Our Torah study group at Temple Beth Israel in Altoona, Pennsylvania was discussing the parashah Vayeshev in which Joseph wanders in search of his brothers until he comes across a man in a field who tells him where they have moved their flock. Our student rabbi at the time, Nicole Luna, remarked that the rabbis had decided that "the man" was an angel because without him, Joseph might never have found his brothers, been sold into slavery, and, after ascending to power in Egypt, been able to save the fledgling Hebrew nation. Angels, she said, are considered in the Torah to be melakh elohim ,literally messengers of God.