Hello Fenris,

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Gen 3:14-15 KJV)

I've always believed this passage to represent a Messianic prophecy, fulfilled by Jesus: declaring thousands of years in advance, the "wounding" of the Savior that would ultimately be the cause of Satan's own crushing defeat. What is the Jewish perspective of this passage?

That people won't like snakes. It's generally true, too.

That's really all the text is concerned with in Judaism? "Snakes bad"?

I would figure it would at the least see a typological sort of prophecy there regarding evildoers being "crushed"...

Snakes aren't bad. People generally don't like them though. And that's exactly what the verse says.

You know, to quote Freud, "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Okay, a straight-forward, literal interpretation--fair enough. (A little anti-climactic, mind you, considering it's a quote from God, preserved for thousands of years). I suddenly have this image of finally making it to the proverbial mountaintop to ask what the purpose of life is--only to hear the long-bearded old sage reply, "To live." I think I like my prophetic interpretation better. :D

Snakes aren't bad. People generally don't like them though. And that's exactly what the verse says.

You know, to quote Freud, "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

I've often wondered whether his being a smoker of large cigars influenced that conviction. ;)

Or maybe because Pharaoh had a snake on his headdress that was a symbol of all wisdom...it was a poetic reference to man's wisdom.

Every so often the rumor would get started that Pharaoh was upset with the production of the Apiru Slaves. (otherwise known as Hebrew)

So...at just the right time a meeting would be called. Pharaoh would announce his displeasure with the amount of dedication, performance and dedication of the slaves and would then be resolved to "take away the sun" for a while.

Low and behold there would be a solar eclipse. All the simple minded slaves would quake in their nakedness. (slaves didn't own clothes in warm climates)
They would beg Pharaoh to bring back the sun...and Low and behold...the sun would come back when Pharaoh relented. Of course he would do this with the moon as well...so sometimes there would be Night assemblies.

The production of all the slaves would vastly increase.

When the water in the Nile turned to blood Pharaoh had the slaves dig trenches besides the river to filter it and provide clean water.

Pharaoh was also so smart that he would preside over all the cases that the other Judges couldn't decide in Egypt and would always know just the right answer to solve these difficult decisions.

So....maybe over five thousand years ago the Serpent was a symbol of Man's wisdom instead of the Owl.
Maybe that was where the term Seraphim came from...which is a winged snake creature that was a symbol of God's wisdom. (Talked with Isaiah)

But ya know...I am pretty uneducated...maybe someone should look up these many references I made and learn these things for themselves.