Copper Snake of Numbers 21

The Aish Rabbi Replies

Thank you for raising your important issue. The copper snake is sometimes called the Brazen Serpent or Nehushtan, as we’ll discuss below. You are right that looking to a copper snake for healing sounds suspiciously idolatrous. But in this case, God Himself commanded Moses to construct the likeness of a snake and place it on a pole. Clearly, then, its function was not idolatrous in the slightest. But if so, what was its role?

The Mishna (Rosh Hashanah 3:8, slightly paraphrased) explains: “Does a snake kill or bring life? Rather, when the Jews looked upwards [toward the snake] and would then subjugate their hearts to their Father in Heaven, they would recover, and if not, they would pine away.” In other words, the snake caused the Jews to look upwards – and that reminded them to look yet higher to God who truly brings healing. The snake was thus a type of crutch, reminding the Jews which direction to look to for their salvation.

The Mishna there writes the same regarding the battle against Amalek described in Exodus 17:8-13. The verse there too states that when Moses lifted his hands to Heaven, the Jews would win; otherwise, the Amalekites. And there too, the Mishna explains that by holding up his hands toward Heaven, it reminded the nation to look upwards – truly to God – for their salvation.

Although as the Mishna explains, the true purpose of the copper snake was to direct people to God – and in fact, the snake only brought healing when a person did, the snake still too closely resembled a true idol. For this reason, states the Book of Kings (2 Kings 18:4), the Israelites of later generations came to treat it as an idol and offer incense to it. In response, the righteous King Hezekiah destroyed it. (He also gave it the derogatory name “Nehushtan” – related to nechoshet, copper. His intent was to say it’s just a piece of metal and does not deserve to be deified.) The Mishna (Pesachim 4:9) writes that the Torah sages of the time approved of his decision. Although it was an ancient holy item which did indeed help the healing process, it had by then been transformed into an idol and deserved destruction.

It is interesting to consider why this is one of the few “crutches” sanctioned by the Torah. We virtually never find the Torah allowing us to fashion images and use them for constructive purpose. Why did the Torah allow it specifically here?

Possibly, it is to help us overcome a common misconception. When a person suffers sickness, it is truly a message from God. He is sinful and needs to repent. (The one exception is if a person recklessly exposes himself to disease. In such a case, his illness is not a Divine sign but his own stupidity. In a slight variation of the Talmud’s words, “Everything is in the hands of Heaven except for catching cold!” (Ketubot 30a).) Now, even though (most) illnesses truly emanate from God, we tend to see them as the result of natural causes – such as bacteria, viruses or snake venom. We thus turn to doctors rather than God for our healing. Of course, the Sages teach us that we are obligated to go to the doctor and heal ourselves via natural means rather than relying on miracles (see Baba Kama 85a, based on Exodus 21:19). Yet we are enjoined to accept that the true Healer is God – who can easily override all human efforts (or incompetence) if He so chooses; the doctor is merely His agent.

This is perhaps why God commanded Moses to erect a serpent in the desert. God wanted to put in place a “natural” force which caused the Israelites to heal. Yet He wanted us to learn the lesson that we must always accept regarding healing. The Israelites looked toward the snake yet realized that it was really God who heals – for had they looked at the snake alone, they would have never recovered. So too more generally, when we are sick, we must indeed go to the doctor and take our medications. Yet we must additionally look upwards, past the physical agents, knowing that God is our True Healer – who wants us to turn to Him in prayer and repent our sins. In fact, the Sages instituted a short prayer to say before taking medicine. And by doing so, our recovery from illness will be a spiritual as much as a physical journey.

See also this past article for more on the Torah’s perspective on healing.