Exploring Chukat: the Serpents

The LORD sent seraph serpents against the people. They bit the people and many of the Israelites died.

(Numb. 21:6:) FIERY (serafim). <They are called seraphim> because they burn (sorefim) the soul.

את הנחשים השרפים BURNING SERPENTS — so termed because they burn (cause fever in) a person through the poison of their fangs.

וינשכו את העם AND THEY BIT THE PEOPLE — God said, as it were: Let the serpent which was punished for slanderous statements come and exact punishment from those who utter slander. — Let the serpent to which all kinds of food have one taste (that of earth; cf. Genesis 3:14 and Yoma 75a) come and exact punishment from these ingrates to whom one thing (the manna) had the taste of many different dainties (see Rashi 11:8) (Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 19).

"And God sent against the nation the burning snakes" (Bamidbar 21:1). Why did he punish [lit. collect from] them with snakes? Since the snake was the first to speak slander and was cursed for it, and they did not learn from it, the Holy One Blessed Be He said: The snake should come, which was the first to speak slander, and punish the speakers of slander, as it says (Ecclesiastes 10:8): "And one who breaks a fence, a snake will bit him." Another explanation: Why were they punished by snakes? The snake, even if it partakes of all the delectable foods of the world, they turn into dust in its mouth, as it says (Isaiah 65:25): "And a snake, dust is its bread" - but these [the Jews] eat man, which turns into many flavors, as it says (Psalms 106:15): "And He gave to them what they asked", and it says (Devarim 20:7): "For these forty years Hashem your God has been with you; you have not lacked anything" - the snake, which eats many things and taste one taste, should come punish these who eat one thing and taste many tastes.

Rabbi said: They slandered God again and said, We were dwelling in the land of Egypt in ease and contentment, but the Holy One, blessed be He, and Moses have brought us forth from Egypt to die in the wilderness, as it is said, "And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?" (Num. 21:5). What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do unto them? He sent against them fiery serpents which bit and killed them, as it is said, "And the Lord sent among the people fiery serpents, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died" (Num. 21:6). Moses beheld the misfortune of Israel, and he arose and prayed on their behalf. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Moses! Make thee a serpent of copper like that serpent || which spoke slander betwixt Adam and his helpmate, and place it on a high place. Let every man who has been bitten direct his heart to his Father who is in heaven, and let him gaze at that serpent, and he will be healed. Moses made a serpent of copper and set it up in a high place, and every man who had been bitten turned his heart to his Father who is in heaven, and gazed at that serpent, forthwith he became restored to health, as it is said, "And it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of copper, he lived" (Num. 21:9); and it also says, "If the serpent bite without enchantment, then is there no advantage in the master of the tongue" (Eccles. 10:11).

את הנחשים השרפים, the fiery snakes. It appears that as a result of the continued complaints by the Israelites against G'd and Moses, He sent the very beasts against them which their לשון הרע had given birth to. We have explained on numerous occasions that the מזיקים, destructive forces in our world, are nothing but the creatures we cause to come into being through our sins. The incident of the serpents in this paragraph proves how true the words of our sages in Taanit 8 are when they said that in the messianic future the other wild beasts will ask the serpent why it kills with a poisonous bite seeing it does not even get a physical satisfaction out of the damage it causes; the serpent replies with the verse (Kohelet 10,11)אין יתרון לבעל הלשון, "the slanderer does not get anything out of his slander." It asks: "why not ask the same question of the slanderer? What does he get out of spreading lies against people?" את הנחשים השרפים, the fiery serpents, etc. It seems quite appropriate that seeing the Israelites continued to slander G'd and Moses, that G'd sent the serpents created by these slanderous remarks against those who had caused their existence, against the slanderers themselves as per the Talmud in Taanit. In this instance the complaints of the Israelites gave birth to two kinds of serpents. The one called נחש has a poisonous bite which destroys the body, whereas the bite of the one called שרף burns the soul. The meaning of the word וישלח here is that G'd allowed the evil creations of the people's slanderous remarks to be turned against them. We find a similar use of that word in Job 8,4 וישלחם ביד פשעם, "He expelled them by means of their sin." In this instance the נחשים were the result of their slander against Moses, whereas the שרפים were the result of the Israelites having misrepresented what G'd had done. The Midrash too mentions that the שרפים were the punishment for what they said against G'd, as these serpents burn the soul.

את הנחשים, “the snakes.” According to Rabbi Yudan, the Torah, by not writing: נחשים, but הנחשים instead, claims that the cloud over the Jewish camp as long as Aaron had been alive, used to burn the snakes, and thus make them harmless, as far as the Jewish people were concerned. Now that Aaron had died there was no remedy against being bitten by snakes. They became frequent sources of harm.