Divine punishment can be understood in two ways:
1) G-d afflicts us directly.
2) G-d removes His protection from us and allows nature to take its course.
According to Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, the poisonous snakes that bit us in the desert (Bamidbar 21:6) represent the second form of punishment. G-d didn’t prompt these snakes to attack us. Had He done that, the Torah would have stated “Va’yishlach Hashem…es hanchashim” (“And G-d sent…the snakes”). But that’s not what the Torah says. It says: “Vai’shalach Hashem…es hanchashim,” which Rav Hirsch translates as “And G-d released…the snakes.”
Rav Hirsch writes: “Shelach in the kal means to send, to put something in motion toward a goal. But shale’ach in the pi’el predominantly has the meaning of letting something go, to leave it to its natural way, not to hold it back.”
Poisonous snakes populated the desert. Until that point, they hadn’t harmed the Jewish people because G-d prevented them from doing so. However, when the Jewish people complained about the miraculous manna – yet again – G-d removed His protective shield and allowed the snakes to do what they naturally do: bite people.
G-d wanted the Jews to appreciate their blessings. That’s why when they admitted their guilt, G-d told survivors of the assault to look at the image of a (copper) snake. What was the point of this exercise? To put things in perspective. To remind them of the many dangers – “the poisonous serpents that lurk invisibly on our path” – from which G-d daily protects us.
For “nothing is so thoroughly calculated to conciliate us in the everyday disappointments in life which so easily sting us to impatience…and to mix them with the exalted feeling of G-d having saved us…than the conviction of the abyss on the narrow edge of which the whole path of our life trends.”
We’re luckier than we even know.
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) – head of the Jewish community in Frankfurt, Germany for over 35 years – was a prolific writer whose ideas, passion, and brilliance helped save German Jewry from the onslaught of modernity.
Elliot Resnick, PhD, is the host of “The Elliot Resnick Show” and the editor of an upcoming work on etymological explanations in Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch’s commentary on Chumash.