Bar-Ilan University
Parshat Hukat 5773/June 15, 2013
Parashat Hashavua Study Center
Lectures on the weekly Torah reading by the faculty of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. A
project of the Faculty of Jewish Studies, Paul and Helene Shulman Basic Jewish Studies Center, and
the Office of the Campus Rabbi. Published on the Internet under the sponsorship of Bar-Ilan
University's International Center for Jewish Identity. Prepared for Internet Publication by the
Computer Center Staff at Bar-Ilan University.
973
On Serpents Heavenly and Earthly
By Shemer (Dan Shmeur) Arieli*
The story of the copper serpent presents a well-known theological difficulty, put by the
Sages1 and cited by Rashi in his commentary on Numbers 21:8: "Can a snake cause death or
give life?" That is to say, did the stylized serpent have autonomous power to heal people of
snake bites? The explanation given was that the power to cause death or give life lay not in
the snake but in the power of faith in the Lord, in He who gave us the commandments, to
heal the sick.2 In other words, we are not dealing here with magic but with the will of G-d to
bring about a cure by means of the copper snake.
Why would the Lord prefer to heal the Israelites through the agency of a sculpted serpent, of
all things—a motif that seems altogether contradictory to the abstract biblical concept of G-d
and is likely to raise problems of faith? To answer this question we must first deal with
another question that arises here, namely the connection between the sin—bad-mouthing
*
Shemer Arieli is a doctoral student in the Department of Jewish Philosophy.
1
Rosh ha-Shanah 29a.
2
Ibid.
1
the Lord and Moses—and the punishment—being killed by means of "seraph serpents."
Ultimately we will tie these two questions together, relating them to a single theme.
The connection between the sin and its punishment has to do with the substance of their
argument. The people, who bad-mouthed the way G-d was leading them in the wilderness,
were punished by removal of divine providence, turning them over to the arbitrary ways of
nature, which in the wilderness is characterized by the dangers of "seraph serpents and
scorpions, a parched land with no water in it" (Deut. 8:15). The specific choice of a serpent
and not a scorpion, for example, seems to be related to the biblical symbolism of the
serpent, going back to Genesis, as being tongued and speaking ill, as seen in the Sages'
remarks3 cited by Rashi (on Num. 21:6): "Let the serpent which was punished for slanderous
statements come and exact punishment from those who utter slander."
The people repented and acknowledged their wrongdoing with the words, "We sinned by
speaking against the Lord and against you" (Num. 21:7), and in return they were granted a
cure in the form of a serpent.
With this said, we shall now try to understand the peculiar style of cure, ostensibly foreign to
the monotheistic way of thinking. Some Bible scholarship is inclined to focus on faith in the
healing charm and fertility power possessed by the form of the serpent, and indeed such
beliefs were widespread in the ancient Near East, especially in Canaan.4 This, however, only
adds to the difficulty: are we not dealing here with de-mythologizing? Are we to imagine
that all the snake-bitten people in those days, when they looked at the serpent mounted on
the standard, understood that it was the Lord who wrought the cure, and would surely
understand that it was the Lord who gave it the power of healing?5 Even if that were the
case, the beliefs of other nations in that era were considered the truth, and in their form and
essence serpents were thought to contain the power of such charms. So what sort of
message regarding faith would emerge from this story? Indeed, note how this copper
serpent was worshipped up to the time of Hezekiah (II Kings 18:4)!
3
Tanhuma Hukat 19.
4
For exampls, Sejin Koh, An Archaeological Investigation of the Snake cult in the Southern Levant: The
Chalcolithic Period through the Iron Age, Chicago 1994, esp. pp. 133-138; H. Raviv, Be-Midbar (Olam
ha-Tanakh), Tel Aviv 1997, p. 128 (note and illustration); R. Giv`on, ibid., p. 129.
5
Sejin Koh, ibid., p. 132. He notes that in Israel, too, the serpent served as a tool of the Lord but
certainly was not identified as His likeness.
