Vayigash 5774: Serach bat Asher

“And these are the names of the children of Israel who were coming to Egypt…And the sons of Asher were Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi and Briah, and Serach, their sister…” (Bereishit/Genesis 46:1, 17)

“She opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” (Mishlei/Proverbs 31:26 Eishet Chayil/A Woman of Valor)

In this week’s Torah portion, Yaakov (Jacob) and his large family leave the famine of Canaan and set out on a journey to Egypt. Torah lists the names of the immediate family members, “seventy souls,” including Serach, daughter of Asher. Serach is the only granddaughter, and the only woman besides Yaakov’s wives and his daughter, Dina, who is listed.

The Midrash (Hagadol 45:26, and Sefer ha Yashar, Vayigash Ch. 14) tells that Serach is a young girl when Yaakov’s sons learn that their brother Yosef (Joseph), whom they sold as a teenager into slavery, still is alive in Egypt. Fearing that the shocking revelation will overwhelm their elderly father, the brothers ask Serach to gently break the news. She plays her harp and sings, “Od Yosef chai (Joseph still is alive.)” When the meaning of the song becomes clear, Yaakov blesses Search with longevity: “The mouth that told me the news that Yosef is alive will never taste death.” (Otzar haMidrashim)

Serach’s name appears in Torah 250 years later (Bamidbar/Numbers 26:46) among the names of the family of Asher who are to receive a portion of the Land of Israel. Rashi notes that Serach is counted because she still is alive, the sole survivor of the generation that left Canaan for Egypt.

Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum on breslev.com notes that Serach’s name hints to her extraordinary longevity. She writes: “Our Sages relate…sheserachu v’nitrabu yemeiha -- her days were twined and multiplied.” Neesa Berezin-Bahr on Drisha’s Parsha Blog comments that the verb form of Serach, spelled with a samech rather than a sin, means “to overrun” or “to exceed.” In a Torah account of the making of the Tabernacle curtains (Shemot 26:12), serach ha-odef means “the overlapping excess,” the leftover remnant.

Writes Dr. Rachel Adelman: “Because of her longevity, she [Serach] embodies a living Jewish memory, becoming the sole link to the generation of the patriarchs, lost to the Israelite slaves in Egypt.”  Citing the Zohar, Dr. Adelman characterizes the period of Egyptian slavery as a galut ha-dibur, an exile of the word. “The people can only groan…moan and cry for help…wordless expressions of anguish…Language itself goes into quiescence, into exile…Serach bat Asher [is] pivotal in bringing the word back…[she is] the agent of living memory, bearer of the oral (mouth-to-mouth) tradition.”

Serach is able to make a critical connection between a promise G-d makes to Moshe (Moses) about the slaves’ future redemption (Shemot/Exodus 3:16), and an earlier statement Yosef makes to his brothers when he makes them promise to take his bones out of Egypt to bury him in Canaan (Bereishit 50:24.) This linguistic connection enables Serach to grant Moshe (Moses) authority and endorse him as the redeemer of Israel. The Midrash (Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 48) describes the transmission of the secret letters of redemption (peh, peh) from Avraham (Abraham) through four generations to Serach. (The Hebrew letter peh also means “mouth.”) 

The elders of Israel went to Serach bat Asher and said to her, “A certain man has come…and he said, ‘Pakod pakadeti etchem (I have taken note of you).’ She said to them, “He is the man who will redeem Israel from Egypt in the future, for so I heard from my father, ‘Peh-peh, Pakod yifkod etchem (G-d will surely take note of you.’)” The people then believed in their G-d and in Moshe.

When the slaves are freed and the Jewish nation hurriedly prepares to leave Egypt, Moshe wants to take Yosef’s bones to Canaan to fulfill the promise. How does he find the bones? Since Serach was alive and present at Yosef’s burial, she is the only one who knows that the Egyptians sank Yosef’s coffin in the Nile River. Moshe calls out to Yosef, imploring him not to delay the redemption. The coffin miraculously rises to the surface. (Mechilta de Rabbi Ishmael, Masechta Vayechi; Babylonian Talmud Sotah 13b)

According to the Midrash (Bereishit Raba 94:9), Serach continues to live during the reign of King David. She is said to be the unnamed “wise woman” of Abel-bet-Maakah who through peaceful, persuasive language prevents a civil war in Israel (Shmuel/Samuel 20:16-20). She identifies herself to Yoav (Joab) as “the peaceful and faithful of Israel…the one who completed the numbers of Israel in Egypt, the one who connected the faithful Yosef to Moshe.” She also calls herself a “mother in Israel” and asks how Yoav, whose name means “father to Israel,” could cause bloodshed in Israel.

Another tradition teaches that Serach never dies and is one of the people who enter the Garden of Eden while still alive. She is said to appear in the era of the Amoraim (compilers of the Talmud) to Rabbi Yochanan to settle an argument and testify a first-person account of the splitting of the sea at the time of the Exodus from Egypt (Pesikta de Rav Kahana 11:13.)

Writes the Rebbetzin: “The continuing existence of Serach affirms that the quest for unity and peace is always alive within Jewish womanhood. Serach transmits the melody of life and redemption through the righteous women of each generation. Let us join her quiet yet powerful tune.”

http://www.breslev.co.il/articles/torah_portion/chanas_blessing/the_eternal_harp.aspx?id=14683&language=english

http://drishaparshablog.blogspot.com/2011/12/vayigash-serach-bat-asher-and-bridging.html

http://www.racheladelman.com/2010/01/serah-bat-asher-and-the-letters-of-redeomption/

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/serah-daughter-of-asher-midrash-and-aggadah