Vayigash is an important
parsha filled with important events in the story of the important Joseph and
the story of how the Hebrews importantly got to Egypt and eventually to Sinai, for the important revelation of Torah.
It is here that Judah, out of concern for Benjamin,
admits his culpability to Joseph for what happened to the twelfth brother. Joseph, overcome, tells his brothers who he is and they are sent back
to Jacob to tell him that Joseph is alive. The whole tribe can
move to Egypt to be fed and cared for by Joseph who is now a very big shot. I tell you this so you know that all this important stuff is not
what I’m going to talk about.
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I’m going to talk about someone who gets a very tiny mention at
the end of this parsha, and then again in Chronicles, Serach Bat Asher. In the parsha, Jacob is moving the whole crew to Egypt and all his sons and their sons
are listed as part of the move. Sons
and only sons are listed, which is the usual thing, until we get to Asher’s
family.
וּבְנֵ֣י אָשֵׁ֗ר
יִמְנָ֧ה וְיִשְׁוָ֛ה
וְיִשְׁוִ֥י וּבְרִיעָ֖ה
וְשֶׂ֣רַח אֲחֹתָ֑M
And
the sons of Asher: Yimnah and Yishvah and Yishvi and Beriah, and Serach their
sister.
Serach Bat Asher is the only woman listed which is very
unusual. She gets another
mention, much later, as having gone into Israel with Joshua in Chronicles
which, when you think about it, is impossible. she lived from the
time of Jacob, through 215 years of slavery in Egypt, through the Exodus,
through the forty years in the desert and at least up to the time of the
crossing over into Eretz Yisrael, surely that's impossible, yes? Which is what the rabbis thought, so a
slew of midrashim grew up around Serach, which I’m going to tell you.
First, when the sons returned from Egypt to fetch Jacob back to Egypt,
they were afraid to tell him, they were afraid the shock would kill him, and, I
think, they were afraid to admit to their father the part they played in
Joseph’s enslavement. So
the legend says that they asked Asher’s daughter, Serach, who played the harp,
to sing and play the news slowly to Jacob, which she did. And it is said that upon hearing the
news, Jacob exclaimed: “May the mouth that told me these words never taste
death!” And so Serach, because of her bravery and her desire to give Jacob good
news and because of her artistry as a poet and a musician, lived a very long time.
Serach went to Egypt, and still living in the time of Moses, one legend says, so that when the elders needed to confirm that Moses was legitimate she remembered a special code phrase, "God has surely remembered", and when Moses used
this phrase she told the people and so they followed him
Then, as they were all getting ready to leave, Moses remembered the
promise to Joseph to take his body and bury it in Israel. He knew they couldn't leave without the body but no one remembered
where it was buried.
But then, as it says in the book of Legends,
“How did Moses know where Joseph was buried? It is said, Serach, daughter of Asher, who was of Joseph’s generation, was still living. Moses went to her and asked, “Do you know where Moses is buried?” She replied, “The Egyptians made a metal coffin for him, which they sank into the Nile, in order that it’s waters might be blessed thereby. Then, too, the magicians and the sorcerers told Pharoah, do you wish that this people should never leave Egypt? If they do not find the bones of Joseph, they will never be able to leave.”
But Serach remembers and tells Moses where the metal coffin is,
Moses goes to the Nile and calls for Joseph and the coffin rises to the surface
and they are able to leave Egypt.
Another legend is that Serach was still alive during the times of
the Talmud and that one day, when the rabbis in the Beit Midrash were
discussing what it might have been like during the crossing of the Red Sea,
Serach poked her head in the window and told the rabbis that the walls of the
Sea looked like a lighted window. Another version of this says she descrobe it as like a clear mirror in which Israel saw all their generations reflected.
What a beautiful images, like paintings of hope.
She is said to have died at the age of 1000.
So these are fun stories, and besides that
it's nice to hear midrashim about women, but why do I tell you these today
instead of talking about the teshuvah of Judah or the forgiveness of Joseph? It's because, for me, the Serach of
the midrashim is a role model, an exemplar of many of the qualities i'm finding
I need to hold on to as I contemplate the next four years.
Baruch
Atah Adonai,
Brucha
At Shechina,
Blessed
One-ness:
I
am so grateful that we are able to study Torah together
And
learn strategies of hope from the stories of our people.
Especially
when times are hard
And we need to more than study:
The
bravery to speak when others hold back,
And
the cleverness to listen when it is time to learn.
The
pleasure in spreading joy and hope
And
the chutzpah to stick your head in an open window and give your opinion.
The
endurance to keep going even when the suffering is too much,
And
the patience to keep going even when nothing is happening.
The
memory of when times were hard so as to inspire resistance
And
the memory of beauty and freedom, and all the good things that make life worth
living.
Whether
we have to get through 215 years of slavery
Or
40 years of wandering
Or
four years of Trump,
We
can and we will.
Because
As
another brave and joyful woman,
Grace
Paley, a sister of Serach,
Once
said,
Without
action, hope is wasted.
Amen
