Musar do Liczb 11:4

So far about the first journey, which was meant to lead the people to the land of Israel, which in turn was compared to being a גן השם, a "garden of G–d." The Jewish people again became corrupted, however; they committed a sin similar in nature to that which had been committed by Adam at the time, inasmuch as it involved eating forbidden food. They התאוו תאוה (11,4), induced lust, greed in themselves demanding to be fed a diet of meat. They found themselves in a situation similar to Eve in Gan Eden, where the serpent was the seducer with the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Now Satan seduced the people. The Torah describes this as שטו, the letters of which when re-arranged spell ושט, "and spread out, lengthened." When you spread out the last letter, i.e. the letter ו, is perceived as having turned into a Nun, and reads שטן, Satan. The שלחן, table, that was לפני השם, in the Presence of the Lord, i.e. the altar, turned לנחש, into a serpent, the classical seducer, by a similar re-arrangement of the identical letters. I have discussed this at length when writing about the significance of the letter ק, in connection with the word and meaning of קדושה. The author refers to his section called שער האותיות in אות קו"ף – קדושה.