Parshat Bereshit7 min read

The Angels Sawed Away the Serpent and Its Scream Crossed the World

After the Holy One sentences him to crawl, the angels saw the serpent's limbs away and his scream rolls across the world.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Curse That Carried Its Own Mercy
  2. The Rider Behind the Tongue
  3. The Barrel of Scorpions
  4. The Tree That Begged Not to Be Touched

The sentence was three words long. "Upon your belly," the Holy One said, and before the words had finished leaving the air the sky opened and the ministering angels came down into the garden with their hands already moving.

The serpent had stood upright until that hour. He had legs. He had walked the rows of Eden the way a tall man walks a garden he believes is his, more cunning than every other beast and now more cursed for exactly that reason. The angels did not argue with him. They took hold of the hands he had used to touch the forbidden tree and the feet that had carried him to Eve, and they cut. They sawed the limbs away at the joint while he was still living, and they buried each piece in the dust he would soon be made to eat.

The scream that came out of him was not a garden sound. It went from one end of the world to the other and back, rolling over seas that had no shores yet and mountains that had no names, and every creature that would ever crawl heard it before it was born.

The Curse That Carried Its Own Mercy

What looked like ruin was also a gift, though no one watching would have called it that. "Upon your belly you shall go," the Holy One had said, and inside the ruin sat a hidden kindness. A thing without legs lies low. A thing that lies low can pour itself along a wall and slip into a crack and live where a standing creature would be caught and killed. The sentence that broke him also taught him how to flee.

"And dust you shall eat" came next, and that too bent toward survival. The serpent does not graze dust from the surface like a fool. He splits the ground and burrows until he strikes rock or untouched soil, and there, down in the cold sinews of the earth, he draws up what feeds him. The curse made him a digger, and the digger does not starve.

In the time to come, when every wound in creation will be healed, the serpent will be left unhealed. His bread will still be dust when all other mouths are filled. He was the first creature in the world told that his punishment would outlast the world's mending, and he learned it lying flat in the dirt, his stumps still raw.

The Rider Behind the Tongue

None of it had begun with the serpent. It had begun far above the garden, in the place where the living creatures wore four wings and the seraphim wore six and one prince alone wore twelve.

Samael wore the twelve. He was great in heaven, and he had stood among the angels when they came before the Holy One with their complaint about the new creature made of earth. "What is man," they said, "that You should know him? Man is like a breath." And the Holy One answered them plainly. Below, He said, this breath of a creature proclaims My oneness, and more than that, he assigns names to all I have made. The angels heard it and grew quiet, and then they grew cold. "Unless we arrange for him to sin against his Creator," they said among themselves, "we cannot prevail against him."

So Samael took his band and went down. He walked through the new world looking for an instrument, and he found none more fit for evil than the serpent, whose shape was then like a camel's. He climbed onto its back and rode. And the Torah cried out in the words of an old riddle, "When she lifts herself on high, she scorns the horse and its rider." Everything the serpent did after that, he did from the mind of the one on his back. A man ridden by an evil spirit speaks nothing of his own. So the serpent spoke nothing of his own.

The Barrel of Scorpions

The trap Samael chose was an old and ugly one, the kind a thief uses on a household. A king once married a woman and gave her command of everything he owned but one. There was a single barrel in the house, full of scorpions, and that she was not to touch.

An old man came to her door begging vinegar. "How does the king treat you?" he asked, and she said well, that she had been given everything but the one barrel. The old man leaned close. "Those are the king's finest treasures," he whispered. "He keeps them from you because he means to marry another woman and give them to her instead." She reached in her hand. The scorpions took it and did not let go, and when her husband came home and heard her crying out he asked only one thing. "Have you touched the barrel?"

The king was Adam. The woman was Eve. The beggar at the door, asking vinegar, leaning in with his lie about a rival wife, was the serpent with Samael riding inside his words.

The Tree That Begged Not to Be Touched

The serpent had measured his target before he spoke. Adam he would not approach, for a man holds firm. Eve he would, for he judged that she would listen, and so he went to the tree first to prove his lie with his own body.

The tree cried out as he came near. "Wicked one, do not touch me. Let not the foot of pride come upon me." He touched it anyway and did not die. Then he went to Eve and said, "See, I touched the tree and lived. Touch it yourself and you will not die either." She put out her hand. And in the moment her fingers met the bark she saw the Angel of Death walking toward her across the garden grass. "Woe to me," she said. "Now I will die, and the Holy One will make another woman and give her to Adam." The beggar's lie had landed exactly where it was aimed. She took the fruit, and she ate, and she gave it to her husband.

For all his height, this was where Samael had been steering, and where he himself would be made to fall. The greater the cunning, the greater the vexation that follows. He had been raised twelve wings above every other prince, and a creature is not lifted so far above the rest unless the fall is meant to be the longest fall there is.

SerpentSamaelEdenCurseAdam And EveMidrashGenesis
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Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 31:2Yalkut Shimoni on Torah

"Upon your belly you shall go" (Genesis 3:14). At the hour the Holy One, blessed be He, said this to the serpent, the ministering angels came down and cut off its hands and its feet, and its cry went from one end of the world to the other. The serpent thus came to teach about the downfall of Egypt, as it is said, "Her sound shall go like the serpent's" (Jeremiah 46:22), and it turned out itself to be the source from which we learn. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: you caused My creatures to walk on their bellies upon their dead, so you too "upon your belly you shall go."

