Serach, Jacob’s Immortal Granddaughter

Among those who Descended to Egypt

Serach bat Asher is the only granddaughter of Jacob’s descendants to be named among fifty-three grandsons who go down to Egypt from the land of Canaan:^[1]

^{בראשׁית מו:יז} וּבְנֵי אָשֵׁר יִמְנָה וְיִשְׁוָה וְיִשְׁוִי וּבְרִיעָה וְשֶׂרַח אֲחֹתָם וּבְנֵי בְרִיעָה חֶבֶר וּמַלְכִּיאֵל.

^{Gen 46:17} Asher’s sons: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah, and their sister Serah. Beriah’s sons: Heber and Malchiel.

Genesis, however, implies that additional granddaughters descended to Egypt:

^{בראשׁית מו:ז} בָּנָיו וּבְנֵי בָנָיו אִתּוֹ בְּנֹתָיו וּבְנוֹת בָּנָיו וְכָל זַרְעוֹ הֵבִיא אִתּוֹ מִצְרָיְמָה.

^{Gen 46:7} He brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons, his daughters and granddaughters—all his offspring.

As Nahum Sarna points out, given the omission of named females from the genealogies, “there must have been some extraordinary reason for mentioning her.”^[2] Her name appears again towards the end of the book of Numbers, following a list of the clans descended from Asher’s sons that had endured the forty years of wandering in the wilderness and would enter the Land of Israel:

^{במדבר כו:מו} וְשֵׁם בַּת אָשֵׁר שָׂרַח.

^{Num 26:46} The name of Asher’s daughter was Serach.

If she was a little girl when they left Canaan, and endured the Egpytian oppression, and was included in the census at the end of the forty-year desert sojourn, she would have been at least 250 years old upon entering the land.^[3]

Serach Becomes Immortal

The Alphabet of Ben Sira (late 1^st millennium CE) is one of the earliest midrashim to explicitly claim that Serach never died, but entered Paradise [Gan Eden] alive:

^{אלפא ביתא דבן סירה} סרח בת אשר בעבור שאמרה ליעקב יוסף חי אמר לה יעקב זה הפה שבשרני על יוסף שהוא חי לא יטעום טעם מות.

^{Alphabet of Ben Sira 28b} Serach bat Asher, because she told Jacob, “Joseph lives,” Jacob said to her, “This mouth that told me the good news that Joseph was alive, will never taste death.”^[4]

She is identified with other figures who ascended to Heaven alive, including Enoch, Pharaoh’s daughter (Batyah), Abraham’s servant Eliezer, Elijah, and even the Messiah.^[5]

Serach Breaks the News to Jacob in a Ditty

A more expansive version of the tradition that she told Jacob that Joseph is still alive is found in Midrash HaGadol (14th century), a Yemenite midrashic collection that incorporates many earlier traditions. That midrash builds on a superfluous לֵאמֹר (leʾemor), “saying,” when Jacob’s sons tell him that Joseph is alive:

^{בראשׁית מה:כו} וַיַּגִּדוּ לוֹ לֵאמֹר עוֹד יוֹסֵף חַי וְכִי הוּא מֹשֵׁל בְּכָל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם וַיָּפָג לִבּוֹ כִּי לֹא הֶאֱמִין לָהֶם.

^{Gen 45:26} They [the brothers] told him [Jacob], saying [leʾemor], “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruling over all of the land of Egypt.”^[6]

The brothers seemingly tell [וַיַּגִּדוּ] Jacob the news; yet לֵאמֹ֗ר usually introduces reported speech not direct speech.^[7] The midrash interprets this “pause” as reflecting the brothers’ concern over how Jacob will receive the news, and then attributes the telling to Serach:

^{מדרש הגדול על בר' מה:כו} "ויגדו לו לאמר 'עוד יוסף חי'" (בר' מה:כו) רבנן אמרו אם אנו אומרים לו תחלה יוסף קים שמא תפרח נשמתו.

