This title is obviously a play on words of the term archangel and the words- Ark Angel.

 Archangel derives from the classical Greek of arch- first, primary, chief and angelos, which means messenger. So the Archangels are the superior or higher-ranking angels. These Archangels are found in a number of religious traditions that include Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, and, of course, Judaism. This gives us the opportunity to deal with the many images of angels that Ratner made and our commentary of the place of Angels within Judaism. 

ANGELS—Many Biblical writers assume the existence of beings who are superior to humans in both knowledge and power, but who are subordinate to the One God. These beings serve as the attendants of God who act as His agents in order to convey His messages to humanity and who carry out His will.These types of beings are clearly designated by the English word angel. The Hebrew terminology is Mal’akh which means a messenger of the Divine. The Bible also speaks of winged creatures of angelic character called cherubim and seraphim who serve a variety of functions in the Divine court.During the period of the Second Temple of Roman Times there were some Jews , especially the Essenes who developed an organized system of angelology. The Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran dealt with a Prince of Light who will fight alongside of the Sons of Light at the battle of the Last Days. This Prince of Light will fight with the Angel of Darkness as a perpetual battle. In the end of days the good guys will win.

Any one even remotely knowledgeable of one of the great Mythic sagas of the 20^th Century Star Wars, can see where George Lucas got some of his ideas from. The battle between Darth Vader ( Dark Father)in his black helmet and costume and Luke ( Lux=light) Skywalker with his Light Saber is a modern day version of this ancient mythos that has captivated two generations of us, including, of course, me.Indeed, all of the literature, movies, stories of all sorts of the good guys with white hats  and the bad guys with black hats harkens back to these and similar tales that seem to be so significant in human nature.For a fascinating glimpse into Entertaining Angels link on to www.beliefnet.com/story/125/story_12563.html

For a tongue-in-cheek cultural history of angels in movies, plays and TV The major function of angels is regarded to be that of offering praise to God. Also, of special importance is that they function as intermediaries between God and humanity.In the Talmudic age belief in angels was common among both scholars and laypersons as well. One of their characteristics is that they can fly in the air and move from one end of the world to another with ease.In the mystical traditions the four earthly elements of: water, fire, earth, and air have a correspondence with the four heavenly elements of: mercy, strength, beauty, and dominion. The power and strength of the angels is derived from the emanation of Divine light which is manifest in them as being elements of the Divine throne.Every human being is accompanied by both a good angel and an evil angel; it is for each of us to choose at every given moment that will have the upper hand in our lives. Some of us regard these spirits as real and others see them as symbolic, poetic, metaphors and part of a by- gone mythology.

There is a VAST and HUGE literature on all aspects of angels. If any of this is of interest to you, look up angels in Wikipedia, Beliefnet.com, the thousands of references in Google and enjoy the ride. For one of the best descriptions of angels within Judaism, I can suggest that you look at The Thirteen Petalled Rose by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (Basic Books, 1980, NY).

One book that deals with the reality of angels that fascinated me is:The Physics of Angels: Exploring the Realm Where Science and Spirit Meet by Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake (Harper, San Francisco, 1996)Check them both out at Amazon.com. ARK AngelNow back to the Ratner image of the Ark Angel.This is obviously the Ark of the Covenant of Biblical days in which were kept both sets of the Decalogue (The Ten Commandments); the broken set and the whole set.Ratner has made the Ark out to be some sort of Radio receiver with the wings of the Cherubim as a pair of antennae and a radio band indicator on its face. You can notice the two Hebrew letters of Aleph and Tav at either end of the band. 

This is similar to the classical Alpha and Omega and its analogue to the English from A to Z, meaning: everything. It is interesting to note that in the creation Epic in Genesis, The Hebrew reads:Beraishit Bara Elohim ET…  In the beginning God created ET– all that is and everything in between. All of the possible combinations and permutations of all that is. This is an interesting visual metaphor for seeing how the angel holds the receiver of Divine information that can be communicated all over the world. This is one way to bring God’s message to the world… If you look at the angel, instead of the bird like wings, Ratner has attached jet pods to this high tech angel with a sort of space helmet. Here our angel now becomes a cosmic astronaut and cosmonaut.  CYBER ANGELS- In the Biblical book of Exodus, where the instructions for building the Tabernacle are set out, the Bible says that the artisans and Bezalel the master builder had MeLekHet MakHSheVet literally meaning- well thought out works . It is thanks to my friend and teacher Professor Menachem Alexenberg who saw the most difficult thing to see-the obvious. This term is in the Hebrew feminine form, if you transpose the very same phrase to its masculine form it becomes:MaLakH MakHSheV. In our jargon it is now literally a Computer AngelMalach is angel in Biblical Hebrew.Machshev is computer in modern Hebrew As Alexenberg puts it-Art is a computer angel when Biblical Hebrew meets modern Hebrew in a digital age(Mel Alexenberg: The Future of Art In A Digital Age- From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness; Intellect Books; Bristol, UK; 2006) page 119. So, we have shifted from angels of the Biblical period to computer angels to Cyber angels. Just look at Google under Cyber Angels. When I did this on 18/9/2006 there were 22,300 hits. Not bad at all for something which did not even exist just a few years ago.   Who can bring the message of the Lord to the world? Who can be our messengers of the Divine in this world? YOU !!! As many of you may know, TIME magazine chooses a person-of-the-year for every year. For the year 2006, it is YOU.For seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME’s Person-Of-The- YEAR is YOU (TIME, 17/12/2006). WELCOME to The Digital Ark age and enjoy the ride in CYBERIA.