Serach Bat Asher and the Elephant Matriarch

In the list of the descendants of Jacob, Jacob's son Asher is recorded as having a daughter named Serach (Genesis 46:17). It's an unusual piece of information, as none of Jacob's other granddaughters are recorded in this list. She again appears in the census in the book of Numbers (26: 46). There, she really doesn’t belong, as this is a count of all the fighting men and the clans that will inherit in the land of Canaan – neither category fits Serach.

Although the text itself tells us no more, clearly there is something important and unusual about this woman. The midrash goes ahead to expand her backstory, portraying her as a wise woman who is entrusted with a particular code that will mark the beginning of the redemption from slavery, hundreds of years after her birth.

Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer 48:17

…Joseph his son delivered the secret of the Redemption to his brethren. Asher, the son of Jacob, delivered the mystery of the Redemption to Serach his daughter.

When Moses and Aaron came to the elders of Israel and performed the signs in their sight, the elders of Israel went to Serach, the daughter of Asher, and they said to her: A certain man has come, and he has performed signs in our sight, thus and thus. She said to them: There is no reality in the signs. They said to her: He said "pakod yifkod —God will surely visit you". She said to them: He is the man who will redeem Israel in the future from Egypt, for thus did I hear pakod pakadeti "I have surely visited you".

This long-lived wise woman is the one who has to remember what everyone else has forgotten – something that has been passed down from Abraham for safekeeping. We see that the elders of the tribe seek out her opinion and trust her memory. The midrash continues:

Forthwith the people believed in their God and in His messenger, as it is said, "And the people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel."

Interestingly, in elephant families, the matriarch of the pack is the memory keeper. As recounted here:

“The matriarch elephant in the herd is the most experienced family member. In critical moments, the entire group relies on the experience of the oldest female. The wealth of experience of the matriarch is due to her photographic memory and the ability to retain superior memories for several decades. Those sharp memories sometimes even last a whole lifetime.

Studies have found that she alerts the rest of the herd when confronted by everyday dangerous situations or when sensing the presence of predators nearby. She even leads and directs the team if she recognizes an old feeding site as she can recall important locations, even if they had not visited those places for many years. The memories they possess of water holes and feeding spots along the migration routes previously taken are remarkable. The members of the herd just have to look at the mother elephant in times of trouble, danger, and emergency as she will remember what to do and where to go.

The rabbis view Serach as this woman of acute memory, who retains accurate information to pass on to people that otherwise would be forgotten:

Pesikta D'Rav Kahanna 11:12

(11:13) Rabbi Johanan sat [in the teacher's seat] and expounded how the waters [of the Red Sea] became like a wall for Israel. Even as Rabbi Johanan was explaining that the wall of water looked like latticework, Serach bat Asher looked down [or "grew angry"] and said, "I was there, and the waters were, rather, like shining windows."

According to Persian tradition, Serach lived on until the middle ages and is buried in Isfahan's Jewish cemetery. The midrash describes her entering heaven alive. She did her job faithfully for many centuries, and can be considered by us as our “matriarch elephant”.