^{Midrash HaGadol on Gen 45:26} [The brothers said], “If we tell him right away, ‘Joseph is alive!’ perhaps he will have a stroke [lit., his soul will fly away].”

They may also have been hesitant to tell him directly, given their nefarious role in Joseph’s seventeen-year absence and their father’s inconsolable mourning (Gen 37:34–35). So, the midrash suggests, the brothers turn to a little girl, Jacob’s granddaughter, Serach of “the song-lips” (Thomas Mann’s epithet for her),^[8] to tell him the good news:

מה עשו? אמרו לשרח בת אשר, "אמרי לאבינו יעקב שיוסף קים והוא במצרים."

What did they do? They said to Serach, daughter of Asher, “Tell our father Jacob that Joseph is alive and he is in Egypt.”

Serach intuits that the old patriarch would not be receptive with his rational mind to the news that his beloved son, whom he thought had been ravaged by a wild beast, was still alive and ruling as viceroy in Egypt.

מה עשתה? המתינה לא עד שהוא עומד בתפלה.

What did she do? She waited till he was standing in prayer.

Why does she wait until he prays? Over the course of seventeen years, Jacob was frozen in despair or suspended animation, in a state of “ambiguous loss”^[9] with no certain proof of Joseph’s death. There was no body, only a torn and bloodied cloak. Consciously or unconsciously, Jacob may have been wishing to recover his son, prayer hovering on hope for Joseph’s figurative “resurrection” from the dead.

Serach sings Jacob a ditty in a mode of wonder [temihah], with three rhyming phrases of two accented syllables per line:

ואמרה בלשון תימה:

And she said in a tone of wonder:

יוסף במצרים/ יולדו לו על ברכים/ מנשה ואפרים.

“Joseph is in Egypt/ There have been born on his knees/ Menasseh and Ephraim” [Yosef be-mizrayim / Yuldu lo al birkayim / Menasheh ve-Ephrayim].

The girl, in Avivah Zornberg’s words, “deliberately sings her rhyming song to fuse with Jacob’s prayer.”^[10] The poetry strikes his imaginative, feeling mind before his skeptical conscious one.

פג לבו כשהוא עומד בתפלה. כיון שהשלים ראה העגלות, מיד "ותחי רוח יעקב אבינו" (שם).

His heart failed, while he was standing in prayer. When he finished his prayer, he saw the wagons, immediately “the spirit of Jacob [our father] came back to life.”

Initially his heart “stopped” or “went numb,” as the brothers feared. But then he sees evidence of Joseph’s wealth and power in the wagons sent to bear him back to Egypt:

^{בראשׁית מה:כז} וַיְדַבְּרוּ אֵלָיו אֵת כָּל דִּבְרֵי יוֹסֵף אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר אֲלֵהֶם וַיַּרְא אֶת הָעֲגָלוֹת אֲשֶׁר שָׁלַח יוֹסֵף לָשֵׂאת אֹתוֹ וַתְּחִי רוּחַ יַעֲקֹב אֲבִיהֶם.

^{Gen 45:27} His heart stopped [or went numb] for he did not believe them. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.

According to Rashi (on Gen 45:26–27), during that seventeen-year period of Joseph’s presumed death, God’s presence did not rest on Jacob. But when he accepted the truth that Joseph was still alive, his own “spirit revived” and the Divine Presence returned to him. Indeed, in the very next chapter, for the first time in decades, Jacob hears God’s voice call to him in a night vision (Gen 46:2).

Thus, by conveying the news that Joseph was alive in Egypt—effectively resurrecting Joseph for his father—Serach bat Asher has also revived Jacob. So her life-giving song-lips will never taste death.^[11]

Serach Knows the Letters of Redemption

In Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer, a mid-8^th century narrative midrash, Serach plays a pivotal role in Moses’ appeal to the elders of Israel, after God appoints him to lead Israel out of Egypt. At the burning bush, the novice prophet expresses doubts as to his fitness for office, but God offers him an elaborate speech about the redemption—including a message for the elders concerning the promise to the patriachs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that their descendants would inherit the Promised Land and become God’s elect people.

