30 Jun CHUKAT: CAN I SEE ANXIETY AS AN OPPORTUNITY? LOOKING UP: THE MEANING BEHIND THE SNAKE ON THE POLE

No Complaining
After seventy
years of communist
oppression and
seven hours of
flying, Boris, a
burly immigrant
from Moscow steps off the plane in a free
land to begin his new life in his new
home, Israel. Standing at the Ben Gurion
airport in Tel Aviv, a young and
enthusiastic Israeli reporter plunges a
microphone in front of him with a level
of excitement that is only seen when an
inside scoop is about to be caught. The
reporter asks with focus: “Tell me, what
was life back in Russia like?”
To which the Russian immigrant replies:
“I couldn’t complain.”
An obviously unexpected answer, the
young reporter continues to probe: “Well
how were your living quarters there?” To
which the Russian responds “I couldn’t
complain.”
Not expecting this answer either, the
reporter decides to hit him with a question
that is bound to get the answer he is
looking for: “What about your standard
of living?” To which the Russian replies
again: “I couldn’t complain.”
At this point, the reporter’s frustration
with the new immigrant’s answers
reaches a crescendo, and so in a
derogatory tone the reporter yells out,
“Well, if everything was so wonderful
back in Russia, then why did you even
bother to come here?” To which the new
immigrant replies with gusto: “Oh, here I
can complain!”
The Serpents
It is a strange biblical episode — in this
week’s parsha, Chukas.
When poisonous snakes attack the Jews
in the desert, G-d instructs Moshe to
fashion a special healing instrument: a
pole topped with the form of a snake.
Moshe sculptures a snake of copper and
duly places it on top of a pole. Those who
had been afflicted by the snake bite
would gaze on the serpentine image on
the pole and be cured.
According to some historians, this was

the forerunner of the caduceus, the snake-
entwined rod which is today the emblem

of the medical profession.
Yet the question is obvious: What was
the point of placing a snake on top of the
pole to cure the Jews who were bitten? If
it was G-d who was healing them

miraculously, why the need to look up at
a copper snake atop a pole? The question
is raised in the Talmud:
“But is the snake capable of determining
life and death?!” the Talmud asks. And
the answer is this: “Rather, when Israel
would gaze upward and bind their hearts
to their Father in Heaven, they would be
healed; and if not, they would perish.”
Fixing their eyes on the snake alone
would not yield any cure; it was looking
upward toward G-d, it was the relationship
with G-d, which brought the cure. But if
so, why bother to carve out a copper
snake in the first place, which can only
make people believe that it is the copper
snake that is the cause of healing?
In fact, this is exactly what occurred.
The copper snake that Moshe made was
preserved for centuries. In the passage of
time, however, its meaning became
distorted, and people began to say that
the snake possessed powers of its own.
When it reached the point of becoming
an image of idolatry, the Jewish King
Chizkiyahu (in the 6th century BCE)
destroyed the copper snake fashioned by
Moshe, and that was the end of that
special copper snake.
Which only reinforces the question:

Why ask people to look up at a man-
made snake which can lead down the

path to a theological error of deifying the
snake?
There is another question. The snake
was the reptile that caused the harm in
the first place. Healing, it would seem,
would come from staying far away from
serpents. Why in this case was the remedy
born from gazing at the very venomous
creature which caused the damage to
begin with?
A Tale of Two Snakes
The snake in the biblical story — as all
biblical stories capturing the timeless
journeys of the human psyche — is also a
metaphor for all of the “snakes” in our
lives. Have you ever been bitten by a
“venomous snake”? Poisoned by harmful
people, burnt by life, or by abusive
situations? Have you ever been crushed
by a clueless principal, a manipulative
boss, a deceiving partner, a toxic
relationship? Were you ever backstabbed
by people you trusted? Is your anxiety
killing you? Are you weary and
demoralized by your life experience?
What is the deeper meaning of suffering?
And how do some people know how to

accept affliction with
love and grace?
These are good
questions that cannot
be answered easily, if
at all. But one
perspective is
presented in the story
of the serpents. G-d
tells Moshe: “Make a
serpent and place it
on a pole. Whoever
gets bitten should
look at it and he will
live.” The key to healing, the Torah
suggests, is not by fleeing the cause of
the suffering, but by gazing at it. Don’t
run from the snake; look at it. Because
deep inside the challenge, you will find
the cure. Deep inside the pain, you will
find the healing light.
But there is one qualification: you must
look up to the snake; you must peer into
the reality of the snake above, on top of
the elevated pole, not on the serpent
crawling here below.
The Austrian-British philosopher
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), who
had three Jewish grandparents and was
considered by many to be one of the
greatest philosophers of the 20th century,
once said that his aim as a philosopher
was, “to show the fly the way out of the
fly-bottle.” The fly keeps banging its
head against the glass in a vain attempt to
get out. The more it tries, the more it
fails, until it drops from exhaustion. The
one thing it forgets to do is look to the
sky.
Every experience in life can be seen
from two dimensions – from a concrete,
earthly perspective, or from a higher,
more sublime vantage point, appreciating
its true nature and meaning from the
Divine perspective. There is the “snake”
down here, and there is the very same
“snake” up there. I can experience my
challenges, struggles, and difficulties in
the way they are manifested down here.
But I can also look at these very same
struggles from a more elevated point of
view. The circumstances may not change,
but their meaning and significance will.
From the “downer” perspective, these
challenges, curveballs, painful
confrontations, and realizations can
throw me into despair or drain me of my
sap. From the “higher” perspective, the
way G-d sees these very same realities,
every challenge contains the seeds for

rebirth. Within every crisis lies the
possibility of a new and deeper discovery.
Many of us know this from our personal
stories: Events that at the time were so
painful to endure, in retrospect were
those that inspired the most growth.
Those painful events moved us from the
surface to the depths, challenging us to
become larger than we ever thought we
can be, and stimulating conviction and
clarity unknown to us before.
This is not about suppressing the pain.
On the contrary, it is about taking the
pain back to its deepest origin; going
with it back to its primal source, seeing it
for what it really is in its pristine state.
To perceive clarity from the midst of
agonizing turmoil we must train ourselves
to constantly look upward. When faced
with a “snake,” with a challenge, many
people look to their right or to their left.
Either they fight, or they cave in. But
there is another path: look upwards. See
the “snake” from the perspective above.
And in that upward gaze, you might find
a new sense of healing: the questions
might become the very answers, the
problems may become the solutions, and
the venom may become the cure.
Remarkably, snakebites today are cured
with anti-venom manufactured from
small quantities of snake venom that
stimulate the production of antibodies in
the blood.
It’s the same idea taught by Moshe: The
source of the affliction itself becomes the
remedy. This is true in all areas of life. As
viewed by the Creator, from the
perspective above, transgression is the
potential for a new self-discovery; failure
is the potential for deeper success, holes
in a marriage are the seeds of “renovation”
to recreate a far deeper relationship, the
end of an era is always the beginning of a
new one, pain is a springboard for deeper
love and frustration is the mother of a
new awareness.