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

  

Miketz 5774: Osnat

“And Pharaoh named Yosef (Joseph) Tzaphenat Pa’neach, and he gave him Osnat, the daughter of Potiphera, the governor of On, for a wife, and Yosef went forth over the land of Egypt.” (Bereishit/Genesis 41:45)

“And to Yosef were born two sons before the year of the famine set in, whom Osnat, the daughter of Potiphera, the governor of On, bore to him.” (Bereishit 41:50)

In this week’s Torah portion, Yosef, now the viceroy of Egypt, marries. Does he marry an Egyptian woman? Writes Tamar Kadari on jwa.org: “The question of Asenath’s (Osnat’s) origins has significant consequences for the standing within the Israelite tribes of Manasseh (Menashe) and Ephraim, the two sons born to Asenath and Joseph.”

Ms. Kadari explains that there are two rabbinic approaches to the issue of Osnat’s descent. The first view contends that Osnat is an ethnic Egyptian who converts before marrying Yosef. The other position holds that Osnat is a member of Yaakov’s (Jacob’s) family – she is Dina’s daughter, conceived when Shechem violates Dina.  According to this approach, G-d directs matters so Osnat ends up in Egypt, in order for Yosef to find a spouse from among the members of his own family.

How does Osnat end up in Egypt? The Midrash (Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 35-38) tells that Dina’s brothers want to kill the baby girl to prevent public disgrace. To protect her, Yaakov places a gold amulet around Osnat’s neck and hides her in a bush, in Hebrew, sneh, from which the name Osnat may derive. (Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Sielgelbaum writes that the name Osnat may also derive from the Hebrew word senua, hatred.) An angel, or in another version, an eagle, carries Osnat to Egypt.

A different Midrash tells that Dina places Osnat on the Egyptian wall. Potiphera discovers her crying and brings her to his barren wife, who raises Osnat as her own. (This is the same wife who in the previous Torah portion tries to seduce Yosef and has him jailed when he refuses her advances.)

As to the amulet, there are various accounts of the written message it contains: a recounting of the episode with Shechem; the name of G-d; and/or “Whoever cleaves to you cleaves to the seed of Yaakov.”  (Targum Onkelos, Vayechi 48:9)

Reuven A. Stone adapts the Midrash on torahtots.com: “When Yosef was promoted from lowly prisoner to viceroy, Pharaoh had him led through the streets on a beautiful chariot. Yosef was very handsome. Local women stood on their roofs and threw their jewels at him to attract his attention. Osnat was no different. Since she had no jewels, she threw her locket.” (Two weeks from now, in the Torah portion Vayechi, the text mentions how women are attracted to Yosef and “stride the wall” to gaze at him when he rides by.) (Bereishit 49:22)

Vayechi begins with Yosef’s return to Yaakov in order to receive his and his sons’ blessings. “Then Yisroel [Yaakov] saw Yosef’s sons and he said. ‘Who are these?’ Yosef said to his father, ‘They are my sons, whom G-d gave me here.’”   (Bereishit 47:8-9) Writes Rashi: “He [Yosef] showed him [Yaakov] the document of betrothal [to Osnat] and the ketubah (marriage contract.) Only then does the Shechina (G-d’s presence) return to Yaakov and he blesses the sons.

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/asenath-midrash-and-aggadah

http://www.torahtots.com/parsha/breishis/miketz3.htm  

This week’s blog is in honor of the bat mitzvah of Yael Stochel.    

Vayeishev 5774: Tamar

In this week’s Torah portion, the narrative about Yosef (Joseph) is interrupted by an account of Yosef’s brother, Yehuda (Judah), which comprises the entire chapter 38 (30 verses) of Bereishit (Genesis) and the entire fourth aliyah (reading). http://www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading.asp?AID=15555&p=4

Yehuda leaves his brothers and marries a Canaanite woman known as Bat Shua (Shua’s daughter.) He has three sons with her named Er, Onan and Shelah. “And Yehuda acquired a wife for Er, his firstborn, named Tamar.” (Bereishit 38:6) According to the Kehot Chumash, Tamar is the daughter of Noah’s son, Shem, who died 66 years before Tamar’s marriage; this means that Tamar was at least 67 years old when she married Er.

The Kehot Chumash says that despite her age, Tamar still is very beautiful. Afraid that bearing children will diminish Tamar’s beauty, Er interrupts his marital relations with her, deliberately spilling his seed and not regretting that he has broken G-d’s first commandment to be fruitful and multiply. Now Er, Yehuda’s firstborn, was evil in the eyes of the L-rd, and the L-rd put him to death.” (Bereishit 38:7)

"So Yehuda said to Onan, ‘Come to your brother’s wife and perform the rite of the Levirite, and raise up progeny for your brother.” (Bereishit 38:8) Known in Hebrew as yibum, the Levirite rite is that when a man dies childless, his widow marries the man’s brother in order to continue the family name and to assure the widow a place in the family.

