Quoting Commentary for II Kings 2:21

וַיֵּצֵא֙ אֶל־מוֹצָ֣א הַמַּ֔יִם וַיַּשְׁלֶךְ־שָׁ֖ם מֶ֑לַח וַיֹּ֜אמֶר כֹּֽה־אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֗ה רִפִּ֙אתִי֙ לַמַּ֣יִם הָאֵ֔לֶּה לֹֽא־יִהְיֶ֥ה מִשָּׁ֛ם ע֖וֹד מָ֥וֶת וּמְשַׁכָּֽלֶת׃

And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast salt therein, and said: ‘Thus saith the LORD: I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or miscarrying.’

Depths of Yonah

By contrast, it was best for Elisha, who had a much softer personality than Eliyahu HaNavi (as evidenced by Melachim I 19:20-21 and Melachim II 2:21-22), to anoint Chazael (Melachim II 8:7-15). Elisha’s crying when informing Chazael of his divine destiny to punish our people (see Melachim I 19:15-18), likely softened the blow Chazael dealt to our people (Melachim II 12:18-19).
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Ramban

AND MOSES MADE ‘NECHASH NECHOSHETH’ (A SERPENT OF BRASS). “He was not told to make it of brass. But Moses said: ‘The Holy One, blessed be He, called it a nachash (serpent); therefore I will make it of nechosheth (brass)’ — since the one word resembles the other [in sound].” This is Rashi’s language, based upon the words of our Rabbis.251Bereshith Rabbah 31:8. But I do not understand this, for the Holy One, blessed be He, did not mention to Moses [the word] nachash, but said to him, Make thee ‘saraf’ (a fiery serpent)!252Verse 8. But the intention of the Sages is that Moses was guided by the substantive name thereof [which is nachash; and saraf is merely a particular description of a certain kind of serpent — a “fiery” serpent — hence he made the saraf which G-d mentioned to him from nechosheth (brass), corresponding with its substantive name].
It appears to me that the secret of this matter is that this is one of the ways of the Torah, every deed of which is a miracle within a miracle. Thus [the Torah] removes injury by means of the cause of the injury, and heals illness by means of the cause of the sickness, as the Rabbis have mentioned in connection with [the verse], and the Eternal showed him a tree,253Exodus 15:25. See Vol. II, p. 211. and as occurred with the salt that Elisha [cast] into the water.254II Kings 2:21. See Vol. II, p. 211, Note 259. Now it is a well-known medical principle that all people bitten by poisonous creatures become dangerously ill when they see them, or [even] when they [only] see their likeness, so that if people who have been bitten by a mad dog or other mad animals look into water,255“Or any mirror.” See Vol. I, p. 259. they see there the image of the dog or the attacker, and [this] can [cause them to] die, as is written in medical books and mentioned in the Gemara of Tractate Yoma.256Yoma 84a. Similarly doctors protect them from [people] mentioning in their presence the name of the animal that bit them, [and they forbid people] to mention it at all, because their minds cling to this thought and do not turn away from it altogether until it causes their death. [The doctors] have already mentioned that it is an empirical fact, amongst the wonders of reproduction, that if the urine of a person bitten by a mad dog is put in a glass receptacle after he has become rabidly sick, there will appear in that urine the likeness of the young of small dogs. And if you pass the liquid through a cloth and filter it, you will not find any trace of them at all; but if you return the liquid to the glass bottle, and it remains there for about an hour, you will again clearly see in it the small dogs. This is a true fact, and of the wonders of the powers of the soul. Now in view of all this, it would have been correct that the Israelites, who had been bitten by the fiery serpents, should not look upon a serpent, and should not mention it or bring it to mind at all. But the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded Moses to make for them the likeness of a fiery serpent, which was [the creature] that killed them. And it is well-known that these fiery serpents have red eyes and wide heads, and their bodies at their necks are like brass. Therefore Moses could not fulfill His command to make a fiery serpent except by making a serpent of brass, which appears similar to a fiery serpent. For had he made it of any other material, it would have had the likeness of a serpent, but not that of a saraf (a fiery serpent). And the Rabbis251Bereshith Rabbah 31:8. who said [that Moses was to make a brass serpent] because “one word corresponds [in sound] to the other,” [meant to imply] that the mere mention of the name [saraf, which is a particular form of nachash, as explained above] was harmful [for the people who had been bitten, and yet G-d wanted to heal them through it]. The general intention [of this section, then] is that G-d commanded that they should be healed by the harmful agent whose nature is to kill; therefore they made its likeness in form and name, and when a person concentrated his gaze upon the brass serpent which resembled totally the offending agent, he lived. This was to make them realize that it is G-d [alone] Who sendeth death and maketh alive.257I Samuel 2:6.
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Ramban

VAYOREIHU HASHEM EITZ’ (AND THE ETERNAL SHOWED HIM A TREE). The meaning thereof is that G-d showed Moses a tree and He told him, “Throw this tree into the waters, and they shall become sweet.” Now due to the fact that I have not found the expression of moreh, [from which the word vayoreihu here is derived], except in the sense of instruction — [e.g., the verse], ‘vayoreini’ and said to me,257Proverbs 4:4. which means “and he [my father] taught me,” and so all other such expressions — it appears by way of the plain meaning of Scripture that this tree had a natural property to sweeten water, this being its uniqueness, and He taught it to Moses. Our Rabbis have said258Mechilta on the verse here. that the tree was [naturally] bitter, but that this was a miracle within a miracle, [i.e., that He healed the bitter waters with something which was bitter], just as the salt which Elisha cast into the waters.259II Kings 2:21. “Now even if you put salt into good water, it immediately spoils. Here, Elisha put a thing that spoils [salt] into the waters that had already been spoiled, in order to perform a miracle, [i.e., to heal the waters], therewith” (Mechilta). Now if so,260I.e., if, as this interpretation has it, the sweetening power of that tree was not a natural property thereof, the question again arises, why does Scripture say vayoreihu which indicates instruction? Ramban proceeds to remove this difficulty. the word ‘vayoreihu’ (and He instructed him) indicates that the tree was not found in that place, and the Holy One, blessed be He, taught him where it was to be found, or perhaps He made it available to him by a miracle. I found further in the Yelamdeinu:261Tanchuma, Beshalach 24. For the name Yelamdeinu, see above in Seder Bo, Note 196. “See what is written there: Vayoreihu hashem eitz. It does not say vayar’eihu (and He showed him) but vayoreihu, which means that He taught him His way.” That is to say, He instructed him and taught him the way of the Holy One, blessed be He, i.e., that He sweetens the bitter with the bitter.
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