Parshat Chukat: Snakes

Snakes make their fair amount of appearances in the Torah. The Garden of Eden, Pharaoh's court. And, in this week's parsha.

Once again the People are complaining on their walk through the desert (I joked with my kids that this sounds just like our walk home from shul :)).

"And G-d sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit the nation, and many perished of the people of Israel. And the people came to Moshe, and they said, “we have sinned, because we spoke against G-d and against you; pray to G-d that He take away from us the snakes.” And Moshe prayed on behalf of the nation. And G-d said to Moshe, “make for yourself a snake and put it on a pole, and it will be that anyone bitten will see it, and live.” And Moshe made a copper snake (nachash nechoshet), and set it on a high pole, and it was that if a snake bit a man, and he stared at the copper snake, that he lived." Numbers 21:6-9

This story details both a strange punishment and an even stranger remedy. What exactly is the copper snake - some kind of voodoo magic or some kind of spiritual healing? This conversation is a little high for 1st graders but they did like the idea that the same thing that harms you can also heal you. They enjoyed learning that this episode is the source for the images that they are familiar with from the pharmacy and emergency services:

It was funny to learn that MANY of the kids - thanks to books like Percy Jackson - were familiar with this image NOT from the Biblical story but rather from the (possibly related?) Greek mythology - the rods of Asclepius and Hermes.

I knew that the kids would be "into" snakes and that they could also make a great art project. I considered a few options:

1) OVERLAPPING - There are a number of great painting or drawing lessons using "wrap-around" snakes to teach overlapping - like this: http://marymaking.blogspot.com/2012/05/wrap-around-snakes.html

2) GEOMETRIC PATTERNS - Snake skin makes for great geometric patterns (looking at images of REAL snake skin patterns is amazing and inspiring!). There are great lessons that focus on creating colorful and repetitive patterns on the skin of the snake. This could be a great way to teach about aboriginal art in particular...some images for inspiration:

But, in the end, I didn't take any of these approaches. I did not want to do any more drawing or painting with the kids (since that is basically all we have been doing for the past few weeks). I wanted to use a different medium, especially since it is the end of the year and, well, we are all feeling a little burned out...

The challenge is that once I leave the world of paint/drawing, it is hard not to move from art into "craft"(which is not a bad thing! I have just been trying to stay closer to "art" this year...) Nonetheless, I decided that we would all have more fun this week if we did something a little different and paper origami seemed like a "legitimate" enough art/craft. I mean - having the skill and knowledge to make these accordion chains is pretty key in life :)!