In this week’s Torah portion, Chukat, the Jewish people complain once again about the food in the desert. In response, God sends venomous snakes and many people perish. In the strangest solution, God instructs Moses to fashion a bronze snake and place it around a pole. Those who had been bitten would be encouraged to look at this symbol—the very snake that had attacked them—and be healed.
Why the snake? How could the cause of their suffering become the tool of their redemption?
Our Rabbis teach us a profound lesson from this story. Sometimes, it is the very thing that breaks us that has the potential to rebuild us stronger. History, psychology, and even modern medicine echo this truth. Survivors of illness become healers. Victims of disaster become community leaders. Our flaws and failures often ignite in us the greatest transformations.
We saw this vividly on October 7th, 2023. The brutal Hamas attack exposed deep cracks in Israeli society—years of bitter infighting, stubbornness, and division. Left against Right, religious against secular—each side dug in and was unwilling to budge from their adamant position.
And yet, it was precisely that pig-headed stubbornness—so often our weakness—that became our saving grace. On October 7th, Israelis who refused to back down from their beliefs now refused to back down from defending each other. Protesters became partners. Volunteers, reservists, and neighbours all mobilised with ferocious unity.
The snake that bit us—the stubborn pride that had fractured our society—became the source of our resilience. We took back control of our streets, our homes, our future. And through the painful war that we have been fighting since then, Israel has not only stabilized its relationship with our enemies, but also reshaped the Middle East.
In Chukat, the snake on the pole was not magic. It was a mirror. When we confront our weaknesses, we reveal our hidden strengths. The challenge is real—but so is our power to transform it.
Rabbi Leo Dee is an educator living in Efrat. His book “Transforming the World: The Jewish Impact on Modernity” was republished in English and Hebrew in memory of his wife Lucy and daughters Maia and Rina, who were murdered by terrorists in April 2023.