민수기 21:9의 주석

נחש נחשת A SERPENT OF COPPER — He had not been told to make it of copper, but Moses said, “The Holy One, blessed be He, terms it נחש; I will therefore make it of נחשת — one term fitting the other term” (Genesis Rabbah 31:8).

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.

נחש נחושת, after Moses had understood what G’d had intended with His command, he agreed to make this replica of a snake out of copper and not out of gold. Copper would be more likely to induce thoughts of remorse as they would associate its colour with the sensation of burning.

והביט אל נחש הנחשת וחי, “if he looked up to the copper snake he would live.” The cure was the opposite of the natural process. If the person who had been bitten would look at the snake which bit him he would endanger himself. [The author explains the cure in the same way as the working of inoculation, i.e. injection of the ingredient causing the disease, except that when we use inoculation this is done before the disease has struck. Ed.]. King Chizkiyah (Kings II 20,7) was cured by applying dried figs to the area infected by boils (a procedure which normally intensifies the skin rash he suffered from); the bitter waters at Marah (Exodus 15,25 compare Mechilta) were sweetened by throwing bitter (not sweet) wood into it. Here too, instead of an antidote to the snake and what it looks like the people had to look at an even more deadly looking snake. Red copper, the material Moses’ snake was made of symbolizes the planet Mars associated with war and death. In this instance by looking at “death” the people were cured. In other words, there occurred what our sages describe as “a miracle within a miracle.” It is a well known fact that if someone who has been bitten by a rabid dog subsequently looks into water and sees a reflection of a dog he will surely die. The Talmud Yuma 84 also discusses antidotes for bites by a rabid dog including the need to drink water only from copper vessels. The danger continues for 12 months during which time an appearance of the reflection of the dog may be lethal to the victim of the bite. Physicians warn people not even to mention the word “dog” or “rabid dog” to the victim of such a bite as it brings to mind associations which may prove fatal for the victim. Such people have been known to imagine seeing the image of such a dog even in their urine. At any rate, the reason we mention this is to demonstrate that here the requirement to look at the very symbol of what bit them had therapeutic effects for the victims instead of the reverse. This demonstrates the magnitude of the miracle. G’d’s purpose in commanding Moses to make a snake and for the people to focus on it was to show them that it was not the snake that causes death but the sin (compare Berachot 33).

Snake. Ramban writes: I do not understand this, for surely Hashem only said “Make yourself a שרף ["snake"].” Rather they mean that Moshe followed the essential name. His answer appears to be that since the essential name that Hashem gave to the snake was נחש [nachash]. Why then was it called שרף here? Consequently, Moshe said [to himself] “Hashem is surely hinting to me by referring to it with a descriptive name and not the essential name,” in order to make the snake from copper [nachash nechoshes], so that it [also] alludes to the essential name.

V. 9. לשון נופל על לשון ,ויעש משה נחש נחשת, ein Wortspiel (Raschi). Jeruschalmi 1 ר׳׳ה 3, 9 עשה לך שרף לא פירש אמר משה עיקרה לא נחש הוא לפיכך ויעש משה נחש נחשת, es war Mosche nicht der Stoff angegeben, aus welchem der שרף gebildet werden sollte, allein eben daraus schloss Mosche, dass er ihn aus Kupfer zu gestalten habe, da ja שרף nur ein נחש-Spezies sei und mit diesem Begriff auch der Stoffname gegeben war. Dadurch, dass die Schlange aus Kupfer gebildet war, ruft schon der Stoff durch seinen Namen den Gegenstand in die Seele, der daraus dargestellt war. מכאן היה ר׳׳מ דורש שמות hieraus nahm R. Meir überhaupt Veranlassung, den Namen eine Bedeutsamkeit beizulegen.

נחש נחשת, “a copper snake.” This metal was chosen, as, when polished, it shines and reflects light and therefore is highly visible. We know this from Ezekiel 1,7, where the prophet describes his vision of angels whose hooflike feet were described as sparkling like burnished copper. Even though the area of the Israelites camp was three miles square, anyone who had been bitten by a snake could see the copper snake that Moses had mounted on a pole.

Ist unsere Auffassung nicht irrig, so dürfte der נחשת-Stoff der נחש vielleicht noch näher den Zweck dieser ganzen Veranstaltung vergegenwärtigen. Es sollte fortan diese נחש נחשת nichts als eine "Ahnung" der wirklichen נחשים vermitteln, die überall verborgen in der Wüste am Wege lauern.

והביט אל נחש הנחשת, “and when he looked at this replica of a copper coloured snake (he would live);” looking at this phenomenon automatically would make such a person think of heaven, and that his only hope for surviving the snakebite would come from heaven. (Rashi). The reason that G-d chose this particular phenomenon was to remind the victim that the cure for his ailment had to be found in reversing the source of his affliction.[Just as the original sin by the first woman was described as caused by a snake who had seduced the first woman, so this source had to be discredited in the eyes of the afflicted person as symbolising that he had allowed himself to sin just as the first woman had been guilty of believing the snake, a mere creature, rather than the command of its Creator. Ed.] The miraculous powers of the Creator to heal, would best be demonstrated if it was shown that He could use the source of the affliction as the medicine that would cure it. [I have departed from the author’s use of the “chisel,” which to this Editor is rather meaningless, although it was taken from the commentary of B’chor shor. Ed.]