July 2, 2023|י"ג תמוז ה' אלפים תשפ"ג Snakes that Kill, Snakes that heal and Snakes and Snakes in our Head By Rabbi Jonathan Muskat

An old snake goes to see his Doctor. "Doc, I need something for my eyes...can't see well these days". The Doc fixes him up with a pair of glasses and tells him to return in 2 weeks. The snake comes back in two weeks and tells the doctor he's very depressed. Doc says, "What's the problem...didn't the glasses help you?" "The glasses are fine doc, I just discovered I've been dating a water hose the past two years!"

There is a very strange story in the middle of Parshat Chukat. It’s a story about snakes. The Torah tells us that the Bnei Yisrael travel - דֶּ֣רֶךְ יַם־ס֔וּף לִסְבֹ֖ב אֶת־אֶ֣רֶץ אֱד֑וֹם – by the way of the Yam Suf to circle around the land of Edom. And then the Torah tells us וַתִּקְצַ֥ר נֶֽפֶשׁ־הָעָ֖ם בַּדָּֽרֶךְ – the people’s spirit grew short. They became impatient. וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר הָעָ֗ם בֵּֽאל-ֹהִים֘ וּבְמֹשֶׁה֒ לָמָ֤ה הֶֽעֱלִיתֻ֙נוּ֙ מִמִּצְרַ֔יִם לָמ֨וּת בַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר כִּ֣י אֵ֥ין לֶ֙חֶם֙ וְאֵ֣ין מַ֔יִם

And the people spoke against God and Moshe saying why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in the desert because there is no bread and no water. וְנַפְשֵׁ֣נוּ קָ֔צָה בַּלֶּ֖חֶם הַקְּלֹקֵֽל - And we are disgusted this miserable bread.

The Bnei Yisrael are impatient and they complain to Moshe that there’s no bread and water and that they are sick of their bread. Here’s my first question – is there bread or is there no bread? In the very same sentence, they say that there is bread and there isn’t bread. And is there really no water? Didn’t Moshe just hit the rock earlier in the parsha? They have bread and water and yet they complain that there is no bread and water. What are they really complaining about?

But it gets better. God sends snakes to attack the people and they bite the people and many die so the people come to Moshe and admit that they sinned and they ask Moshe to daven for them so that the snakes will go away. God then instructs Moshe to make a copper snake, mount it on a post and anyone who was bitten can look at it and live. And that’s what Moshe did.

This is really strange. The Bnei Yisrael are punished with real snakes and they are healed with a copper snake. What is the message that God is trying to convey both by the punishment and by healing with a snake?

Let’s take a closer look at this story. When do the Bnei Yisrael complain? After God tells them to go backwards towards the Yam Suf and not enter Eretz Yisrael through Edom. What is happening at this point in their journey? Did you ever go on a double-digit hour family car ride? I’ve never done the drive to Florida. I know some of you have done it. Early in my marriage, I did a lot of family trips by car to Toronto and back because my parents lived there. Our family plan whenever we drove to Toronto when our kids were little was to wake up at approximately 3:30 am and start driving at approximately 4 am because you don’t want to be in the car with a young Netanel, or even a teenage Netanel, for eight to ten hours straight of daylight hours. We put the kids in the car, drove for four hours until the kids woke up around 8 am, davened and ate breakfast, and we were halfway to Toronto. Anyway, the absolute worst part about these long drives, whether it’s to Toronto, or Florida, or Cleveland, or Chicago, is when your trip is going very smoothly and then when you are an hour away from your destination and you are excited that you have almost reached your destination, there’s an accident or a detour for some other reason. All of us a sudden, you are no longer one hour away. You are two hours away. You’re almost there, your kids are going crazy but you can manage another hour, and then, accident ahead and it’s an absolute disaster.

That’s the Bnei Yisrael at this point. They are ready to enter Eretz Yisrael. They are ready to cross the Jordan River. They are at the beginning of the tenth hour in a ten-hour car ride. They ask Edom to allow them to cross through their territory. But Edom refuses. So what does God tell them to do? God tells them to backtrack. Why do they complain? Because they are sick and tired of remaining in the desert. Of course they have bread and water. They have the manna and they have the water from the rock that Moshe hit. But they tell Moshe: לָמָ֤ה הֶֽעֱלִיתֻ֙נוּ֙ מִמִּצְרַ֔יִם לָמ֨וּת בַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר כִּ֣י אֵ֥ין לֶ֙חֶם֙ וְאֵ֣ין מַ֔יִם - why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in the desert? Because the desert is not a place of bread and water. It’s not a normal existence. וְנַפְשֵׁ֣נוּ קָ֔צָה בַּלֶּ֖חֶם הַקְּלֹקֵֽל- We are disgusted this miserable bread. We are sick of the manna. We are sick of water from a rock. Some commentaries suggest that they saw the produce of the land in Edom, Moab and Ammon and they think about their manna that falls from the sky and they simply want normal. This is why Bnei Yisrael complained. They were impatient. They want to be done with their forty-year journey. They don’t want to backtrack.