2
In light of this, we wish to suggest another solution related, like the Sages' opinion, to the
symbolic and non-mythical nature of the serpent. Because of its serpentine motion and its
swift and poisonous tongue, the serpent in the Bible symbolizes the deviousness of the
person who wields his tongue, using the power of words to turn the straight crooked.
However, elsewhere in Scripture we encounter the figure of the serpent as one of the Lord's
close attendants; we refer to the seraph standing in the Lord's Sanctuary, in Isaiah's vision of
G-d on His throne (ch. 6). Recall that this occasion, experienced by Isaiah along with the
seraphs that stood opening their mouths to utter words of holiness and purity, made Isaiah
acknowledge subserviently that he was "of unclean lips," and that he lived "among a people
of unclean lips" (Isa. 6:5), especially when he beheld "the King Lord of Hosts" (ibid.). In
response to his words, one of the seraphs in the Sanctuary took a live coal from the altar
with a pair of tongs and touched it to the prophet's lips to qualify him for being a prophet
who relays the words of G-d.
Although one could take as praiseworthy the prophet's acknowledgment of his shortcomings
and see this as leading to actions to cleanse and qualify him for prophecy, nevertheless there
were those who viewed him as speaking ill of Israel and slandering them when he said, "And
I live among a people of unclean lips" (Isa. 6:5). According to his reading, the words of the
seraph to the prophet after touching his lips, "Now that his has touched your lips, your guilt
shall depart and your sin be purged away" (Isa. 6:7), explicitly attest to the guilt and sin on
the prophet's tongue that necessitated the seraph touching his tongue with a live coal.6
Thus the idea is that Isaiah, just like Moses,7 was cautioned to come to the defense of Israel
and not the opposite.
This line of interpretation is reinforced by the choice of words, "winged seraphs," in
describing the vision, for "seraphs," as we have noted, is synonymous with serpents,8 and
6
Cf. Yalkut Shimoni, par. 15; Ibn Ezra, loc. cit.: "your guilt shall depart—namely the guilt of his way of
speaking, for he would speak with levity, as was the way of his generation"; Rashi, loc. cit.: "He
touched it to my lips…your guilt shall depart—to purge away your guilt for having vilified Israel."
7
Rashi (Ex. 4:3): "And it became a snake—He was hinting to him that he had spoken slanderously of
Israel, saying, 'What if they do not believe me' (Ex. 4:1), and had taken up the artfulness of the
serpent."
8
Yair Hoffman, Isaiah (Olam ha-Tanakh), Tel Aviv 1999, p. 45; Amos Hakham, Isaiah (Da`at Mikra),
Jerusalem 1984, p. 64, note 4*; Friedhelm Hartenstein, "Cherubim and Seraphim," in Friedrich V.
Reiterer, Tobias Nicklas, Karin Schopflin (eds.), Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Yearbook,
Berlin 2007, p. 164.
3
their role, as well, is to hint at the nature of the prophet's sin of speaking slanderously. In
this prophecy, however, their heavenly appearance is the opposite of their earthly
manifestation. While the serpent's strength is in its "mouth," nevertheless, in contrast to
the serpent's negative embodiment on earth, fundamentally the seraphs all say "Holy" (Isa.
6:3).
Thus the appearance of the "copper serpent" in the wilderness as a healing force is
fundamentally rooted in an array of symbols unique to the Bible, where the serpent as a
symbol is perceived in relation to its tongue, its purpose being to teach the slanderers in
Moses' day the commensurate measure of repentance, namely to correct the sin of the
tongue through words of holiness. Thus we understand the pedagogical reason for looking
at the "serpent on the standard," which, while healing those who had been bitten and
making atonement for them as the seraph did for Isaiah (whence the mistaken perception
that developed over the generations until the time of Hezekiah), was as if saying to them,
"Look upwards and comprehend the power of speech which also conceals within it the
possibility of resembling the heavenly entourage."
Translated by Rachel Rowen
4