 | Near the Dead Sea, atop Mount Nebo opposite the city of Jericho, stands a monument to the awesome healing power of the human mind and the human spirit. No, it's not a crucifix. Look more carefully: it's a snake on a stick. Its derivation is this week's Torah portion and before that, the deep promise and neurobiology of healing. It makes absolutely no sense at all – except that it makes all the sense in the world. |
By Rabbi David Evan Markus
Parashat Hukkat 5785 (2025)
Ih the 1996 hit movie The Birdcage, Albie (Nathan Lane) is too anxious to go onstage, and asks Agador (Hank Azaria) for "Pirin" tablets. As a calmer and grateful Albie prepares for his stage entrance, Armand (Robin Williams) privately rips into Agador.
"What are you giving him? Drugs?! What the hell are Pirin tablets?"
Agador answers quietly, "It's aspirin with the 'A' and the 'S' scraped off."
Like much of The Birdcage, the scene is hilariously funny even as it embeds deep truths. One deep truth is that our expectations and beliefs pivotally shape what we experience.
I first learned of the placebo effect as a college student taking psychology classes. Even a sham treatment can have beneficial effect simply if we believe the potential. That's why researchers must test real pills against sugar pills, and vaccines against water shots. What's more, even if we know that a treatment isn't real, as in open-label placebos, science confirms that they still have beneficial effect.
What's this about, and what is its relevance to Judaism and spirituality?
Our desert-wandering ancestors couldn't quit complaining. Incessantly they blamed God and Moses for everything bad, while crediting them for nothing good. When "fire serpents" came and bit them near Mount Nebo, they recanted their kvetching (for the moment) and asked for help (Num. 21:5-7). In one of Torah's more quizzical moments (Num. 21:8-9):
Parashat Hukkat 5785 (2025)
Ih the 1996 hit movie The Birdcage, Albie (Nathan Lane) is too anxious to go onstage, and asks Agador (Hank Azaria) for "Pirin" tablets. As a calmer and grateful Albie prepares for his stage entrance, Armand (Robin Williams) privately rips into Agador.
"What are you giving him? Drugs?! What the hell are Pirin tablets?"
Agador answers quietly, "It's aspirin with the 'A' and the 'S' scraped off."
Like much of The Birdcage, the scene is hilariously funny even as it embeds deep truths. One deep truth is that our expectations and beliefs pivotally shape what we experience.
I first learned of the placebo effect as a college student taking psychology classes. Even a sham treatment can have beneficial effect simply if we believe the potential. That's why researchers must test real pills against sugar pills, and vaccines against water shots. What's more, even if we know that a treatment isn't real, as in open-label placebos, science confirms that they still have beneficial effect.
What's this about, and what is its relevance to Judaism and spirituality?
Our desert-wandering ancestors couldn't quit complaining. Incessantly they blamed God and Moses for everything bad, while crediting them for nothing good. When "fire serpents" came and bit them near Mount Nebo, they recanted their kvetching (for the moment) and asked for help (Num. 21:5-7). In one of Torah's more quizzical moments (Num. 21:8-9):
| וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יהוָ֜''ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֗ה עֲשֵׂ֤ה לְךָ֙ שָׂרָ֔ף וְשִׂ֥ים אֹת֖וֹ עַל־נֵ֑ס וְהָיָה֙ כָּל־הַנָּשׁ֔וּךְ וְרָאָ֥ה אֹת֖וֹ וָחָֽי׃ וַיַּ֤עַשׂ מֹשֶׁה֙ נְחַ֣שׁ נְחֹ֔שֶׁת וַיְשִׂמֵ֖הוּ עַל־הַנֵּ֑ס וְהָיָ֗ה אִם־נָשַׁ֤ךְ הַנָּחָשׁ֙ אֶת־אִ֔ישׁ וְהִבִּ֛יט אֶל־נְחַ֥שׁ הַנְּחֹ֖שֶׁת וָחָֽי׃ | YHVH said to Moses, “Make a fire creature and put it on a standard. Anyone bitten who looks at it will live.” Moses made a copper serpent and put it on a standard. Anyone bitten by a serpent who looked at the copper serpent lived. |
Now some 3,500 years later, with anti-venoms and other breakthroughs of modern medicine, a snake on a stick still stands tall atop Mount Nebo. Why?
Most of our spiritual ancestors didn't believe in magic – but they believed in God. To them, the snake on a stick wasn't about the snake or the stick. The point was looking up. In a top-down orthogonal model of spirituality, it was looking "up" to God – our ability and choice to do so, and our belief in possibility – that made healing possible.
A snake on a stick was Torah's first spiritual placebo – and, Torah says, it worked.
When modern medicine happened, Jews faced a question: would science be a repudiation of God? Should Jews trust modern medicine, or prayer? Anti-venom, or snake on a stick?
Tradition's answer was predictable: both. Get the best science-based medical care you can, and pray for healing.
We pray for healing. Even if prospects are bleak, even with a sword at the neck, even with a terminal diagnosis, we pray for healing (B.T. Berakhot 10a). Even then, we look up.
Healing may not always mean cure, but sometimes healing transcends cure. Sometimes, healing is about looking up – which can make all the difference, no matter what.
Most of our spiritual ancestors didn't believe in magic – but they believed in God. To them, the snake on a stick wasn't about the snake or the stick. The point was looking up. In a top-down orthogonal model of spirituality, it was looking "up" to God – our ability and choice to do so, and our belief in possibility – that made healing possible.
A snake on a stick was Torah's first spiritual placebo – and, Torah says, it worked.
When modern medicine happened, Jews faced a question: would science be a repudiation of God? Should Jews trust modern medicine, or prayer? Anti-venom, or snake on a stick?
Tradition's answer was predictable: both. Get the best science-based medical care you can, and pray for healing.
We pray for healing. Even if prospects are bleak, even with a sword at the neck, even with a terminal diagnosis, we pray for healing (B.T. Berakhot 10a). Even then, we look up.
Healing may not always mean cure, but sometimes healing transcends cure. Sometimes, healing is about looking up – which can make all the difference, no matter what.
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