After Aharon’s death, the Jews began complaining against Hashem and Moshe, questioning why they were brought out from Egypt to die in the midbar, where they were disgusted by the Manna they were forced to eat daily. Hashem responded to their inappropriate protests by sending fiery serpents that bit and killed many people. Why were they specifically punished by snakes for this sin?
The Alshich HaKadosh writes that the people’s objections to the Manna came from their frustration that they could only obtain a 1-day supply at a time, and it could never be stockpiled (Shemos 16:19). They resented this system that required them to go to sleep with a bare kitchen, anxious about whether they would find more Manna in the morning. They sought an arrangement that would allow them to accumulate food to feel more secure and independent.
Why did Hashem set up the Manna delivery scheme in this manner? The Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni 260) compares it to a king who granted his son an allowance that would last him a year. For the next 12 months, the king did not see his son, who did not need his father as long as his bank account had sufficient funds. When his supply was depleted at the end of the year, the prince returned to his father to restock, but this time, the king only gave him a 1-day supply, which forced his son to visit him daily and deepened the bond between them.
Similarly, Hashem wants us to relate to Him as more than a sporadic ATM machine. He desires regular interactions with us, so He created a framework in which the Jews depended on Him for sustenance, as a new supply of Manna arrived each morning and could not be left over for the following day. Thus, their primary grievance against the Manna – its daily arrival in small quantities – was the very reason Hashem established this system: to keep them connected to Him.
After the serpent tempted Chava to eat from the forbidden fruit, it was cursed to have to travel on its stomach and eat dust all the days of its life (Bereishis 3:14). In what way was this considered a punishment, when its diet of dust can be found wherever it goes, while humans must work much harder for their sustenance, as Adam was told (Ibid., 3:19), “By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread.”
The Kotzker Rebbe explains that our need to work contains a hidden blessing, as this arrangement compels us to speak to Hashem constantly and develop a relationship with Him. The snake, on the other hand, slithers horizontally across the earth. It never goes hungry or needs to look upward, as it is completely cut off from Hashem, which is the greatest curse imaginable.
In his sefer Yalkut Yehuda, Rav Yehuda Jacobowitz explains that when the Jewish people began complaining about having to rely on Hashem to give them Manna each day, they were specifically punished by snakes, whose diet consists of ubiquitous dust. More than any other creature, the serpent understands that being permanently severed from interacting with Hashem is the greatest punishment of all. When the Jewish people lamented their empty cupboards, Hashem sent snakes to attack them and symbolically hint to them that their desire to have food stored away and always available would cut them off from a close relationship with Hashem, which is the most valuable blessing of all. (Parsha Potpourri)
