Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa 2 Mga Hari 20:7

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).