God also gives Moses three miraculous signs to perform for the elders—turning Moses’s staff into a serpent, his hand becoming leprous, and the Nile water, poured on the ground, turning to blood—assuring him that if they don’t believe the first sign, then they will surely believe the last (Exod 4:8).

After the reunion of Moses with his brother Aaron in Egypt, they gather the elders of the Israelites. The biblical text describes both an ocular and aural authentication process, as the people see the signs and hear YHWH’s message.

^{שׁמות ד:ל} וַיְדַבֵּר אַהֲרֹן אֵת כָּל הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר יְ־הוָה אֶל מֹשֶׁה וַיַּעַשׂ הָאֹתֹת לְעֵינֵי הָעָם. ^ד:לא וַיַּאֲמֵן הָעָם וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ כִּי פָקַד יְ־הוָה אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְכִי רָאָה אֶת עָנְיָם וַיִּקְּדוּ וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲוּוּ.

^{Exod 4:30} Aaron spoke all the words which YHWH had spoken to Moses, and he performed the signs before the eyes of the people. ^4:31 The people believed and heard that YHWH had taken note [paqad] of the Israelites and that He saw their affliction; and they inclined their heads and bowed.^[12]

Though we don’t hear the details of Aaron’s speech—which words of the divine message he quotes—the text echoes YHWH’s language from the burning bush:

^{שׁמות ג:טז} לֵךְ וְאָסַפְתָּ אֶת זִקְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֵי אֲבֹתֵיכֶם נִרְאָה אֵלַי אֱלֹהֵי אַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק וְיַעֲקֹב לֵאמֹר פָּקֹד פָּקַדְתִּי אֶתְכֶם וְאֶת הֶעָשׂוּי לָכֶם בְּמִצְרָיִם.

^{Exod 3:16} “Go and gather the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘YHWH, the God of your fathers, has appeared to me, the God of Abraham, Isaak, and Jacob, saying that He has surely taken note of [paqod paqadti] you and what has been done to you in Egypt.’”

The root פ.ק.ד means to take note of or remember.^[13] The narrative expansion of this scene in Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer plays with the doubling of the root, using the infinitive absolute פָּקֹד פָּקַדְתִּי (paqod paqadti).^[14]

Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer lists five letters of redemption—kaf, mem, nun, peh and tzadi—noting that each is doubled within a key biblical phrase, as if divinely alliterated.^[15] In addition, each of these letters takes on a different orthography at the end of a word, suggesting a telos, the redemptive end they are meant to signify:

^{פרקי דרבי אליעזר פרק מח} ר' אליעזר אומר: חמש אותיות שנכפלו בתורה באותיות, כלם בסוד הגאולה. כ"ך....מ"ם..... נ"ן ....פ"ף, בו נגאלו אבותינו ממצרים שנ' "פקוד פקדתי אתכם" (שמות ג:טז). צ"ץ....

^{Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer 48} Rabbi Eliezer says there are five letters that are doubled in the Torah, and all of them contain the secret of redemption...Kaf-kaf...Mem-mem...Nun-nun...Peh-peh through which our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt, as it says, “I have taken note [paqod paqadti] of you” (Exod 3:16), and Tzadi-tzadi…..

The peh-peh (פ"ף), bridges the book of Genesis to Exodus, Joseph to Moses, and the patriachal narratives to the redemption of the people from Egypt.

ולא נמסרו האותיות אלא לאברהם אבינו, ואברהם אבינו מסרן ליצחק, ויצחק מסרן ליעקב, ויעקב מסרן ליוסף, ויוסף מסרן לאחיו, [ואמר להם "פקוד יפקוד אלהים אתכם" (בר' נ:כד] ואשר בן יעקב מסר סוד הגאולה לסרח בת אשר.

