Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Chukat, in which the esoteric ritual of the Red Heifer is described and performed, Miriam and Aaron both die, Moses hits a rock for water and is punished with the decree of not entering the Holy Land, and then fiery serpents attack the Israelites. After Miriam dies, the wells dry up, and the people once again start complaining about the lack of water and fun snacks, so God sends these “burning serpents” to remind the people to be grateful for what they had. 

    Rashi explains that the snakes are described as fiery or burning because they cause a burning sensation when they bite people through the venom in their fangs, not because they are literally on fire, though with messengers of God one can never be sure. Yet, when they people repent and cry out to Moses to intercede for them, God tells Moses to build a fiery thing. Numbers 21:8 says “Make a seraph [fiery/burning] figure” and does not use the word “nachash” [snake] at all. But Moses does indeed make a snake out of copper [hanachash hanchoshet], which the commentators suggest was seraph because it requires the burning of the metal in order to sculpt, although I hope Moses also painted sick flames on it. 

    The strange little tale concludes in about four verses, with the resolution being that anyone bitten by the han’chashim haseraphim [burning snakes] may simply look upon the hanachash hanchoshet [copper snake] and be cured. The BimBam episode on Parashat Chukat, Australian Jewish researcher Malki Rose compares the miracle of the healing copper snake to the concept of exposure therapy. And it works in context. The people are being bitten by snakes, no doubt causing mass hysteria about snakes, and so they must relearn to be comfortable around snakes and trust in God’s protection. The 13th century French commentary Chizkuni suggests that the snakes were always there, but while Aaron lived the cloud of glory that rested upon the Mishkan nullified the venom of the snakes, and so the vulnerability of attack was what was new for the Israelites, not the fact of the snakes themselves. It makes sense, then, that there would be great uncertainty around the idea of snakes in general and the people would need to recalibrate their fear a bit, in addition to constantly needing to relearn and remember to trust Moses and have faith in God. 

    Exposure therapy is for sure a legitimate modern means of overcoming fears outside of such specific contexts as well. However, it generally only works for pathological phobias - circumstances in which the fear of something is causing greater disruption to our lives than the risk of the thing itself. Exposure therapy is not a healthy functioning tool of overcoming an actual physical risk. We can’t over-exposure ourselves into Covid immunity, which has proven to be so rapidly mutating that herd immunity will likely never happen. We can’t over-exposure ourselves to gun violence, and hope maniacs just wear themselves out before one comes for our own schools. Some dangers need to be squashed out rather than simply overcome emotionally. 

    And then there are circumstances which may be somewhere in between. So much in life is beyond our control and causes great stress, in addition to the risk of harm. Public safety requires so much more buy-in and systemic support than we are currently seeing, and there is only so much each individual can do to stay healthy and sane. How do we find that balance between dealing with the physical risks, managing exposure to harm, while living life to the fullest and not letting the fear of such risks and harms control us entirely? 

    I do believe that faith in God can help. Not that God will intercede and cure us as in the Torah, but that we can find peace with difficult situations through prayer and strength to face our fears with our holy community. May we navigate difficult times with calm and clarity, may we defuse and eliminate real physical threats, and may we find health, safety, and security in spite of our fears. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.

Where God Is

By Stacey Zisook Robinson

There is no place that God is not

Even in the barrel of a gun

Bullets sing their own psalm

A deadly hymn to the true judge

The Creator of us all.

There is no place that God is not

Perhaps that is why God asks us

Pleads for us

To sing a new song

For all the Earth to hear

To drown out the ugly and

Sibilant crackle of bullets

Whose only benediction is

One of destruction and pain.

There is no place that God is not.