Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim 1:49) conceives of angels as separate intellects, lacking all physicality, employed by God in His construction and maintenance of the universe. No human can see an angel since angels do not take physical from. Therefore, he interprets all biblical stories where a human encounters an angel as prophetic visions. Rambam applies this assumption to Avraham’s encounter with the three travelers, Yaakov’s wrestling with an angel, and to Bil’am and Yehoshua’s conversation with angels (Moreh Nevuchim 2:41-42).

In the case of Avraham, Rambam’s approach solves a textual problem. Bereishit 18:1 says that God appeared to Avraham but the very next verse has Avraham running to greet three travelers. The content of the revelation is missing. Chazal (Shabbat 127a) justify Avraham interrupting his dialogue with God to perform the worthy commandment of hospitality. According to Ramban, the problem recedes. The three travelers do not interrupt the revelation; they are its very content.

Ramban (commentary on Bereishit 18:1) offers a significant critique of Rambam. Among other questions, he wonders why we need to hear so many details about the menu for Avraham and Sara’s guests if the Torah describes a prophecy. He also wonders why Yaakov grew lame from a dream vision. In his Sefer haZikaron, Ritva defends Rambam, arguing that many prophetic visions incorporate extraneous details. The prophet must decipher the essential message; he need not find symbolic import in every detail. Ritva suggests that Yaakov’s vision physically affected him in a psychosomatic fashion.

This debate reflects a fairly famous discussion and I merely wish to correct one error. Some formulate the debate as follows: “Ramban thinks these encounters really happened; Rambam contends they did not.” Such a formulation fails to accurately portray Rambam’s position. For Rambam, God communicated messages crucial for Jewish history to our patriarchs through the avenue of prophetic visions which include conversations with angels. Such events are not fantasy or make – believe; they are real and influential. They may not have happened in terms of physical encounters but they did, in a profound sense, take place.

Though I prefer citations from the great cannon of Western literature, I will make an exception in the case of the most popular author in recent memory. J. K. Rowlings understood this point quite well. When Harry Potter asks Dumbledore if their conversation is real or in his head, Dumbledore responds: “Of course it is happening in your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real.”