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Serah bat Asher was, in the Tanakh, a daughter of Asher, the son of Jacob. She is counted among 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 vii. 30. The fact of her being the only one of her sex to be mentioned in the genealogical lists seemed to the Rabbis to indicate that there was something extraordinary in connection with her history; and she became the heroine of several legends.

In the Torah

There are three mentions of Serach in the Torah. The first is in Genesis, 46:17, in a passage that begins “These are the names of the Israelites, Jacob and his descendants, who came to Egypt,” and continues to mention all of Jacob’s sons, his daughter Dinah, his grandsons, and one granddaughter—Serach (spelled שֶׂרַח Serakh). The passage reads “The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beri’ah, with Serach their sister.” This sentence is repeated in Chronicles, First Chron. 7:30 (same spelling). 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, 26:46, in the listing of Israelites who escaped from Egypt, where it simply says “And the name of the daughter of Asher was Serach.” (This time spelled שָׂרַח Sorakh.) Since Serach is mentioned both as Jacob’s granddaughter and also as one of the people who escaped from Egypt 210 years later, Serach is often referred to as the oldest woman in the Torah.

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References

1. Genesis xlvi. 17
2. Numbers xxvi. 46.

External links

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

Resources

• Bacher, Wilhelm and Isaac Broydé. "Serah". Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901-1906.
• Sermon on Serach

• Torah people
• Women in the Bible