Jewish Exploration
Mrs. Gila Shoshanah Atwood

The Snake Gestates for Seven Years?

Reb Noson writes:
How long is the gestation period of a snake?" the emperor asked Rabbi
Yehoshua ben Chanania. "Seven years, " Rabbi Yehoshua answered.

The 'snake' alludes to the secular ideologies and philosophies that undermine
true wisdom in the world. The Torah thus says that the 'serpent was the most
cunning of all the wild beasts" (Gen 3:1), for these ideologies came to Man as
a result of Eve having been polluted by the primordial Serpent. In raising the
question. "how long is the gestation period?' the emperor is actually asking,
'what is the root of their wisdom? How long and how hard must one labour to
'give birth' to wisdom such as theirs........

When the Emperor insisted that the Wise men of Athens had mated two snakes
and the female gave birth after three years, Rabbi Yehoshua replied that
the snake had already been pregnant for four years.

...these three years are an illusion to the three intellects, which correspond
to wisdom, understanding and insight/knowledge. It is a known principle that
'G-d made one to contrast the other' -- (Ecclesiastes 7:14) All that exists
in the realm of holiness has its counterpart and mirror image within the
realm of the unholy...... The wise men of Athens were claiming that their
wisdom is rooted entirely in the three intellects..... (with no connection
to the lower attributes) It is a well known claim of those who espouse
these ideologies that they come to their perceptions exclusively through
the intellect, completely divorced of desires and bad personality traits.

Rav Yehoshua's answer was that the snake had already been pregnant for
four years. That is, because they do engage in philosophical enquiry and
scientific debate, it seems that their conclusions are based on intellectual
faculties alone. In fact, however, they are all drawn from the desires
and bad personality traits with which they are impregnated years earlier.
These desires and traits distort their thinking processes and bring them to
the alien ideologies and philosophies which they profess.

These are excerpts from an appendix of vol IV of Likutei Mehoran. (a
publication of the Breslov Research Institute.) with a few minor changes.

An example of such wisdom professed by the nations is the neoDarwinian
theory of natural selection as the driving mechanism for evolution. Now,
whether evolution did or did not occur in some form or other, I'm not going
to argue here.

The mystery of creation is very beautiful and profound, and we cannot presume
to understand it in all its spiritual and physical aspects. (One can read
Prof Lee Spetner's book -- 'Not by Chance' -- as a zoology graduate I'm
impressed with his science -- it's an excellent read. If any of you know
any refutations or counter refutations, I'd be interested to hear them.)

One has to recognise that this theory, (or rather 'hypothesis' -- given the
fact that it cannot be adequately tested) has a definite agenda behind it,
even though that agenda might be unconscious in the minds of those who
developed the theory.

If one believes in a G-dless, chance evolution from apes to man, it becomes
very easy to rationalize all kinds of low behaviour, even establish them as
the expected norm for human society. Later ones comes to demand these views
as a 'politically correct' right. Bear in mind that the Nazi atrocities were
based on certain conclusions they decided to derive from these ideas.

Western morals have become severely damaged while random mutation and natural
selection without divine supervision are accepted in the classroom.

The term 'moral' has become old fashioned and unpopular in many quarters,
an archaic notion to be disdained and ridiculed. It has become inappropriate
for our day and age. Paganism with its attendant pseudo spirituality is on
the rise.

I ask you to see these trends in terms of that snake -- not, of course,
a literal snake but a symbolic snake.

On the face of it many modern philosophies seem intellectually developed
and are sanctioned by all the major universities.

But that snake has been pregnant a long time.

In this week's parasha (bechukosai) we see the curses we get if we go "bekeri'.

What does 'keri' mean here?

This word is from the same root as 'mikreh' -- 'by chance'. If we insist
upon seeing the world as if everything happens by chance, then G-d will
respond in kind.

We will experience senseless tragedy -- such as two year old Jewish girl
and her mother firebombed by the Palestinian police, or the Israeli army
retreating from Lebanon in a disgraceful rout, as if for the most part
fleeing unseen enemies.

May G-d have mercy on us, and may we all recognize G-d's hand in our life
as it unfolds before us.