These letters (of redemption) were delivered solely to our father Abraham. Our father Abraham delivered them to Isaac, and Isaac delivered them to Jacob, and Jacob delivered them to Joesph, and Joseph delivered them to his brothers [He said, “But God will surely take note [paqod yiphqod] of you” (Gen 50:24)].[16] Asher son of Jacob delivered the secret of the redemption to Serach, his daughter.

When the elders are gathered, they turn to their elder Serach, now well over two hundred years old, to determine whether Moses is legitimate.

וכשבאו משה ואהרן אצל זקני ישראל ועשו האותות לעיניהם, הלכו זקני ישראל אצל זקנתם סרח בת אשר אמרו לה, "בא איש ועשה אותות לעינינו כך וכך."

When Moses and Aaron came to the elders of Israel and performed the signs before their eyes, the elders of Israel went to their elder, Serach bat Asher, and said to her: “A certain man has come, and he made signs before our eyes such and such.”

She is the last survivor of the generation that came to Egypt from Canaan and therefore the sole link of the promise to the forefathers. True to her name, Serach, which means “hangs over,” exceeds the normal life span, and overlaps the generations.^[17] Although Moses has performed the three miraculous signs, she is unmoved:

אמרה להם, "אין באותות האלו ממש!"

She said to them: “There is no reality to these signs!”

They then quote the words God had conveyed to Moses from the burning bush:

אמרו לה, "והלא אמר לנו 'פקוד פקדתי אתכם'" (שמ' ג:טז).

They said to her, “But did he not say ‘He (God) has surely taken note of you [paqod paqadti]’” (Exod 3:16).

The power of the letters [ʾotiot], of language, trumps the power of the miraculous signs [ʾotot].^[18]

אמרה להם, "הוא האיש שעתיד לגאול את ישראל ממצרים, שכך שמעתי מאבא 'פ"ה פ"ה'--פקוד פקדתי אתכם' (שמות ג:טז)." [או "פקוד יפקוד אלהים אתכם" (בר' נ:כד)] מיד האמינו העם באלהים ובמשה, שנ' "ויאמן העם וישמעו כי פקד ה' את עמו" (שמ' ד:לא).

She said to them: “That is the man that will redeem Israel in the future from Egypt, for so did I hear from my father, “peh-peh,” (“He has surely taken note [paqod paqadti] of you” (Exod 3:16); [“God will surely take notice [paqod yiphqod] of you…” (Gen 50:24)]. Forthwith the people believed in their God and in Moses, as it is said, “And the people believed when they heard that the Lord had taken note of the children of Israel” (Exod 4:31).

Moses is privvy to direct revelation peh-’el-peh, “mouth to mouth” (Num 12:8), but Serach knows the “mimetic tradition” peh-peh—the words the redeemer must convey. Moses is the written Torah to her oral Torah. Serach represents continuity with the patriarchs, the very link Moses, as “Prince of Egpt,” lacks. No God-instructed miraculous sign can grant Moses the authenticity he needs unless she vindicates him with the truth she knows from the patriarchs.

Joseph’s Oath

The biblical text never states clearly that Serah heard the letters of redemption from her father, as the midrash imagines. But it does state that Joseph knows about God’s oath to the forefathers that the Israelites will be redeemed from Egypt in fulfillment of the promise to settle the Land of Canaan,^[19] and Joseph links his bones to that promise:

^{בראשׁית נ:כה} וַיַּשְׁבַּע יוֹסֵף אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר פָּקֹד יִפְקֹד אֱלֹהִים אֶתְכֶם וְהַעֲלִתֶם אֶת עַצְמֹתַי מִזֶּה.

^{Gen 50:25} Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely take note [paqod yiphqod] of you and you shall bring up my bones from here.”

