BeShallah 5775 - English

by Rabbi Guido Cohen

Asociación Israelita Montefiore - Bogotá, Colombia

This week, we finally read about the exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt.  After insisting so much, after the plagues, after the first ‘pesach’ and many other things, Moses manages to lead the people towards the desert that separates them from freedom in Israel.    

Before leaving Egypt, Moses must keep an intergenerational promise made by his ancestors: he must take with him the bones of Joseph, so that he may finally be buried in Israel.  In fact, the parashah tells us that Moses did indeed keep that promise.  That which in the parashah constitutes a simple verse, has raised many questions in the minds of the interpreters of the biblical text.  In Parashat Shmot, we had read that the new Pharaoh no longer knew Joseph, and Bereshit offers no indication of the place where his bones were hidden.  We are left to wonder then, where were Joseph’s bones?  How did Moses find them?

The Midrash, in its vast capacity for imagination, discovers a character that is mentioned in the Torah among those who descended upon Egypt with Jacob as well as with those who camped in the desert in Arbot Moab.  From there, the wise conclude that this person, Serach daughter of Asher, is the only member of the Jewish people who was present at both times, the arrival in Egypt and the exodus to the desert, meaning she lived a little over two centuries. Serach daughter of Asher, having lived through the time Joseph lived, knew first hand where he had been temporarily buried, and therefore had the information that Moses needed.  According to rabbinical sources (Sotah 13a, Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, and others), Serach remembered when Joseph died, the Egyptians had placed him in a metallic casket and thrown it in the Nile so his merit could bless the waters.  The old woman pointed out the place for Moses, and he invoked Joseph so the casket would rise and they would be able to pull it out.  Moses exclaimed, “Joseph, honor the Eternal G-d of Israel and do not delay our redemption.  If you appear, good, and if not, then I am released from the promise our ancestors made to you.”  At that moment, the casket rose and Moses was able to take it out of the water.  The Midrash concludes by saying that thanks to Serach, ‘the pious was delivered to the pious’, meaning Joseph was in Moses hands and would thereby accompany his people in their return to Israel to be finally buried in Shechem. 

This mysterious, long-lived, and wise character resurfaces in several occasions, which leads the sages to imagine her entering Israel and living even through the times of King David.  Regardless of the creative genius of the sages that by taking two apparently disconnected verses created such a picturesque character, I believe there is an interesting teaching in the story of Serach bat Asher that has to do with the place the elderly have in our communities. Serach was the only person who had experienced personally the arrival in Egypt, the years of prosperity, and the years of slavery. Serach was the keeper of a piece of the collective memory that many had already forgotten, that the young leaders did not know.  If Moses had trusted only his own knowledge and that of those who surrounded him, he might still be looking for Joseph, but he had the nobleness and the wisdom to ask the eldest of the tribe, in the hopes that she would still remember the story.  Moses knew there were things that no matter what preparation, capabilities and abilities he may have, could only be discovered by listening to the testimony of those who came before him.  And that is how he transformed Serach in a key part of the exodus. 

This week was the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a date set by the United Nations to remember the victims, to honor the heroes and the survivors, and to extend our gratitude to the brave who risked their lives in order to save the persecuted.  Seventy years since the liberation, eighty since the beginning of the horror…  This implies that those who were there are over seventy years old today, in most cases, way over seventy.  Learning history from the mouth of those who lived through it first-hand is a new precept in modern times.  It means knowing that these people that have trouble walking and sometimes talking, those that many times we relegate so as to listen to younger voices, have within them an irreplaceable wisdom.  Each story, each testimony, each account is one more opportunity to build our collective memory and to ensure that younger generations will know what happened in that hell.  Every day we have less contemporary ‘Serach’ that were actually there and call tell the story.  May we hear their voices this week, learn from their stories, and honor their lives.  In the voice of these elders is the voice of our people. 

    

Shabbat Shalom

Rabino Guido Cohen