If the Snake in Bereishis Talked, Walked and was Smart ..In What Way was He Different than a Human? by DIN

 by DIN

This week the Jewish World started a New Year ....  

Jews throughout the world read from the Torah starting with Parshas Bereishes that describes how G-D created the world........

There is an interesting story in the Parsha that describes an incident between a snake and Chava (Eve) the first female created....

Much ink has been spilled in trying to understand what transpired, and what message is there for us. 

What is certain is that this incident recorded in the Torah for posterity changed the lives of all humans forever.

So what really happened? How could an animal convince a human to violate a command from Hashem? 

We know that the serpent or snake could talk.....because he had conversations with Chava ......and from the different verses it seems that the snake was born ... talking...

There is one other animal that talked that is recorded in the Torah and that was Bilam's donkey, but there the Torah tells us that this was very unusual .... 

ויפתח ה, את פי האתון ..... "G-d then gave the donkey the power of speech"

The donkey continued looking like a donkey even while talking and continued carrying on as a donkey .... the only one who wasn't shocked that this donkey was talking was, Bilam .... he was so obsessed with his hatred and mission to curse the Jews that he didn't take notice at all that he was having a conversation with an ass ... we the readers are in shock and surprised at this miracle ...but not Bilam ..

 But here in our parsha the Torah takes for granted that the snake spoke and no one showed any surprise..not even Chava who was chatting with him like a good neighbor ...

The snake also walked on two feet ... we know that because later when Hashem cursed him, Hashem said:
על גחנך תלך ....."On your belly you shall crawl" which indicated that up to the curse, the snake walked like the rest of us...

The snake also ate what humans ate .... like Israeli salad, or perhaps pizza. We know that,  because when Hashem cursed him ... he told him

ועפר תאכל .... "and dust you shall eat"

We also know that the snake was very smart ... besides for the fact that he was able to convince Chava to violate the only prohibition that Hashem commanded her and her husband...... the Torah itself states that the snake was smart:

והנחש היה ערום מכל חית השדה ......"the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild beasts"

 I am using R' Aryeh Kaplan's English translation of the Hebrew word ערום .... however Targum Unkelis translates the word ערום as "חכים"..meaning "smart" ..

So back to my original question .... if the serpent could talk, walk, and eat what humans eat and was smart or cunning... what made him an animal? What made him any different than a human being? 

We do know that he was a beast since the Torah itself states unequivocally that the snake was not human but an animal from the very verse we quoted above:

והנחש היה ערום מכל חית השדה ....."the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild beasts"

So in what respect was the serpent different than a human?

This question is not mine, many commentaries over the centuries have struggled with trying to understand the text and its meaning....

I found Rabbi David Fohrman's explanation in his book The Beast that Crouches at the Door to be very original ... 

He postulates an idea that we all know to be true but he highlights this in the context of "Chava and the Serpent" ... and states that the difference between an animal and a human is "Instinct" even if it's a talking animal ..... 

an animal acts by "instinct" ... Hashem embedded into each animal "instinct" ... 

to give you an example..an animal will fear a predator even if the animal never ever saw the predator in action ....but this same animal will not fear an animal that he uses as prey ....he will never confuse the two...

An animal has no choice .... he "chooses' only from "instinct"

Animals have an instinct on impending doom.... they know hours before a earthquake or tsunami will take place ... 

A human also has "Instinct" but in addition to "instinct" he has choice .... 

The job of a human is to control and try to subdue his instinct ...that's why dieting, for example is so difficult, since we all have a desire and an instinct to eat ... we try so hard to subdue this instinct since we understand that eating can also kill us... and that's why so many marriages and relationships fall apart because of the failure of one of the parties to control their desire or instinct.

Hashem embedded into each human "instinct" just like an animal but he also gave us the Torah, a book of ethics a book of laws to teach us to not give in to our "instincts" to try to subdue our animalistic instincts and use choice ובחרת בחיים to "choose life."

The snake told Chava that the very G-D that told her not to eat from the forbidden fruit also embedded in her "instinct" to eat when she saw a pretty fruit ...

the snake argued that Chava was no different than any other animal and why wouldn't she listen to the "instinct" that G-d Himself embedded in her soul.... the snake was asking .... which are you going to listen to ....the inside voice in your body.... "instinct" or are you going to listen to the outside voice of G-D?

Chava unfortunately succumbed to her inside voice ... her instinct..and by doing so she condemned everyone to death......

Which leads me to the riots in Boro-Park.... 

I don't know if masks work.... I don't even know if social distancing works.... 

And I also believe that we should open the country and the schools... absolutely ...

But we have rules .... government rules ....They want you to wear a mask they want you to do social distancing .....if you cannot abide by these rules for any reason stay the hell home ...

Why are you an animal following your "Instinct" to violate the rules??? Why are you rioting in "Chutz Le'aaretz".... this news went viral in the entire world ....causing hatred and more hatred...

Yes ... fight it in the courts ... absolutely ....

But until the courts rule differently ...follow the rules... don't be a snake!

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