There is a note of anguish in his request. Once sold into slavery, the great viceroy to Pharaoh does not want to be abandoned by his brothers again in Egypt. When the time comes, the one who fulfills the oath to Joseph is not the people, collectively, but Moses himself (Exod 13:19). But how did Moses know where the bones are located? According to Mekhilta deRabbi Ishmael, a tannaitic midrash,^[20] Serach plays a critical role in locating them.^[21]

The Egyptians Sink Joseph’s Bones in the Nile

The midrash begins by highlighting Moses’ wisdom and piety, for while the Israelites were busy with the spoils of Egypt, Moses was concerned with the duty of looking after the bones of his ancestor:

^{מכילתא דרבי ישמעאל בשלח א} "ויקח משה את עצמות יוסף עמו..." (שמות יג:יט), להודיע חכמתו וחסידותו של משה שכל ישראל עוסקין בבזה ומשה עוסק במצות עצמות יוסף עליו הכתוב אומר חכם לב יקח מצות ואויל שפתים ילבט (משלי י ח)

^{Mekhilta deRabbi Ishmael BeShallach 1} “And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him…” (Exod 13:19). This proclaims the wisdom and saintliness of Moses. For all Israel were busy with the spoils (of Egypt), and Moses was busy with the duty of caring for the bones of Joseph. Of him it is written “The wise of heart takes on duties” (Prov 10:8).^[22]

The Exodus from Egypt is contingent on finding the bones. Moses seems to understand the urgency of his task, but only Serach knows the location of Joseph’s coffin. The Egyptians, in an attempt to thwart the Exodus, had earlier sunk it to the bottom of the Nile:

ומשה מהיכן היה יודע היכן היה קבור יוסף אמרו סרח בת אשר נשתיירה מאותו הדור והיא הראתה למשה קבר יוסף. אמרה לו: במקום הזה שמוהו. עשו לו מצרים ארון של מתכת ושקעוהו בתוך נילוס.

But how did Moses know where Joseph was buried? They say Serach bat Asher survived from that generation, and she showed Moses the grave of Joseph. She said: In that spot they placed him. The Egyptians made a metal coffin for him and sank it in the Nile.^[23]

In order to retrieve his ancestor’s remains, Moses employs a kind of sympathetic magic by casting a stone into the Nile, and he makes a verbal threat to abandon Joseph in Egypt and be free of the oath if his coffin does not surface now:^[24]

בא ועמד על נילוס נטל צרור וזרק לתוכו.

(Moses) went and stood at the Nile. He took a stone and threw it in.^[25]

וזעק ואמר: יוסף! יוסף! הגיעה השבועה שנשבע הב"ה לאברהם אבינו שהוא גואל את בניו. תן כבוד לה' אלהי ישראל ואל תעכב את גאולתך כי בגללך אנו מעוכבים ואם לאו נקיים אנחנו משבועתך!" מיד צף ארונו של יוסף ונטלו משה.

And he said: “Joseph! Joseph! The oath that the Holy One, Blessed be He, swore to our father Abraham that He would redeem His children, has arrived (ready to be fulfilled). Give honor to the LORD, the God of Israel, and do not delay your redemption, for because of you we are delayed. (If you reveal yourself, good); if not we are absolved of your oath (to take your bones with us)”—whereupon Joseph’s coffin rose to the surface and Moses took it.

The sinking stone alone cannot counter the sunken casket; both spoken and written word are necessary for Joseph’s recall.

A Female Elijah

Like Elijah, who shows up in the Beit Midrash to resolve disputes, Pesikta deRav Kahana (mid-1^st millennium CE) has Serach adjudicating the rabbis’ speculation about the appearance of the water during the splitting of the Reed Sea:

^{פסיקתא דרב כהנא בשלח יג} ר' יוחנן הוה יתיב דרש כיצד היו המים עשויין לישר' כחומה. דרש ר' יוחנן כאילין קנקילייא. אדיקת שרח בת אשר ואמרת תמן הוינא ולא הוון אלא כאילין אמפומטא.

