Following the first half of Sefer Bamidbar‘s focus on Israel’s national formation & the various crises Israel would have to overcome in its internal development, the theme of Parshat Ḥukat is Israel’s military confrontations with various other peoples.
For some reason, this video ends on a bit of a cliff hanger. What’s the meaning of the copper serpent coiled around the staff?
The first thing to note is that copper often represents the idea of channeling our natural passions in a positive direction (as we see with the copper cauldron in the outer courtyard made from the mirrors used by the Israelite women to beautify themselves for their husbands in Egypt).
Accepting the idea that roundness (the serpent) represents nature/the natural world and that the straight line (the staff) represents Divinity, we should understand the symbolic juxtaposition of the round serpent wrapped around a straight staff as educating us towards the realization of HaShem’s presence and guidance within even that which we perceive to be fully natural.
The complaints of the Israelites that led to the snake bites were essentially expressing a rejection of the miraculous experience of life in the desert and a desire to live more natural lives (the complaints appear to have focused on food but were likely about more than just food).
The Israelites at this point were almost ready to live natural lives but still had an important lesson to learn. The snake bites that caused many to die demonstrate that HaShem’s Divine supernatural protection was still necessary to protect Israel in the desert.
But how did the copper serpent coiled around the staff heal the people?
In order to survive in the natural world, Israel must internalize the fact that the natural realm is just as completely controlled by HaShem as the supernatural realm. This realization was achieved by gazing at the serpent around the staff because it showed that inside what was seen as natural (round) is in truth really Divine (a straight line).
For Israel to survive in the natural world, we must appreciate that while superficially independent, nature is actually Divinely guided from within and is in reality yet another manifestation of the Divine. This correction in Israel’s perception led to the healing of those who had been bitten by nature.
