem is One.” They rejoiced and exulted before the Shechinah, and she said to Metatron, the Prince of the Presence: Who are these, and for whom do they render all this preciousness and honor, as it is stated (Nachum 2:3), “like the pride of Israel”? And they said: Hashem lives and endures. At that moment Akatriel Yah Hashem answered and said to Metatron, the Prince of the Presence: Whoever asks of Me, do not turn him away; do not send him back empty-handed. Hear his prayer and fulfill his needs, whether many or few. Immediately Metatron said to Moshe son of Amram: Do not fear; request your needs with pride and strength, for the radiance of your face extends from one end of the world to the other. Moshe said to him: Perhaps I bear guilt? Metatron, the Prince of the Presence, said to Moshe: Accept that oath, for there is no breach of covenant in it. His name is called Metatron because he became a guide, showing what the Holy One, blessed be He, desires of His angels, for he is within. He is Metatron, the great teacher, who instructs understanding to worthy children. This is Metatron, a matron against wickedness, for he has not the traits alluded to by the mnemonic “children of Asnat rejoice,” mentioned in tractate Nedarim (20b). Why was Metatron compared above all the celestial beings? Because when he saw that the generation of the Flood had sinned, he built a house outside his place, and there was his house of prayer and study; he did not walk among the world. “And Enoch walked with God,” and He removed him with the sound of the teruah: “God ascended with a teruah, Hashem with the sound of the shofar” (Tehillim 47:6), to make known that the righteous are more inward than the ministering angels: “Now it shall be said to Yaakov and to Israel what God has wrought” (Bamidbar 23:23). So too did Kalir compose, “These shall be within,” etc. End quote.
Furthermore, I saw that this is cited in Ahavat Chaim by Rabbi Y. Deitch, zt”l, of Mako, concerning Yom Kippur. There he cites what the holy Admor Maharid, zt”l, said (Parashat Acharei, 5668), as follows: “And no person shall be in the Ohel Moed… when he enters to make atonement in the Sanctuary, until he emerges.” The Targum renders: “to make atonement in the Sanctuary.” Targum Yonatan adds: “to make atonement in the Sanctuary for the sins of Bnei Yisrael.” This requires explanation: for what purpose does Targum Yonatan add these words?
He said: I heard from my father, of blessed memory, who said in the name of his father, of blessed memory, concerning “And Enoch walked with God, and he was no more, for God took him”: The Midrash states that He made him the angel Metatron to guard Israel, as it is written, “Behold, I am sending an angel before you to guard you on the way”; see Rashi. He explained the verse, “How shall a youth merit?” The youth is the angel Metatron, whose name is thus. How can he perfect himself? [Yizkeh here denotes prevailing, as in “I was not privileged to say…”] To this it says: “By guarding according to Your word”—if he guards Israel as he was commanded, “to guard you on the way,” thereby he can perfect himself.
He explained the reason why the Holy One, blessed be He, did this—why He made a human being into the angel Metatron to guard Israel. This is because no angel can advocate favorably for Israel as a human being can, for an angel does not understand all the hardships and necessities through which a person must compel himself to serve Hashem. An angel neither knows nor understands the magnitude of the evil inclination burning within a person. But a human being who becomes an angel knows everything and can advocate favorably for Israel. Therefore, Hashem made Enoch into an angel, so that he could advocate favorably for Israel. These are the holy words of his father, zt”l.
Enoch’s Ascent to Heaven — Like Eliyahu’s Ascent to Heaven in a Whirlwind
Regarding the manner of Enoch’s ascent to Heaven, we do not find how he ascended. However, concerning Eliyahu HaNavi, it is stated in II Kings 2:11: “And it came to pass, as they were walking and speaking, that behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated between them; and Eliyahu ascended to Heaven in a whirlwind.”
The Alshich writes on this verse that Eliyahu’s ascent to Heaven in a whirlwind came about through the refinement of physical matter, until he became a thin and pure garment, similar to what happened to Enoch. This is the wording of the Alshich there:
But this can only mean that the spirit of Hashem carried his body after he had been stripped of his spirit, and cast it upon one of the mountains or into one of the valleys, so that we should go and bury him. They would then guard it, as he guarded the corpse of the man of God who came from Yehudah. For although they said, “Today Hashem is taking your master,” they knew of his removal but did not know the manner of his removal. He said, “Do not send.” For he understood his path: something akin to what happened to Enoch when God took him had occurred to him, for his body was refined and purified until it became like the essence of the clear heavens, of their very substance, and there remained there a thin and pure garment in which he would clothe himself when coming into this world. He left them there to act, until they saw tangibly that he had been correct in his words.
Therefore, it is certainly possible that at the time of Enoch’s ascent to Heaven, there were phenomena similar to those accompanying Eliyahu HaNavi’s ascent alive to Heaven—namely, a chariot of fire and horses of fire, as stated.
This response was translated automatically from Hebrew and has not yet been reviewed by a person. Therefore, it may contain inaccuracies and should not be considered a definitive reference.
