{{about, , the Jewish wife of the Khazar ruler Sabriel, Serach (Khazar), the South Indian actress, Serah (actress), the type of Ancient Egyptian cartouche, Serekh, other meanings, Serach (disambiguation) Serach bat Asher was, in the

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''

Asher Asher ( he, אָשֵׁר ''’Āšēr''), in the Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. I ...

, the son of

Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. J ...

. She is one of the seventy members of the patriarch's family who emigrated from Canaan to Egypt, and her name occurs in connection with the census taken by Moses in the wilderness. She is mentioned also among the descendants of Asher in

I Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( he, דִּבְרֵי־הַיָּמִים ) is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third sec ...

vii. 30. The fact of her being the only one of her gender to be mentioned in the genealogical lists indicates her extraordinary longevity. This is an outcome of the blessing for longevity she received from

. She is also the heroine of several legends.

In the Torah

There are two mentions of Serach in the

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

. The first is in

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

, 46:17, in a passage that begins “These are the names of the Israelites,

and his descendants, who came to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

,” and continues to mention all of Jacob's sons, his daughter

Dinah In the Book of Genesis, Dinah (; ) was the seventh child and only daughter of Leah and Jacob, and one of the matriarchs of the Israelites. The episode of her violation by Shechem, son of a Canaanite or Hivite prince, and the subsequent vengean ...

, his grandsons, and one granddaughter—Serach. The passage reads “The sons of

: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beri’ah, with Serach their sister.” This sentence is repeated later in the Hebrew Bible in

Chronicles Chronicles may refer to: * ''Books of Chronicles'', in the Bible * Chronicle, chronological histories * ''The Chronicles of Narnia'', a novel series by C. S. Lewis * ''Holinshed's Chronicles'', the collected works of Raphael Holinshed * ''The Idhu ...

, 1 Chronicles 7:30. One would suppose that, since the Torah mentions 53 grandsons and only one granddaughter, she was a person of significance. The second time Serach is mentioned is in the

Book of Numbers The book of Numbers (from Greek Ἀριθμοί, ''Arithmoi''; he, בְּמִדְבַּר, ''Bəmīḏbar'', "In the desert f) is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and com ...

, 26:46.

In Sefer HaYashar

According to The Book of Jasher, Asher married Adon bat Aflal ben Hadad ben Ishmael. She died before bearing children. Asher then married Hadurah bat Abimael ben Heber ben Shem, the widow of Malkiel ben Elam ben Shem. Hadurah bore one daughter to Malkiel, whom he named Serach. After Malkiel died, mother and daughter returned to the house of Abimael. Upon Asher's marriage to Hadurah, he adopted Serach and brought them to Canaan to live in the house of Jacob. This is one of the sources that the Talmud (Megilla) uses to show that an adopted child is considered the child of the adopted parent, as opposed to the genetic parent, in Torah Law. This text praises Serach for her musical skill, beauty and intellect and notes she was raised as an Israelite.

In tradition

A number of

midrashim ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...

have been written about Serach. According to one midrash, Serach was not Asher's daughter, but his stepdaughter. She was three years old when Asher married her mother, and she was brought up in the house of Jacob, whose affection she won by her remarkable piety and virtue. The best known of the midrashim about her tells of how she was the first to inform Jacob that his son Joseph was still alive. Fearing that the news would be too much of a shock for the old man, however, she informs Jacob while he is praying, by playing a harp and singing in rhyme that Joseph is “alive and living in Egypt, and has two sons, Menassah and Ephraim.” (Egypt in Hebrew is

Mizraim Mizraim (; cf. Arabic مصر, ''Miṣr'') is the Hebrew and Aramaic name for the land of Egypt, with the dual suffix ''-āyim'', perhaps referring to the "two Egypts": Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. Mizraim is the dual form of matzor, meaning a "moun ...

