The Talmud says that two angels accompany a person to his home after praying in Shul. One is good and the other one is not, when they come into the home and they find the candles lit, the table set and the house is clean the good angel says “May it be G-d’s will that it should be like this next week.” The negative angel has to answer “Amen.” (Shabbat 119b). If there is no candles lit, no table set and the house is not clean then it goes the other way around.
The first thing we do when we come to the table is sing Shalom Aleichem in which we welcome the angels and at the end of the song we ask them to leave in peace.
So why did they come if on an instant we asking them to leave? “Ki malajav yetzave laj” (because I asked my angels to take care of you) (Tehillim 91:11). This verse indicates that we have two constant angels that guard us. The Zfat Emet explains that the two angels that accompany us home on Friday night are the angels that guard us during the week and they come to say goodby and go up and give H”S a report on our behavior of the six work days, then two new angels are assigned to us for Shabbat. At that moment the two groups of angels are surrounding us. Therefore in the song of Shalom Aleichem we begin by welcoming the Shabbat guarding angels which will be with us for the next week and we finish by saying goodby to the guarding angels of the week that passed.
Tonight when you usher in Shabbat and sing Shalom Aleichem feel the presence of protection around you.
Shabbat Shalom
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