Ishim: The Human-Formed Angels, Celestial Beings at the Threshold of Humanity
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, "The Soul Carried to Heaven" (1878) — the human soul borne upward by angelic beings captures the threshold that the Ishim inhabit: the boundary between the human and the celestial, between the created world of matter and the higher orders of divine reality. At the very bottom of the angelic hierarchy — the lowest rung of the celestial ladder, closest to the earth, closest to humanity — stand the Ishim . Their name reveals everything about their nature and their position. Ishim (אִישִׁים) is the plural of ish (אִישׁ) — the Hebrew word for man , for human being . The lowest class of angels in the Jewish mystical tradition is named not for fire, not for wheels, not for wings or faces or cosmic powers, but for humanity . They are the man-like ones: the angelic beings who stand at the point where the celestial order meets the human, who appear in human-like form, who carry the qualities most immediately comprehensible to human consciousness. Th...