In my post of June 17, 2010, I focused on the aspect of Parashah Chukkat where the purification rituals that required the sacrifice of an unblemished red heifer (parah adumah temimim) are described. This ritual is known as a chok and is one of the four inscrutable laws (pl.chukkim) for which this parashah is named.
If you wish to refer to it, that post can be found here: http://bit.ly/d6DAAx+
Since this parashah will be read again in our yearly cycle this week , here are other details from my illustrations for Parashat Chukkat (above) and commentary for a second strange teaching that describes the miraculous events symbolized by a Bronze Serpent that was made by Moses with God’s instruction.
These may be found along with additional footnotes in my book, Between Heaven & Earth: An Illuminated Torah Commentary (Pomegranate, 2009).The book is distributed internationally and may be purchased directly from the publisher by calling: 1-800-227-1428 (US), {+44} 0 1926 430111(UK) or visiting http://www.pomegranate.com/a166.html.
Of Misery & Miracles continues the saga of the Israelites’ litany of complaints on their journey. Incensed at his chosen peoples’ ingratitude, God hurled a ferocious plague of ‘seraph’ serpents at them, causing pain and suffering beyond any previous imaginings. In the midst of this vicious attack, they beseeched Moses to call in yet another favor from God. Here we see an agonized Moses, perhaps still reeling from the death of his brother compounded by the revelation that he will not live to enter the Promised Land. Aaron’s death is symbolized by an almond branch whose flower has fallen to the ground. Yet despite his personal grief, Moses followed God’s instructions to construct a ‘fiery serpent’and place it on pole so that gazing upward at it would assist the people in focusing on both their physical and spiritual healing. To emphasize the veracity of this miracle cure, The Midrash adds that Moses flipped the copper serpent into the air where it hovered momentarily before he placed it on the pole. Chaim ben Moses ibn Attar, a 17th century Moroccan Talmudist and Kabbalist suggested that this reptilian episode also occurred to teach the Israelites that their affliction resulted from indulgence in ‘lashon hora’, or gossip, which originated with the Serpent in the Garden of Eden when it seduced Eve and Adam into tasting the forbidden fruit. So although the serpent was ostensibly a remedy for the effects of snake venom, its underlying purpose was to teach the difference between continued reliance on miracles and the use of ingenuity in coexistence with the laws of nature.
While composing this illustration, I thought about the possibility of nature complementing the nature of miracles and wondered whether the plague of serpents had any actual scientific basis. My first clue was learning that ‘seraph’ translates as ‘fiery, or burning, in Hebrew. Although snake venom can burn painfully, it still seemed there was more to this particular plague, given the numbers of people affected. I then wondered what diseases might have been prevalent in antiquity and learned about a microscopic parasite called ‘dracunculiasis medinensis’, also known as ‘Guinea worm’.Unhappily, though a vaccine exists to prevent it, the disease is still a threat to world health today in poverty-stricken countries where access to treatment is limited. Early manuscripts describe this disease in New Kingdom Egypt during the second millennium BCE where it may have been imported through war prisoners and slaves from Mesopotamia. Actual evidence was found in the 1973 Manchester Egyptian Mummy Project’s discovery of a calcified male guinea worm in the prosthetic leg of a mummy; it was dubbed ‘Pharaoh worm’. With all this information, I couldn’t resist including an image of this nasty little creature in its larvae form, just beneath the quote. Though many versions of the copper serpent (nahash’ in Hebrew) exist, none intrigued me more than the logo adopted by the Israeli Paratroopers Brigade ‘Hativat HaTzanhanim’, upon which my illustration is modeled. Next to it is the ancient treatment for Guinea worm that may have been the origin of the caduceus, the classic symbol of medicine.
If I were asked to cite the ‘takeaway’ from this section of the parashah, it would be the reminder that healing our bodies is a process that inextricably intertwines science and faith.
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Tags: Aaron, almond branch, Book of Numbers, bronze serpent, caduceus, Commentary, digital art, guinea worm, Hebrew, Israeli paratroop logo, Judaica, Moses, parashah
This entry was posted on June 30, 2012 at 5:40 AM and is filed under Imaginarius Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Of Misery And Miracles
In my post of June 17, 2010, I focused on the aspect of Parashah Chukkat where the purification rituals that required the sacrifice of an unblemished red heifer (parah adumah temimim) are described. This ritual is known as a chok and is one of the four inscrutable laws (pl.chukkim) for which this parashah is named.
