Parshat Hukat Rabbi Chaim Brovender

Let us learn a posuk with Rashi

"Hashem said to Moshe: 'make a serpent, place it on a standard, and all who are bitten shall see it and live.' Moshe made a copper snake and placed it on the pole; if a snake bit a man, he would stare at the copper snake and live..." (21: 8-9).

Chazal had difficulty with this suggested remedy. A mishna is quoted by Rashi in his comments on our verses as follows: "Could a [metal] snake cause death or give life? Understand correctly: when the people would look upward and accept the authority of their Father in Heaven, they would be cured. If not, they would waste away..." (Bavli, Rosh Hashana 29a).

Wouldn't it have been better if God had delivered a cure without employing the intermediary of the copper snake?

Chazal refer to another case [there in the gemara] in which an intermediary process risked distracting and confusing people into thinking that a mechanism besides Providence acted to their relief. In the war against Amelek, Moshe raises his hands in prayer. A pasuk there explains: "...when Moshe would raise his hands Yisrael would win, and when he lowered his hand, Amalek would win..." (Shemot, 17: 11).

There too Rashi quotes: "Would the hands of Moshe win the war?" In the Mishna, both Moshe's raised hands and the copper snake are mentioned. Chazal comment that things are not always as they seem.

Moshe, the great teacher-leader, appears to use some magic in order to solve a particular problem-enemies or biting snakes- from which the people suffer. Battling Amalek challenged the people's strength and resolve; by lifting his hands Heavenward, Moshe inspired the nation to persevere and overcome. Similarly, the copper snake seemed to cure the malady of the snake bite.

In neither case do the people seem to take their problems directly before Hashem. Some mechanism, poorly understood by us, substitutes for direct prayer or other standard, acceptable ways of turning to Hashem. Here a manipulative attitude, not temimut-pious simplicity, but some approved technique appears the preferred method. This runs counter to our principled understanding of bitahon, trust and confidence in God. For this reason, Chazal in the Mishna state their position definitively: neither Moshe's hands nor the copper snake caused a change in the war or cured those suffering from venomous affliction.

Both cases, called the people to recognize that salvation, national or personal, rests ultimately in the will of Heaven. Attempts at manipulation (which smack of idolatry) do not help. Neither Rashi nor Chazal address directly the question of why then Moshe, acting at the behest of the Divine, should select these methods.

With regard to Moshe's raising his hands Heavenward, we might answer that the action itself demonstrated the importance of turning to Hashem-that was its whole point. Moshe directed himself to Hashem and the people could reliably be expected to follow suit. However, in the case of the nachash shel nachoshet-the copper snake, the situation is different. A crafted object, an "idol" in potential became the tool of Providence. This mystery lived with the people until the time of King Chizkiyahu (II Kings, 18: 4) when the copper snake was destroyed.

A thought. By using the copper snake Moshe directed the people to look beyond even "real" manifestations of Divine intervention through subordinate causes and maintain their gaze on the true source of salvation. Yes, the copper snake seems to help. However, for us only Hashem and our relationship to His will really counts. The copper snake cured, but it also tested.

Gut Shabbos,
Chaim Brovender

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