Sources and reasoning:
Why Was the Serpent Cursed? It Caused Man to Sin as an Agent of the yetzer hara
The author of Shevet Mussar, in his work V’lo Od Ela on Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, chapter 13, grappled with this fine question: Why was the serpent’s punishment so great, to the extent that even in the future, when all are healed, the serpent is not healed?
He discussed the matter and proposed several answers, which he rejected. The essence of his words is that the serpent was an agent of Samael. However, Samael wished to cause man to stumble in sin so that the holy Torah would remain with the angels and not descend to earth; thus, his intention was for good. But the serpent, which was sent for this purpose, did not have a good intention, but intended only to cause man to stumble. It added to this and magnified its transgression beyond the intention of the one who sent it; therefore, it was punished severely.
He further wrote that the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to punish the serpent severely so that people would hear and fear, realizing how great is the punishment of one who causes the public to sin.
These are the words of the author of Shevet Mussar in his work V’lo Od Ela on Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, chapter 13:
There is also a difficulty with what is stated later: A parable of one possessed by an evil spirit, such that everything he does and says is done only by the will of the evil spirit upon him; so too, everything the serpent did and every word it spoke, it spoke and did only by the will of Samael. End quote. If so, why was the serpent cursed? And if it was because of the honor of Adam, then it should have been cursed temporarily and rectified in the future. Yet the Holy One, blessed be He, does not treat it so; rather, in the future all are healed except for the serpent, as our Rabbis of blessed memory said [Tanchuma, Metzora 2]. This does not seem consistent with His law, Heaven forbid, since the serpent did what it did not of its own volition.
There is an even greater difficulty: Samael, who committed this great evil, will be rectified in the future, as the pious author of Shnei Luchot HaBrit, of blessed memory, wrote [Parashat Chayei Sarah] concerning the statement that He will slaughter it—meaning, He will rectify it by slaughtering half of its name, Samael, leaving “El,” so that it will become one of the heavenly angels; see there at length. Yet why is the serpent, which did these things not of its own volition, punished even in the future?
However, it appears that this may be explained through the teaching of our Rabbis of blessed memory [Sanhedrin 59b], that the ministering angels would roast meat for Adam in the Garden of Eden and cool his wine for him. See what I explained concerning this teaching above in Avot DeRabbi Natan [chapter 1, s.v. Rabbi Yehudah]. When the angels saw that the Holy One, blessed be He, had appointed them to serve Adam, they understood from this that the Torah concealed with them in Heaven would in the future be given to him. In particular, they saw that He had placed him in the Garden of Eden “to work it and guard it”—to engage in Torah and guard the way of the Tree of Life, which is the Torah, as discussed above. And in order to demonstrate the greatness of Torah, and what a lofty status man acquires through it, He set them to serve before him, alluding that they are insignificant in comparison to him because of his Torah study. Therefore, they became jealous out of fear of Heaven, devising thoughts that the Torah should remain with them, for they all desired to be among those who serve Hashem with ever greater strength and intensity. Therefore, they said these words before the Omnipresent: “Man is like breath; his days are like a passing shadow,” alluding to the Holy One, blessed be He, that since man is formed of physical matter, he would in the future transgress the Torah that He was to give him, and it would be better to leave the Torah among the heavenly beings. The Holy One, blessed be He, replied by demonstrating that man’s wisdom surpassed theirs, and said: “What you praise Me with in the heavenly realms, he unifies Me with in the earthly realm. See his wisdom: all the words of praise with which you praise Me in the earthly realm”—that is, all your words of praise—“he unifies in one unification. Moreover, he can give names, something that you cannot do.” The meaning of “moreover” is this: Although reason would dictate that you can give names and he cannot, since he is dense physical matter that impedes the subtlety of understanding, nevertheless, he can do so and you cannot. The reason is that although he is indeed material, by virtue of the soul, which is a Divine portion from Above—and the whole is determined by its component—man is greater than the angel. He is able to attain Divine wisdom, as our Rabbis of blessed memory said [Berachot 55a]: Betzalel knew how to combine the letters through which Heaven and earth were created. When the angels saw that they could not prevent the Torah from being given to man, they advised causing him to sin before Him; perhaps thereby the Torah would be withheld from him and the obligation to uphold it would remain with them, to serve the Holy One, blessed be He. Samael, the great heavenly minister, descended and entered the serpent to entice him to sin. Since Samael’s intention was for good, although his deed was foreign, because of his love of the Torah, as discussed, he will therefore have rectification in the future and return to the level of holiness as at the beginning.
But the serpent, through which this came about, although it did what it did not of its own volition, is not worthy of rectification, in accordance with the principle that culpability is brought about through one who is culpable. Moreover, it added of its own accord, as it is written, “because he has done greatly” [Joel 2:20; see Rashi there]. This was not because of a good intention, as was Samael’s, who acted due to his desire for the Torah, as discussed. Therefore, Samael will be rectified because of his intention, but not the serpent.
It may further be said that this was in order to demonstrate the power of one who causes the public to sin, for such a person has no rectification. This follows by a fortiori reasoning from the serpent: although everything it did was not of its own volition, it was punished so severely. All the more so, one who causes others to sin knowingly and willingly has no rectification. Therefore, our Rabbis of blessed memory said [Yoma 87a]: “One who causes the public to sin is not afforded the opportunity to repent.” Nevertheless, we still need clarification in resolving this doubt: Why is it punished even in the future, since it did not sin of its own volition? (A.H. S.T.: In my humble opinion, it may be said along the lines of “and you shall kill the animal” [Leviticus 20:15], as our Rabbis of blessed memory said [Tanchuma, Emor 9].)
This response was translated automatically from Hebrew and has not yet been reviewed by a person. Therefore, it may contain inaccuracies and should not be considered a definitive reference.
This response was translated automatically from Hebrew and has not yet been reviewed by a person. It may therefore contain inaccuracies and should not be considered a definitive reference.
