The Snake

In my opinion, the word "ארור" can mean many different things about the snake. This word is the curse or punishment that Hashem gave the snake after he convinced Chava to eat from the tree of knowledge. The simple meaning of this word is that the snake will become the most hated animal and that it will have to eat dust for the rest of its life. (Before this incident, the snake was a well respected creature.) It is unclear about whether the snake's nature was fully animalistic or partially human. I believe that the snake was a "hybrid" between man and animal. The difference between man and snake was that the snake lacked the bit of Hashem that man had. This bit of Hashem gave man the capacity to differentiate between good and bad, or the "Yetzer Hatov Verah". The snake can be seen as an example of pure "Yetzer Harah" with nothing to balance it out. When the snake sinned, it was changed from "hybrid" to full animal. As far as "eating dust" goes, the simple meaning of the words is that the snake will eat real dust for the rest of its life. I believe that there are more possibilities as to the meaning. It could be that the snake was able to eat human food before it sinned and afterwards, had to resort to eating "piglets". This can be learned from the reference that man came from the dust. Hashem gave man the role of ruling over the animals, so the snake must have lost its status and become a true animal. Another is that the snake lost its sense of taste, so everything it eats tastes like dust. The third is that when the snake eats, it eats a bit of dust or dirt along with its prey. This is possible because the snake hunts close to the ground. When it picks up it's prey, it might scoop up some dust with it. By sinning, the snake's punishment was that its nature would be completely changed forever.