The Way to a Sweet and Easy Life
It’s Not the Snake That Kills; It Is Sin
There was once a snake that had bitten and killed people, terrorizing everyone in the area. They came and told Rabi Chanina ben Dosa about it, and he told them, “Show me its den,” and they showed him where it was. Rabi Chanina went over and stuck his foot into the opening of the den. The snake emerged and bit him, and then the snake immediately died. (This snake’s nature was that if it bit a person and then ran to water before its victim reached it, the person would die. If the person reached the water first, the snake would die instead. A miracle happened to Rabi Chanina ben Dosa and a wellspring of water opened up under his feet and the water touched his feet first, and so the snake died.) Rabi Chanina lifted the snake onto his shoulders and brought it into the beis midrash, where he told them, “Look, my sons! It is not the snake that kills; it is sin that kills.” At that time they said, “Woe to the man who meets such a snake, and woe to the snake who meets Rabi Chanina ben Dosa.”
(Brachos 33a)