Even the curse of the Holy One, blessed be He, contains a blessing within it. Had the Holy One, blessed be He, not said to it "upon your belly you shall go," how would it have fled to a wall and been saved? "And dust you shall eat" (Genesis 3:14): not dust from every side, but it splits and burrows down until it reaches rock or virgin soil, and there it draws up the sinews of the earth and eats. In the time to come all will be healed except the serpent and the Gibeonites. The serpent, as it is written, "and the serpent, dust shall be its bread" (Isaiah 65:25). The Gibeonites, as it is written, "and those who serve the city shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel" (Ezekiel 48:19).

"To the woman He said" (Genesis 3:16). Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani said: any woman who solicits her husband will have children the like of whom did not exist even in the generation of Moses. For in the generation of Moses it is written, "Provide for yourselves men, wise and known" (Deuteronomy 1:13), yet "understanding" men we do not find. But concerning Leah it is written, "To me you shall come in" (Genesis 30:16), and it is written, "of the sons of Issachar, those who knew understanding" (1 Chronicles 12:32). Is that so? But did not Rabbi Yitzchak say: with ten curses was Eve cursed, as it is written, "To the woman He said, I will greatly multiply" (Genesis 3:16), these are the two drops of blood, the blood of menstruation and the blood of virginity; "your toil," this is the trouble of raising children; "and your conception," this is the trouble of pregnancy; "in pain you shall bear children," as its plain sense; "and to your husband shall be your desire," this teaches that a woman longs for her husband at the hour he goes out on the road; "and he shall rule over you," this teaches that the woman demands in her heart while he demands openly, and this is a good trait in women.

When I said [she solicits], I meant that she makes herself agreeable before him. These [other curses] number seven. When Rav Dimi came he said: she is wrapped like a mourner, and shut off from all people, and confined in prison. What is this? If you say because she is forbidden seclusion with men not her own, he too is forbidden seclusion with women not his own. Rather, that she is forbidden to two men [in marriage]. It was taught in a baraita: she grows her hair long like Lilith, sits and passes water like an animal, and becomes a bolster for her husband. And the other [tanna holds] these are a credit to her, as Rabbi Chiyya said: what is meant by "who teaches us from the beasts of the earth" (Job 35:11)? This is the mule, which kneels and passes water.

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Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 25:2Yalkut Shimoni on Torah

"And the serpent was cunning." This is what is written, "for in much wisdom is much vexation" (Ecclesiastes 1:18); according to the greatness of the serpent was his downfall. More cunning than all, more cursed than all. He stood upright and had legs. He was a heretic. He was like a camel. He withheld a great good from the world, for had it been otherwise a man could have sent his merchandise by its hand and it would go and return.

The ministering angels said before the Holy One, blessed be He, "What is man that You should know him? Man is like a breath." He said to them, "That which you now praise Me with above, he proclaims My oneness below; and not only that, but he assigns names." When they saw this they said, "Unless we take counsel that he sin before his Creator, we cannot prevail against him."

Now Samael was a great prince in heaven; the living creatures had four wings and the seraphim six, but Samael had twelve. What did Samael do? He took his band and went down and looked at all the creatures, and found none more cunning to do evil than the serpent, as it is said, "and the serpent was cunning." Its form was like a camel, and he mounted and rode upon it. And the Torah cried out, "when she lifts herself on high" (Job 39:18); Master of the worlds, "she scorns the horse and its rider" (Job 39). A parable: a man who has an evil spirit, all that he does and all that he speaks is not from his own mind but from the mind of the evil spirit within him; so the serpent, all that he did he spoke only from the mind of Samael.

A parable: a king married a woman and gave her authority over all that was his, except one barrel full of scorpions. An old man came to her asking vinegar and said, "How does the king treat you?" She said, "Well; he gave me authority over all except this barrel full of scorpions." He said, "But the king's finest treasures are in this barrel; he only wishes to marry another woman and give them to her." What did she do? She reached out her hand, and they began to bite her. When her husband came he heard her crying out and said, "Have you perhaps touched that barrel?" So the king is Adam, the woman is Eve, the one asking vinegar is the serpent.

The serpent reasoned with himself: if I go and speak to Adam, I know he will not heed me, for a man is always firm. Rather, I will go and speak to Eve, for I know she will heed me, since women heed every creature. The serpent went and touched the tree. The tree began to cry out, "Wicked one, do not touch me, let not the foot of pride come upon me." The serpent went and said to the woman, "Behold, I touched the tree and did not die; you too touch it and you will not die." At once she touched it and saw the Angel of Death coming toward her. She said, "Woe is me, now I shall die, and the Holy One, blessed be He, will make another woman and give her to Adam." Immediately "she took of its fruit and ate and gave also to her husband."

Elijah, of blessed memory, asked Rabbi Nehorai: Why did the Holy One, blessed be He, create creeping things and reptiles? He said to him: they were created for a purpose. When the creatures sin, the Holy One, blessed be He, looks at them and says, "If these, which were not created for any need, I sustain, how much more those created for a need." He further said: they also have a use. The fly is a remedy against the hornet's sting, the bedbug against the leech, the serpent against a sore, the snail against a scab, the spider against a scorpion's sting. Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: of all that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world, He created nothing in vain: the gnat as a remedy for the serpent, the fly for the hornet, and so on.

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