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I am wondering why snakes no longer talk. The Lord punished the serpent by making him crawl on his belly and eat dust, and be at odds with Eve's offspring, but it does not mention taking away the serpents power of speech.

Why don't snakes talk anymore?

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    A preliminary question is whether (1.) snakes as a category could originally speak, (2.) only that individual snake had a unique power of speech, or (3.) that snake was miraculously granted speech temporarily and could not ordinarily speak. See, for example, Radak (B'reishis 3:1), who discusses these questions as well as yours.
    – Fred
    Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 22:05
  • @Curiosfellow While not a direct answer to your question, you may want to read the 1st chapter in Avot D'Rav Natan. There is a detailed explanation of what the snake actually did as well as how and why it was cursed. I think you'll find it quite interesting
    – DanF
    Commented Jul 3, 2014 at 14:48
  • I dont get the question? Parrots can talk
    – KapinKrunch
    Commented Jul 24, 2020 at 17:55

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It's pretty hard to ask any questions from the first two chapters of Genesis, considering both the esoteric nature of both the topic and the fact that the world seems to have rather different back then in a way that may be inherently incomprehensible for us now that we've been evicted from Eden.

That being said, there are several approaches to this question. (The first three here are quoted by the Ibn Ezra)

  1. It could be that the snake in the story is not literally a snake, but a metaphor for the Satan, or some similar evil force. The Ibn Ezra himself rejects this opinion, though there are several midrashim that seem to take this view, despite the obvious problem of God punishing the 'snake' by making it crawl on the ground.

  2. Chava was a wise enough person to understand snake language (a parselmouth, בלע"ז)

  3. R. Saadia Gaon says that an angel spoke for the snake, even though the 'evil plan' or whatever it was that he did wrong was his own fault (the angel just helped give him a voice)

  4. Ibn Ezra himself does believe that pre-tree snakes could talk, and though he doesn't mention this lack of punishment, he might reply that by losing his ability to eat normal food and walk on 'legs' are symbolic of becoming less human-like and indicate a loss of the ability to speak as well.

  5. Abarbanel writes that the snake never actually spoke, and though the Torah states that he spoke, it means that he gestured in way that his message to Chava was obvious (such as by continually eating from the tree, and shoving Chava into it, etc.)

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The Lubavitcher Rebbe discusses this at length according to Rashi and the plain meaning of the verses (there are others who say that the very ability to speak was something just special for that occasion). He brings up a two possibilities:

  • It is obvious. Everyone sees snakes don't talk, so there is no need to specify that this was included. (He rejects this explanation).
  • The taking away of the ability to speak is included in the fact that it was cursed more than all other animals. If it retained the ability to speak, it would not be worse than all the other animals.

The second is referenced by the verse saying "Because you did this you will be cursed ..." That which gave it the ability to do entice Chava into the sin is what was removed from it. Both the ability to speak, and its cunning over the other animals (thus it became lower than the other animals).

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    But everyone sees that snakes crawl on their belly.
    – Clint Eastwood
    Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 21:48
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    @ClintEastwood, right, that is part of why he rejects it.
    – Yishai
    Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 21:50
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The Moshav Zekanim al haTorah (3:4) brings that prior to dor haflaga everyone spoke the same language, as the pasuk states: vayihi khol haarets safa echat udvarim achadim (bereishis 11:1), including the animals.

After the dispersion took place, everything went south.

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  • I think this is missing something. After the dor haflagah everyone spoke different languages. Now, snakes (and animals) don't speak at all. Unless you mean to imply they can still communicate...also I don't know why the gezeira was on them too...
    – robev
    Commented Jul 24, 2020 at 15:31
  • So that means people spoke animal language??
    – FalseMessiah
    Commented Jul 27, 2020 at 0:33
  • @robev, Everyone began to spoke different languages because we, humans, call our communication 'to speak'. But on regard the animals, they communicate between their species on its own way, differently among each species.
    – Renato S. Grun
    Commented Jul 27, 2020 at 2:43
  • @FalseMessiah quite the opposite. Back then Lashon Hakodesh was the 'lingua franca'. :)
    – Renato S. Grun
    Commented Jul 27, 2020 at 2:48

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