^{Pesikta deRav Kahana 11:13} R. Yoḥanan was sitting and expounding on the verse: “And the waters formed a wall for them on their right and on their left” (Exod 14:22). R. Yoḥanan expounded that it was a sort of lattice work. Serach then looked down (from On High) and said: I was there! The waters were not (like that) but like these clear (or shining) windows.^[26]

As my student, Chaim Spalding remarks, “Serach bat Asher, who witnesses the splitting of the sea herself, remembers the miracle as an experience of direct, unimpeded vision, like looking through an open door or window; R. Yoḥanan can only access that same experience through the obstructed, fragmented, lattice-work lens of language.”^[27] Just as Elijah, the great prophet, rose up to Heaven alive, so did she, and thus Serach can serve as an eyewitness to the miracles of the Exodus, and descend to earth to challenge the Rabbis’ account.

Postscript

Serach is the Wise Old Woman at Abel Beth-Maacah

Serach’s life is extended still further, placing her at Abel Beth-Maacah at the end of King David’s reign.^[28] David’s general Joab lays seige to the city,^[29] where the traitor Sheba son of Bichri has fled (2 Sam 20). Joab prepares to destroy the place but a wise old woman emerges upon the ramparts to negotiatiate for Sheba’s extradition and save the residents of the town from the death threat.

When Joab asks her who she is, she shouts to the general from the walls, saying:

^{שׁמואל ב כ:יט} אָנֹכִי שְׁלֻמֵי אֱמוּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אַתָּה מְבַקֵּשׁ לְהָמִית עִיר וְאֵם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל לָמָּה תְבַלַּע נַחֲלַת יְ־הוָה.

^{2 Sam 20:19} “I am of those that are peaceable and faithful in Israel. Do you seek to destroy a city and a mother in Israel? Why will you swallow up the inheritance of YHWH?”

Though she remains unnamed in the biblical text, the midrash Genesis Rabbah identifies her as Serach, the one who completed the number seventy of Jacob’s descendants who went down to Egypt,^[30] following the principle of “the conservation of biblical personalities” (or, in J. Heinemann’s terms בריחה מאנונימיות, “flight from anonymity”).^[31] Further, she connected Moses to Joseph,^[32] in recalling the oath his brothers swore (Gen 50:24–25) to bring his bones up from Egypt:

^{בראשית רבה צד} "אנכי שלומי אמוני ישראל" (שמואל ב כ:יט)—אני הוא שהשלמתי מניינן של ישראל במצרים, אני הוא שהשלמתי נאמן לנאמן.

^{Gen Rab 94:9} She answered, “I am one of those who seek the welfare of the faithful in Israel” (2 Sam 20:19)—I am the one who completed the number of Israel in Egypt; I am the one who linked the “faithful” to the “faithful” [Joseph to Moses].^[33]

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, a late paraphrastic Aramaic translation that draws on midrashic tradition, also identifies this unnamed woman of Abel Beth-Macaah as Serach:

^{תרגום יונתן בראשית מו:יז} ובנוי דאשר ימנה וישוה וישוי ובריעה ושרח אחתהון דאידברת כד היא קיימא לגינוניתא על דבשרת ליעקב דיוסף קיים היא שזיבת ליתבי אבל מן דין קטול ביומי יואב ובנוי דבריעה ....

^{Tg Ps-Jon Gen 46:17}And the sons of Asher were: Yimnah and Yishvah and Yishvi and Beriah, and their sister, Serach, who was taken alive to the Garden [of Eden]^[34] for she told Jacob that Joseph was alive. She bargained for the residents of Abel under a death threat in the days of Joab. And the sons of Beriah were…^[35]

The implication is that Serach not only exceeds a normal human lifespan, but thrives, overlapping many generations. In the context the seige on Abel Beth-maacah, she proves to be a wise negotiator, pulling rank and drawing on Torah-learning while openly railing at Joab and King David for their ignorance. Thus, she intimidates the king’s most fierce general.^[36] Consistent with her role in the Exodus, she is the wise old woman who wrangles with the male leader over the source of his authority.