Stare At The Snake

After the snakes came to bite people, Moshe erects a copper snake and places it upon a staff and the people were healed.  The mishna in the end of the second Ch. of Rosh Hashana explains there was no healing power to the copper snake but when one gazed at it, the individual would be inspired to pray.  If there was no power to the snake, what was the point of making the snake at all?

This blog mentioned in the past that in order to conquer pain and problems one can't merely run away but one must stare the problem in the face and tackle it.  When one is looking down, head in the ground, one may temporally avoid the problem but it will always be in the background ready to rear its ugly head.  The only way to solve a problem, to grow from pain is to raise one's head and meet the issue head on.  That is why one had to look up at the snake.  By seeing the snake not merely as a being of destruction but realizing that it was there to correct one's error, to show one the proper path, then one was able to pray to remove the snake because they had properly grown from the snake challenge.

In a more spiritual vein, the Alter Rebbe in Likutay Torah explains that every thing in its spiritual root is inherently good.  It is merely as some things slide through the chute into this world they take a physical form that is not pleasant.   However, by recognizing the good source of the perceived evil one is able to conquer it. (This is even more pronounced in the snake as discussed on the blog in the past here and here, that the snake is representative of all the evil forces in the world.)  It is with that recognition that one can stand and pray to Hashem to bring forth the source of the perceived evil and change it to טוב הנראה והנגלאת. 

I think this idea may be hinted too in the terminology of the possuk, עֲשֵׂה לְךָ שָׂרָף וְשִׂים אֹתוֹ עַל נֵס וְהָיָה כָּל הַנָּשׁוּךְ וְרָאָה אֹתוֹ וָחָי.  Why use the word נס (see Rashi and Rashbam)?  The possuk in Tehillim (60:6) says נָ֘תַ֤תָּה לִּירֵאֶ֣יךָ נֵּ֭ס לְהִתְנוֹסֵ֑ס.  Chassidus explains based upon the Targum there that the peshat is that a person becomes raised up by נסיונות, hardships.  The hardships bring out the potential in a person (as the Ramban (Berashit 22:1) describes. That serves as a banner for the individual.  When one was able to look at the snake and transform the experience into a positive, it raised the person up.  This was a themes the Friedeker Rebbe developed in some of his maamarim on 12-13 Tamuz (coming up this week) where he expressed his understanding for how his own suffering and hardships led to greater horizons. 

The Mishna in Berachot (5:1) says even when a snake is wrapped around one's feet the individual should not interrupt their שמונה עשרה to remove the snake.  Possibly there is an illusion to this idea there as well.  When the snake seeks to bring a person down, when one is overtaken by pain, depression and grief, they should not run away but continue serving G-d and not let one's problems get in the way of living  (see the Nimukay Orach Chayim (104:3) has a very hard time taking this law at face value.)