“Now Onan knew that the progeny would not be his, and it came about, when he came to his brother’s wife, he wasted [his semen] on the ground, in order not to give seed to his brother.” (Bereishit 38:9) Onan is concerned that fathering a son will reduce his own inheritance, so he prevents Tamar from conceiving. “Now what he did was evil in the eyes of the L-rd, and He put him to death also.” (Bereishit 38:10) From Er and now Onan, we learn that Jewish law prohibits the practice of “onanism,” wasting sperm through masturbation or interrupted coitus.

“Then Yehuda said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, ‘Remain as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up,’ for he said [to himself], “Lest he, too, die, like his brothers.’ So Tamar went, and she remained in her father’s house.”  (Bereishit 38:11)  Since Tamar lost two husbands, Yehuda suspects that she is a “lethal woman,” in Hebrew, isha katlanit. Wanting to protect his youngest son from the same fate as his brothers, Yehuda sends away Tamar.

Shelah comes of age, but Yehuda does not allow Tamar to marry him. Meanwhile, Yehuda’s wife dies; after a period of mourning Yehuda resumes his normal activities and attends to shearing his sheep. (Sheep shearing is a festive occasion, so a mourner would not participate.)

According to Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum in Women at the Crossroads, Tamar prophetically understands that she and Yehuda must produce a child who will be the progenitor of King David and of the future Moshiach (Messiah). The Rebbetzin notes that Sforno contends that Tamar’s intention is “for the sake of heaven” when she takes matters into her own hands and devises a plan to conceive a child with Yehuda.

“She [Tamar] took off her widow’s garb, covered [her head] with a veil and covered her face, and she sat down at the crossroads…When Yehuda saw her, he thought she was a harlot, because she covered her face. So he turned aside toward her to the road, and he said, ‘Get ready now, I will come to you,’ for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law, and she said, ‘What will you give me that you should come to me?’ And he said, ‘I will send a kid from the herd,’ and she said, ‘[Only] if you give me a pledge until you send [it].’ So he said, ‘What is the pledge that I should give you?’ And she said, ‘Your signet, your cloak and the staff that is in your hand.’ So he gave them to her, and he came to her, and she conceived his likeness. Then she arose and went away, and she took off her veil, and she donned her widow’s garb.” (Bereishit 38:14-19)

Kehot Chumash comments that Yehuda does not recognize Tamar because “she always covers her face when she visits his house as his daughter-in-law, thus showing herself to be a paragon of modesty and righteousness.” Tamar’s experience with Yehuda on the crossroads is therefore out of character for her; she engages in behavior unnatural to her in order to achieve a holy purpose.

The Rebbetzin remarks that the text says Yehuda “turned to” Tamar, rather than “went to” her. She writes: “Da’at Zekeinim explains that Yehuda wanted to pass her by, when Tamar lifted her eyes and prayed…Immediately G-d sent the angel Michael to turn him back.” (Michael is the angel in charge of physical desire and he is able to change Yehuda’s will.)

Yehuda sends his friend, with the promised kid, to look for the woman and collect his signet, cloak and staff.   Although he asks around, the friend cannot find the woman and returns empty-handed. To avoid becoming a laughingstock and to protect his public image, Yehuda calls off the search.

“Now it came about after nearly three months, that it was told to Yehuda, saying, ‘Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot, and behold, she is pregnant from harlotry.’ So Yehuda said, ‘Bring her out, and let her be burned.’” (Bereishit 38:24) Explains the Kehot Chumash: “When humanity collectively forswore licentiousness after the flood, it agreed to punish priests’ daughters who act licentiously with death by burning, echoing the Torah’s decree.” Since Tamar is the daughter of Shem, a priest, Yehuda orders Tamar’s death sentence.

Tamar has the means to save her life and that of her unborn child. She could publically display Yehuda’s possessions and “out” Yehuda as the baby’s father. Instead, she sends Yehuda the items with a private message: “‘From the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant,’ and she said, ‘Please recognize, whose signet ring, cloak and staff are these?’” (Bereishit 38:25) Writes Rashi: “She did not want to embarrass him and say, ‘From you I am pregnant.’…She said, ‘If he confesses by himself, let him confess, and if not, let them burn me, but I will not embarrass him.’”

“Then Yehuda recognized [them] and he said, “Tzadkah mimeni -- She is right, [it is] from me, because I did not give her to my son Shelah.” (Bereishit 38:26) Yehuda thereby justifies Tamar’s actions and takes responsibility for his own actions.

The Rebbetzin notes that the phrase tzadkah mimeni may have a different translation and interpretation: “She is more righteous than I.”  She offers a third interpretation, that the word mimeni (from me) is proclaimed by a heavenly voice: “From Me and My Agency have these things happened.” In other words, the sequence of events that leads to Yehuda and Tamar’s union, and their subsequent conception of the progenitor of kings, is pre-ordained.

After a shortened pregnancy of seven months (Midrash, Bereishit Rabbah 85:13), Tamar gives birth to twin boys whom she names Peretz and Zerach. The Book of Ruth (4:18-22) concludes with a genealogy that traces the ancestry of King David from Peretz. 