But here’s the problem with this analysis. So your child is a little impatient because the last leg of the journey is unanticipated. How severely do you punish your child for his impatience? Bnei Yisrael are impatient. They want to get to Eretz Yisrael already. Don’t you think the punishment of וַיְשַׁלַּ֨ח יְקֹוָ֜ק בָּעָ֗ם אֵ֚ת הַנְּחָשִׁ֣ים הַשְּׂרָפִ֔ים וַֽיְנַשְּׁכ֖וּ אֶת־הָעָ֑ם וַיָּ֥מָת עַם־רָ֖ב מִיִּשְׂרָאֵֽל - God sending poisonous snakes to bite the people and to cause many deaths. Don’t you think that the punishment is too severe for the crime of impatience? There must be more than meets the eye here. And, again, why was both the punishment and the healing with a snake?

I think we need to ask ourselves a basic question. Was an attack by the poisonous snakes in the desert a natural occurrence or a miraculous occurrence? Meaning, did God miraculously cause poisonous snakes to appear to kill many members of Klal Yisrael, or were there poisonous snakes throughout the desert and God protected them for forty years with the anan ha-kavod, with the Cloud of Glory, Operation Desert shield-style literally, and when the Bnei Yisrael complained, God removed that protection? This latter approach is actually the approach of the Chizkuni. According to this approach, the Bnei Yisrael weren’t simply impatient. They didn’t want God’s special miracles anymore. They were sick of a desert-like experience where there is naturally no food and water and where they must rely on God. They are jealous of Edom, who live a normal existence. They want normal. They have an illusion of self-sufficiency. And what’s God’s response? Do you want normal? I’ll give your normal. Do you want no protection from Me? I’ll remove My protection. When God removes His protection, the Bnei Yisrael are attacked by the poisonous snakes from whom they’ve been protected for forty years. When the Bnei Yisrael then look at the copper snake, they confront their complaint which led to their punishment. They realize that they thought that they don’t need God, but in reality, they always need God. There will always be snakes or other beings that want to attack us, and we always need God to protect us.

To be a Jew is to be someone who does not lead a normal life. We will always be different than everyone else. We will always engage in customs and practices that seem strange and counter-cultural. And it could be frustrating that we can’t be normal, but it’s also the secret of our longevity. Our continued existence for thousands of years defies logic, and for me, it’s a tremendous source of faith. Bnei Yisrael want to be done with desert life, a life of miracles, a life when they need to constantly feel the supernatural presence of God. And God responds to them, “You will always need me. You will always need me to survive whether you are in the desert or in Israel.” And the snakes of 3,000 thousand years ago, and the snakes of antisemitism today, remind us how much we still need God in our lives.

But doesn’t the snake remind you of something else? The first snake was the snake from Gan Eden, and many midrashim compare their sin to the sin of the snake and therefore, when they look at the copper snake they need to realize that they acted like a snake. What does it mean to act like a snake? What was the sin of the snake in Gan Eden? The snake placed doubts in Chava’s mind and convinced her to second-guess God. Yes, God told man not to eat from the forbidden fruit, but the snake promised Chava that she would gain knowledge and become God-like by eating from the tree. The snake is that little voice in our heads which is the evil inclination. The snake creates thoughts of doubt and fear in our minds and in our hearts. This happened at the dawn of creation, and this is what happened after the Bnei Yisrael had to backtrack when Edom did not let them pass through their land en route to Eretz Yisrael. Doubts crept into their minds as to whether God would truly take them into Eretz Yisrael and those doubts led to complaints. The snake from creation was rearing its ugly head again, that little voice sowing seeds of fear and doubt after the setback with Edom, and the Bnei Yisrael were punished with snakes to remind them of their sin.

But I think that the copper snake represents more than that. The copper snake is not real. They are healed with a snake that is not real. They had to look at the snake, and realize that it’s not real. They had to confront their doubts and fears and anxieties and realize that the doubt is real and the fear is real and the anxiety is real, but it’s all in their minds. They do not reflect reality. There could be setbacks in their journey, but God is still there by their side.

We all have snakes in our lives. We follow a certain path that reflects the right values. For example, we may decide to apportion more time in our daily lives for Torah study or prayer or chesed or community service and then we hit a bump in the road and it doesn’t go according to plan and doubts creep in as to whether we made the right choices. That’s the snake talking. Don’t just give up. Speak to someone. Reassess how to achieve that same goal, but be assured that there will be always bumps in the road, in almost every choice we make. Never let the bumps, the backtracking from Edom, steer us away from constantly growing in avodat Hashem and following a life filled with value.