Why did God punish the snake, after all, animals have no choice?

Hello and greetings Your questions are thorough and interesting.

It is important for you to know that the sin of Adam is not so simple, and there is great length in the commentaries in explaining this sin, you can read the words of the commentators Ibn Ezra and the Seforno, and in general in the books of Chassidut and Kabbalah.

In general, the serpent depicted in Adam’s sin symbolizes the force of the evil inclination that tempted Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and thus thwart Adam. Not everything we read in these verses means literally, but there is great depth to everything, and much is hidden from the visible.

Nonetheless, I will answer your questions briefly in a succinct manner:

• Animals have a low and basic choice, for example an animal can decide whether to devour, eat, walk or loung, etc. Indeed, you have understood on a basic and low level and far from people’s minds. We found that God punished the animals for their actions, such as in the generation of the Flood, when even the animals died in the Flood, because they corrupted their way and every animal had a relishing ship with a nother animal.

• The difference between snake hostility to other animals is that animals prey when they are hungry or when they feel threatened, but snakes bite and harm man even for no reason, without wanting to eat man and without feeling threatened.

• In general, animals lack the power of speech, but are known to have feelings and desires as well as gratitude to their owners and helpers, as well as feelings and devotion towards their offspring. When God gives animals the power of speech, it is, of course, miraculous.

• For us, animals symbolize certain qualities and attributes, the raven symbolizes cruelty, the dog symbolizes devotion to its owner, the fox symbolizes cunning, and the snake symbolizes a desire to do evil without any benefit.

Man also has all the qualities of animals and decides what to choose and when to use each trait and character. Therefore, the statement that every sin has the power of the serpent expresses the fact that in every sin there is the power of the serpent, which is the force of the evil inclination, which fails man and wants to harm him so that he fails in sin.

Best wishes for success in your learning

Rabbi David Ohayon

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