, which rhymes with Ephraim.) In return, Jacob blesses her, saying “May you live forever and never die.” According to this midrash, Serach was eventually permitted to enter heaven alive, something achieved only by a scant few others. When Moses appeared to the Elders of Israel, they went to Serach to confirm that he was truly the redeemer. She recognized him by the code phrase "God has surely remembered" (Exodus 3:16 and 4:31) that had been passed down, according to the Midrash, from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob and to his sons. At that stage of the slavery in Egypt there was no-one else who know the authenticity of these code words as authentically as her. These are the same words that Joseph speaks on his deathbed (Genesis 50:24). Joseph makes his brothers swear that they will bring his bones from Egypt to be buried in the land of Canaan (Genesis 50:25). The Midrash relates that Moses addressed himself to Serach when he wished to learn where the remains of Joseph were to be buried. Without Joseph's bones, the Israelites could not leave Egypt, so the Pharaoh had Egyptians put him in a lead coffin and had it cast into an underground flooded chamber the Nile. This was an attempt to prevent the Israelites ever leaving Egypt. Only Serach was still alive to remember exactly where to find Joseph's bones as she had seen the Egyptians place the coffin in the Nile at the time and the rest of the generation had since died out. According to the Midrash, Serach was " the wise woman" who caused the death of Sheba ben Bichri. Another story in the Midrash

Pesikta de-Rav Kahana Pesikta de-Rab Kahana (Hebrew: פסיקתא דרב כהנא) is a collection of aggadic midrash which exists in two editions, those of Solomon Buber (Lyck, 1868) and Bernard Mandelbaum (1962). It is cited in the ''Arukh'' and by Rashi. The nam ...

xi. 13 relates that

Rabbi Yochanan :''See Johanan (name) for more rabbis by this name''. Johanan bar Nappaha ( he, יוחנן בר נפחא Yoḥanan bar Nafḥa; alt. sp. Napaḥa) (also known simply as Rabbi Yochanan, or as Johanan bar Nafcha) (lived 180-279 CE) was a leading r ...

was discussing the parting of the Red Sea and wondered what the walls of water looked like. There was a discussion in the House of Study as to whether the sea took on the shape of latticework or brickwork. At that moment, Serach bat Asher peered into the window of the study hall and attested, "I was there. They were like lighted

rick Rick may refer to: People *Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name *Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality *Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...

windows." According to another legend, Serach lived until the tribe of Asher was exiled by

Shalmaneser V Shalmaneser V (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "Salmānu is foremost"; Biblical Hebrew: ) was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Tiglath-Pileser III in 727 BC to his deposition and death in 722 BC. Though Shalman ...

, went with them into exile, and died there, nearly 1,000 years old. According to the legend, her grave is located in

Pir Bakran Pir Bakran ( fa, پیربکران, also Romanized as Pīr Bakrān; also known as Pīr Bāqerān; formerly known as Linjan لنجان) is a city and capital of Pir Bakran District, in Falavarjan County, Isfahan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, ...

, a small town about 30 km southeast of

Isfahan Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its Achaemenid empire, ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in Sassanian Empire, middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Regio ...

. The site consists of a small synagogue and a huge cemetery which is probably 2,000 years old. Some consider her the guardian of Israel's communal memory.

Cultural associations

Edward Einhorn Edward Einhorn (born September 6, 1970) is an American playwright, theater director, and novelist, noted for the comic absurdism of his drama and the imaginative richness of his literary works. A native of Westfield, New Jersey, Einhorn graduated ...

's absurdist comedy ''The Living Methuselah'', appearing in his book of plays entitled
The Golem, Methuselah, and Shylock
', gives another perspective on both Serach and

Methuselah Methuselah () ( he, מְתוּשֶׁלַח ''Məṯūšélaḥ'', in pausa ''Məṯūšālaḥ'', "His death shall send" or "Man of the javelin" or "Death of Sword"; gr, Μαθουσάλας ''Mathousalas'') was a biblical patriarch and a ...

. In it, Methuselah and Serach have lived to modern day, through all the major disasters of human history.

References

Resources

Bacher, Wilhelm and Isaac Broydé. "Serah".
''

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...

''. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901–1906.
Sermon on Serach
Book of Genesis people Women in the Hebrew Bible Entering heaven alive Longevity myths