Parshat Chukat: The Sin of the Serpent

A very peculiar episode occurs in this week’s parshah. In chapter 21, the Torah tells us that upon journeying through the desert:

“The people spoke against God and Moses: ‘Why did you bring us up from Egypt to die in this wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul is disgusted with the insubstantial food!’ Hashem (God) sent the fiery serpents against the people and they bit the people. A large multitude of Israel died. The people came to Moses and said ‘we have sinned, for we have spoken against Hashem and you! Pray to Hashem that He remove from us the serpent’, Moses prayed for the people. Hashem said to Moses ‘Make for yourself a fiery serpent and place it on a pole, and it will be that anyone who was bitten will look at it and live.’ ” [Numbers: 21: 5-8]

Firstly, what was so great about the nation’s sin that it warranted such a great plague? Secondly, what is the symbolism behind the nation’s punishment? Why did Hashem specifically send down a serpent to carry out the plague? And thirdly, how do we understand the prescribed remedy for the plague? What is the meaning behind the fake serpent on the pole?

If one were to examine the words describing the people’s protest, we may notice that what was going on was much more than a mere complaint.
Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaqi, 1040-1105, famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentaries on the Torah) explains that when the verse states “The people spoke against God and Moses…” it teaches us that they were equating God to Moses. The people had an erroneous belief that man and God can be equal. But of course, it is impossible for a human being to ever reach a fraction of a fraction of God’s level. Even Moses, who clearly attained the highest spiritual level possible to the point where he spoke with God face to face, could never come near to God’s perfection. (Please see footnote).

Now, where in the Torah do we first come across this false ideology that man can be like God? At the very beginning of creation: When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, God prohibited them from eating from the Tree of Knowledge. But as we know, Eve went against God’s word and ate the fruit from the tree, and eventually Adam ate as well. But what caused Eve to commit the sin? The serpent was the one who persuaded her to eat from the forbidden fruit. In the dialogue between Eve and the serpent, the serpent used the following words to convince her: “…on the day you eat of it (the fruit), your eyes will be opened and you will be like God…” [Genesis: 3: 4]

So we see that this mistaken belief, that man and God can be equal, all began with the serpent. This is precisely why God specifically sent down serpents to carry out this plague. It was because the Jews took behaved according to the incorrect ideology of the serpent, that man can be like God.
But how do we understand the cure that God used, that they needed to look up at a fabricated serpent on a pole in order to be healed? On one level, it was meant for the nation to realize that the serpent and its ideology are fabricated, and not real. The idea that man can ever become like God is completely incorrect, and this is what Hashem was trying to convey to the nation upon healing them. Furthermore, Rashi explains that the reason the fake serpent was raised high up on a pole was so that the Jews would look up to the (serpent in the) sky and be reminded of God’s throne in heaven; this caused the people to subject their hearts to their Father in Heaven. God wanted them to understand that it was He who runs the world and it is He who holds the power to heal, not man.

Nowadays, we live in a world that masks God’s providence to a great extent. There are so many sources of confusion in this day and age that cause us to completely forget that there is something greater above us all. One area that we truly follow this misconception is unfortunately during illness. We get a headache and we simply believe that a pill prescribed by a certain doctor in a lab will make us all better. And God forbid, when terrible sickness strikes, we put all our faith in doctors to heal us and remove the sickness from our midst. It is true, pills contain certain elements proven to ameliorate certain conditions. And it’s true that, today more than ever, there have been tremendous advances in the medical field that have allowed doctors to perform all sorts of operations to repair various forms of disease. But it is also true that sometimes pills don’t work, and that all too often doctors unfortunately can not save all their patients. We have to understand that the pills we swallow and the doctors we consult are merely channels in which God uses to manifest His healing power in this world. It is God, and only God, who chooses who will be healed and who won’t. Man cannot “play God”. May we merit to live healthy and long lives, and attain understanding of Who truly holds the key to our health.

Good Shabbos,

NZL

*Moshe’s imperfection is even highlighted earlier in the parshah where the Torah recounts of Moses’ sin. Briefly, Hashem told him to speak to the rock in order for it to bring forth water for the nation; but instead of speaking to the rock, Moses hit the rock. Because he went against the word of God, he was forbidden to lead the nation into the land of Israel. This event clearly demonstrates that even someone as “perfect” as Moses is in fact not perfect.