Shabbos Parashas Chukas - 5777

Shabbos Parashas Chukas - 5777

Rabbi Hal Miller

G-d sent the fiery serpents against the people and they bit the people. A great number

of Israel died. [Bamidbar [21:6]

The phrase is hanechashim sarafim, which literally is "the burning serpents". Also of

interest here is vayishaleach for "sent". What was G-d doing? Did He intend to kill all

the Jews?

Rashi and others note that nachash, serpent, and nechoshes, copper are related. We

see this in verse 9 when Moshe makes the serpent out of copper. G-d had not specified

the material to make it from when He commanded Moshe to make it in verse 8.

Talelei Oros asks why prayer was not sufficient to remove these serpents. In other

similar instances, Moshe prays, and G-d responds by taking away the cause of Israel's

troubles. What was different here? His answer discusses the idea that each time a Jew

does a sin, a 'prosecuting angel' is created that will stand against that Jew at the final

judgment. These prosecutors do not speak, but act only by their presence. It is easy for

prayer and repentance to remove these silent prosecutors from the heavenly courtroom.

There is a difference here. The sin that caused this plague was that of lashon hara, the

evil speech of the people against Moshe and Aharon. The prosecuting angel created

for a sin of speech has the ability to speak in that heavenly court, and cannot be silenced

by mere prayer and repentance--G-d must listen to this prosecutor. Instead, Moshe's

making the copper serpent on the pole got people to look toward G-d for salvation, and

that is the key to defeating this prosecuting angel.

And the word sent? Here it is in an unusual form. Most occasions we see vayishlach.

Rav Hirsch explains that shalach means to send, to put something in motion towards

a goal. But shaleach means letting something go, to leave it to its natural course, not

to hold it back. In all the travels in the desert, these serpents were all over the place

naturally. Not one bit a Jew, which can only be attributed to G-d holding them back.

Now, He stopped holding them back, and they did what came naturally to them, attack

people. Thus, it was not a case of G-d sending serpents to kill, but just stopping His

restraining of them from doing what they would have done on their own. It was only

Moshe's action, and that of the people in cooperating, that "convinced" G-d to again

restrain these serpents.