The first chapter of The Thirteen Petalled Rose by Rabbi Steinsaltz appears in a slightly different version in his book The Strife of the Spirit. The chapter in The Thirteen Petalled Rose is quite challenging and this alternative version is, for me, extremely helpful in clarifying its contents. I recommend that students of the “Rose” (as Rabbi Steinsaltz sometimes calls the book) look at this alternative version. Here’s a tiny excerpt:
“Some angels have existed since the beginning of time, and are the channels through which divine plenty flows into the world.
There is, however, another kind of angel, those that are constantly being created.
This process of the creation of new angels takes place as a consequence of actions and phenomena that are performed and occur in all worlds, but especially in our world, the World of Action.
It is said that with every mitzvah, every good deed that he performs, a man creates an angel.”