Why we're not angels

In Sanhedrin 42:1, it states:

אשר במאמרו ברא שחקים וברוח פיו כל צבאם חוק וזמן נתן להם שלא ישנו את תפקידם

In your speech, you created the heavens, and with the breath of your mouth, all the [heavenly] hosts. Rule and time you gave them so they will not change their role.

In Jewish thought, Angels have no free will. They are created with a certain role and are unable to change it, always fulfilling their assigned task. Humans, on the other hand, have free will, so we are able to change our roles and actions to, hopefully, improve ourselves. It's an important distinction. The goal of many shamanic traditions is to align oneself with the will of God so that one surrenders and one's actions become in perfect harmony with the universe. The difference is that we choose to do it, and Angels have no ability to do otherwise. It also gives us an adaptability to the ever changing world.

A central Kabbalistic tenet is that the world is in a state of continual creation. Our words and actions continually create and change the world, which makes our adaptability a much needed skill. As Heraclitus wrote in the fifth century BCE: No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he is not the same man. Even the things that we've done time and again are different each time we do them because we are different, and each interaction we have with another person is different, no matter how close we are or how frequently we see them, because we and they are different.

Studying last night, I applied these ideas to the concept of choseness. Jews consider themselves to be the chosen people, but in light of continual creation and constant change, that means that Jews are constantly being chosen. And as such, we are constantly being examined by God to see if we are worthy of the choice. It's not enough to rely on received wisdom and traditional practices (though we can learn a tremendous amount from them), but each Jew must strive to make the right choices to live a Just life so that we are worthy of being chosen. The world is constantly changing and we need to react to it with wisdom so that we can remain chosen.

Traditional wisdom teaches that we are stuck with the designation and will always remain the chosen people, but I can't imagine that is true. When someone gives you an honor and holds you up as an example of righteousness, it's not a license to do immoral things or to be discriminatory or to try to kill someone over a parking lot. Instead, it's a motivation to be more righteous and more just, to show that we are worthy of the designation. We're not angels, we are not created in only one way. We are continually creating the world, and so we must strive to make it the best world we can.