Benei Yisrael were disheartened by the need to retreat and circumvent the land of Edom in order to reach Eretz Yisrael. An awareness of the many "snakes" threatening us all around has the ability to help us overcome life's challenges and disappointments, and help make us feel fortunate and privileged, even during times of frustration and hardship.
Moshe erected the nechash ha-nechoshet – the copper snake- e for the sake of curing those among Benei Yisrael who were stung by the snakes God had sent upon them to punish them for their complaints. After they acknowledged their guilt and implored Moshe to intervene on their behalf, God ordered Moshe to form a copper image of a snake, which would cure a bitten person who would look upon it. Yesterday we presented Rav Chayim of Volozhin's explanation of the spiritual process God wanted Benei Yisrael to undergo by contemplating the image of the snake. Today, we will briefly summarize the approach taken by Rav Shimshon Refael Hirsch, in his commentary to the Torah (21:6-8).
Rav Hirsch notes that when the Torah describes God's dispatching of serpents against the people, it does not employ the standard form used for "send," which in Biblical Hebrew would be va-yishlach. Rather, the Torah writes, "va-yeshalach," in the pi'el verb form. Rav Hirsch contends that this form, as opposed to the standard form, means to "let go," or to "release." (One of the most compelling proofs is Bereishit 43:14, where this form is used in the context of freeing a prisoner.) God did not "send" snakes to bite Benei Yisrael. Rather, he merely allowed the snakes – for the first time in nearly forty years – to follow their natural course and assault the human beings trespassing on their desert turf. In Sefer Devarim (3:15), Moshe describes to the people how God had led them safely through a "terrible wilderness of poisonous snakes, scorpions and drought." The Almighty thus did not have to "send" snakes; He simply set them free and allowed them to act in accordance with their natural impulses.
It was this message, Rav Hirsch writes, that God wanted to convey through their concentrated gaze at the copper image of the snake. Someone who was bitten "had only to fix the image of a serpent firmly in his mind so that even when God's gracious power will again keep the serpents at a distance he will remember that the danger is still in existence, dangers that daily and hourly the special care of God lets us escape quite unconsciously." The image of the snake thus symbolized the permanent, ongoing reality of danger in which we all live at all times. We are constantly surrounded by "snakes," and it is only "the special care of God" which rescues us from these risks, often without our ever realizing that we had been threatened.
How does this message relate to this episode, to Benei Yisrael's complaints during travel? Why was this realization – of the ever-present dangers lurking all around us – a necessary stage in the process of repentance for their charges against Moshe and God?
Rav Hirsch explains, "Nothing is so thoroughly calculated to conciliate us in the everyday disappointments in life which so easily sting us to impatience – every big prize in the lottery which God has failed to let us win – and to mix them with the exalted feeling of God having saved us, and the joy of being granted a new life… " An awareness of the many "snakes" threatening us all around has the ability to help us overcome life's challenges and disappointments, and help make us feel fortunate and privileged, even during times of frustration and hardship. Benei Yisrael were disheartened by the need to retreat and circumvent the land of Edom in order to reach Eretz Yisrael. After feeling that the decades-long journey through the wilderness was on the brink of culmination, they met with bitter disappointment when Edom denied them passage through its territory, forcing them to embark on the long trek along Edom's eastern border. This disappointment led them to frustration and disgust, which expressed itself in a sense of resentment towards those who brought them to the wilderness in the first place – Moshe and God.
God therefore sought to inspire them with a feeling of appreciation and gratitude, which could help them overcome their frustration. By focusing on the fact that God continually protects and saves them from harm, that He guides their every step, even the more difficult ones, they would not be disheartened by even significant setbacks and detours.
Courtesy of Yeshivat Har Etzion - www.etzion.org.il