Welcome to Perek Shira. Today is the song of the Nachash/ snake The Nachash says, Somech Hashem l'chol hanoflim. God helps stand up those that fall, Zokef l'chol Hak'fufim/ He makes stand upright all those that are bent over. What does this have to do with the snake? It depends how you look at it. Either the snake is singing about himself, or he's sending the message to others. Let's look at the snake . The snake was upright, but he ended up not only bent over, but completely lat on the floor after his legs were taken away. So he's the one that fell down. Although he fell down, he accepts upon himself the judgment. The Beit Elohim says that the snake accepted that sinned, and that was what was supposed to happen. So even though, Somech Hashem l'chol hanoflim/God lifts up all those that fall down, and Hashem is Middat HaRachamim , the snake says, Somehow I was not included I that. I am not getting up.I'm not being fixed. I accept that I did something wrong. The Chida adds that, Somech Hashem l'chol hanoflim is Rasheh Tevot סילה Silah, which is a pasuk in Eicha 125. Silah l'chol abirai Hashem / Hashem has trampled all my heroes, referring to the destruction of the Bet HaMikdash. So even though we're down on the floor after the Churban, Somech Hashem l'chol hanoflim, all those people that fell ( referring to the Jewish people) will get up. He quotes the sefer Lechem Teruma, that the word נחש Nachash is made of three letters, Nun , Chet , Shin . The נ Nun, has the numeric value of 50, which can be broken into 40 and 10, a מ and a י . If we take the Nun of Nachash and turn it into a מ and a י , we're left with מנחש which, when re-scrambled, spell משיח Mashiach; So even though the Jewish people fell down on the floor, the Nachash is telling us, I might not be fixed, but everyone else will be fixed. Somech Hashem l'chol hanoflim. So the force of the Nachash, that brought everybody down, will be turned into Mashiach. So eventually we will all get up. The Gemara in Berachot asks the question, Why is there no נ in Ashre? Because it hints to the falling of the Jewish people, as the pasuk says, נָפְלָה לֹא תוֹסִיף קוּם בְּתוּלַת יִשְׂרָאֵל״. Naflah/they fell down and they will not get up again. That's sounds like a horrible pasuk, that Jewish people fall down and never get up. But the Rabbis of the West said, Hashem picked us up, David Hamelech picked us up. Somech Hashem l'chol hanoflim. So even though the pasuk says naflah they fall down, and they won't get up anymore, you can read the pasuk differently to reflect that Dsvid Hamelech picked them up: נָפְלָה לֹא תוֹסִיף קוּם בְּתוּלַת יִשְׂרָאֵל״ If you fell and you can't fall anymore, Now you're going to get up. So this is the message of the snake - In the end you will all get up. I might be left behind. I'm testifying that I'm the exception to the rule. Everyone else will get up. Whoever fell down will stand up again. The sefer Misaprim Tehilot L'Hashem tells a different lesson- that even though the Gemara in Barachot 10a tells us that all creatures will be fixed in the future except for the snake, he still continues to hope. He says, If there's hope for everybody, maybe there's hope for me too. This is hard to understand, as the snake is really no good, so we're not going to learn lessons from him. Albeit, this Sefer goes on to say that the Nachash was cursed with two things: 1-He was standing straight and he's flat on the floor. 2-He's going to eat from the dust, וְנָחָ֖שׁ עָפָ֣ר לַחְמ֑וֹ (Yeshayah 65,25 with a commentary from the Bereshit Rabbah 20,5) which refers to the future. So he had two curses and he says, because the snake was hopeful even though he was cursed and there was no hope, Hashem cut the Gezera in half. In the future, he's still going to eat the dust of the earth, but he will be able to stand up. His legs will come back. He says, that's why the Gemara, in Berachot 12b, when describing how to bow gor Modim , says to go down like a stick, straight, and to get up like a snake, where your head goes up first in a serpentine way. Why the do Rabbis choose this example-to stand up like a Nachash? To teach us that even the snake, in the end, will stand up. We can suggests an explanation for these two punishments of the snake: The snake did two things wrong. The Torat Chayim says that in the Gemara in Berachot , where talks about bowing says that one that does not bow by Modim will be punished that after he is buried his spinal cord will turn into a snake. The Torat Chaim says things because the snake did not bow and that's why it ended up going down on the floor and losing his legs What does it mean that he didn't bow ? He didn't have Hakarat HaTov. He didn't appreciate and see Hashem's Hashkacha. He was a kofer . He denied Hashem's Hashkacha. That's one aspect of the snake.. The other aspect of the snake is that he spoke Lashon Hara and that is why he has put dirt in his mouth so he spoke negatively and he had an improper Hashkafa, so to say, in the belief of God's supervision in the world. And since the sin of Lashon Hara has no Tikkun and can never be fixed, it could be why that punishment remained. But the lack of Hakarat HaTov, the lack of thank yous and lack of understanding Hashem's Hashkacha is somehow easier to fix. So perhaps half of the sin was forgiven, whatever that means. I am just trying to understand this concept brought down the Sefer Misaprim Tehilot Hashem . Regardless, what does it tell us? The snake is telling us, As low as you drop and as far as you go, if I have hope, you have hope. Pick yourself up, fix yourself, and eventually the sin of the Nachash will eventually become the times of the Mashiach.