If you wish to refer to it, that post can be found here: http://bit.ly/d6DAAx+
Since this parashah will be read again in our yearly cycle this week , here are other details from my illustrations for Parashat Chukkat (above) and commentary for a second strange teaching that describes the miraculous events symbolized by a Bronze Serpent that was made by Moses with God’s instruction.
These may be found along with additional footnotes in my book, Between Heaven & Earth: An Illuminated Torah Commentary (Pomegranate, 2009).The book is distributed internationally and may be purchased directly from the publisher by calling: 1-800-227-1428 (US), {+44} 0 1926 430111(UK) or visiting http://www.pomegranate.com/a166.html.
Of Misery & Miracles continues the saga of the Israelites’ litany of complaints on their journey. Incensed at his chosen peoples’ ingratitude, God hurled a ferocious plague of ‘seraph’ serpents at them, causing pain and suffering beyond any previous imaginings. In the midst of this vicious attack, they beseeched Moses to call in yet another favor from God. Here we see an agonized Moses, perhaps still reeling from the death of his brother compounded by the revelation that he will not live to enter the Promised Land. Aaron’s death is symbolized by an almond branch whose flower has fallen to the ground. Yet despite his personal grief, Moses followed God’s instructions to construct a ‘fiery serpent’and place it on pole so that gazing upward at it would assist the people in focusing on both their physical and spiritual healing. To emphasize the veracity of this miracle cure, The Midrash adds that Moses flipped the copper serpent into the air where it hovered momentarily before he placed it on the pole. Chaim ben Moses ibn Attar, a 17th century Moroccan Talmudist and Kabbalist suggested that this reptilian episode also occurred to teach the Israelites that their affliction resulted from indulgence in ‘lashon hora’, or gossip, which originated with the Serpent in the Garden of Eden when it seduced Eve and Adam into tasting the forbidden fruit. So although the serpent was ostensibly a remedy for the effects of snake venom, its underlying purpose was to teach the difference between continued reliance on miracles and the use of ingenuity in coexistence with the laws of nature.
While composing this illustration, I thought about the possibility of nature complementing the nature of miracles and wondered whether the plague of serpents had any actual scientific basis. My first clue was learning that ‘seraph’ translates as ‘fiery, or burning, in Hebrew. Although snake venom can burn painfully, it still seemed there was more to this particular plague, given the numbers of people affected. I then wondered what diseases might have been prevalent in antiquity and learned about a microscopic parasite called ‘dracunculiasis medinensis’, also known as ‘Guinea worm’.Unhappily, though a vaccine exists to prevent it, the disease is still a threat to world health today in poverty-stricken countries where access to treatment is limited. Early manuscripts describe this disease in New Kingdom Egypt during the second millennium BCE where it may have been imported through war prisoners and slaves from Mesopotamia. Actual evidence was found in the 1973 Manchester Egyptian Mummy Project’s discovery of a calcified male guinea worm in the prosthetic leg of a mummy; it was dubbed ‘Pharaoh worm’. With all this information, I couldn’t resist including an image of this nasty little creature in its larvae form, just beneath the quote. Though many versions of the copper serpent (nahash’ in Hebrew) exist, none intrigued me more than the logo adopted by the Israeli Paratroopers Brigade ‘Hativat HaTzanhanim’, upon which my illustration is modeled. Next to it is the ancient treatment for Guinea worm that may have been the origin of the caduceus, the classic symbol of medicine.
If I were asked to cite the ‘takeaway’ from this section of the parashah, it would be the reminder that healing our bodies is a process that inextricably intertwines science and faith.
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Tags: Aaron, almond branch, Book of Numbers, bronze serpent, caduceus, Commentary, digital art, guinea worm, Hebrew, Israeli paratroop logo, Judaica, Moses, parashah
This entry was posted on June 30, 2012 at 5:40 AM and is filed under Imaginarius Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.