Vayishlach 5774: Dina

“And afterwards, she [Leah] bore a daughter, and she named her Dina.” (Bereishit/Genesis 30:21)

Dina’s birth is recorded in the previous Torah portion. After bearing six sons with Yaakov (Jacob), Leah conceives again. Her sister, Rachel, who also is married to Yaakov, has not yet conceived, but two handmaids have each borne two sons with Yaakov.

Rashi explains that Leah knows Yaakov will father twelve sons and he already has ten. If Leah has a son, Leah reasons that Rachel will only have the opportunity to bear one son, fewer than the handmaids. In order to save Rachel from embarrassment, Leah prays that her unborn baby will be a girl. As a result of her prayer, the baby boy in Leah’s womb is transformed into a girl whom she names Dina.

In this week’s Torah portion, after twenty years growing his family and his wealth in his father-in-law’s household, Yaakov sets out to return to Canaan. He prepares to reunite with his estranged brother, Esav (Esau.) “And he [Yaakov} arose during that night, and he took his two wives and his two maidservants and his eleven sons, and he crossed the ford of [the] Jabbok.”(Bereishit 32:23)

The Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah-Vayishlach 76:9) notes a glaring omission in this verse. Dina, Yaakov’s only daughter, must have been traveling with the family, yet the text only mentions her brothers. Where is Dina? “[Yaakov] placed her in a chest and locked her in. He said, ‘This evil man [Esav] has a haughty eye – lest he see her and take her from me [as a wife].’”

After his encounter with Esav, Yaakov settles with his family in Shechem, in Canaan. “Dina, the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Yaakov, went out to look inside the daughters of the land.” (Bereishit 34:1)

Why is Dina described here as the “daughter of Leah?” Rashi explains from the Midrash (Tanchuma Vayishlach 7): “Because of her going out, she was called the daughter of Leah, since she [Leah] too was in the habit of going out, as it is said [in Bereishit 30:16]: ‘And Leah came forth toward him [Yaakov].’ And concerning her, they devise the proverb ‘like mother like daughter.’” (Bereishit Rabbah 80:1)

Writes Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum in Women at the Crossroads: “This comparison does not come to denigrate Dina, as Abarbanel explains. At first when Yaakov agreed to marry Rachel, but instead was given Leah, he did not recognize her until the next morning because of her modesty. When she later went out towards Yaakov and said ‘you must come to me’ her intention was for the sake of Heaven to bear his children and raise the tribes of Israel. The proof is that she merited that same night to conceive Yisaschar, who represents Torah.”

The Rebbetzin goes on to explain that Dina does not have improper intentions when she leaves the tent. As the only daughter in a household of boys, she longs to see the clothing and jewelry of other women and to get to know “the way of young women.” When the prince Shechem sends music-playing girls around Dina’s tent, Dina cannot resist going out. (Ohr HaChayim and Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer 38)

The Lubavitcher Rebbe presents a different rationale for Dina’s venturing out. Yanki Tauber adapts the Rebbe’s teachings on meaningfullife.com (and reprinted on chabad.org): “Dina’s going out to make the acquaintance of the daughters of the land was fully in keeping with her and her mother’s unique gifts. Her exposure to an alien environment would not have adversely affected her Jewish femininity. On the contrary, she was born to the role of the outgoing Jewish woman who serves as a source of enlightenment to her surroundings without compromising her modesty.”

Rebbetzin Siegelbaum comments on the grammar of the verse, noting that it does not contain the Hebrew word et, a grammatical insert to indicate that the following word is the object of the sentence. Instead, the verse uses b’, which means “inside.” She therefore renders the translation “Dina went out to look inside the daughters of the land.”

Writes the Rebbetzin, citing Be’er Mayim Chayim: “Dina went out to see the inner depths of the hearts of the gentile girls in order to learn who would be receptive to her influence…This teaches that there is a way for a modest woman to ‘go out’ and benefit the world without being harmed.” 

Yaakov, the Rebbe teaches, does not recognize Dina’s ability to retain her values while going out to positively influence outsiders; as a protective father, he seeks to shield her from negative outside influences, and he goes so far as to hide Dina from Esav. Rashi raises the possibility that had Yaakov allowed Dina to marry Esav, Dina might have been able to influence Esav to repent.

Unfortunately, Yaakov’s efforts to closet Dina have drastic consequences. “And Shechem the son of Chamor, the Chivite, the prince of the land, saw her [Dina], and he took her, lay with her, and violated her.” (Bereishit 34:2) Dina’s brothers, Shimon and Levi, avenge the rape.

The Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni 134) tells that Dina becomes pregnant from this union and has a baby girl called Osnat. The baby ends up in Egypt and is raised by Potiphar and his wife. When Osnat comes of age, she marries Yosef (Joseph), her uncle.

http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/2668/jewish/Outgoing-Woman.htm

http://www.aish.com/jl/b/women/Women-in-the-Bible-5-Dinah.html