JULY 25 • 2024 | 45
J
N

I

f you ask me what part of
the Torah I find most inspir-
ing, I would probably not
say “the begats,
” the long genea-
logical lists such as in this week’s
portion.
God orders that a national
census be taken so that the land
can be parceled out after the
impending conquest of Canaan.
This census lists the 12 sons
of Jacob, their sons and those
among their male descendants
who have established their own
clans.
It is glaringly obvious in this
list of almost 100 names, only
six women are mentioned: the
five daughters of Zelopechad
and Serach, the daughter of
Asher (one of the sons of Jacob

and Zilpah). The small num-
ber of women mentioned is
distressing. It reveals there is a
large number of female biblical
figures about whom we know
absolutely nothing.
One remedy is the classical
midrash. Regarding Serach, we
are only told, “Now the name of
Asher’s daughter was Serach.
”
(Deuteronomy 26:46)
Only by examining the mid-
rash do we receive a much fuller
account of Serach’s life. She was
a very talented musician as a
child. Because of her talents, her
uncles gave her the responsibil-
ity of telling Jacob that Joseph
was not really dead. To cushion
the shock, she played music on
her lyre to relax Jacob.

Serach miraculously lived for
more than 400 years and was
the only person of her genera-
tion still alive at the time of the
Exodus. When the Children of
Israel were ready to leave Egypt,
Pharaoh’s magicians had hid-
den Joseph’s bones in a metal
coffin in the Nile, knowing full
well that the Israelites could
not leave without them. Moses
asked Serach to lead them to
the correct location.
It is only through the lens of
midrash that we have gained an
understanding of another pos-
itive female biblical figure. Yet
it is not enough to rely on the
classical midrashim.
As a liberal Jew, I feel that
there is a legitimate claim to
create midrash in our day that
restores our mothers’ names
to their rightful places on
the genealogical lists. In the
book Taking the Fruit: Modern
Women’s Tales of the Bible, edi-
tor Jane Sprague Jones argues

in favor of writing modern
midrash.
She writes, “Women’s roles in
the Torah were circumscribed
and limited while women’s
roles in the modern world
are expanding. Therefore …
contemporary women (and
men) [should] study the text
and write modern stories that
incorporate their own experi-
ences and consciousness into
Judaism.
”
According to the mystical
tradition, the revealed Torah is
found in the black letters, the
hidden Torah is found in the
white spaces between the letters.
It is my hope that this Torah
— which includes both our
mothers and fathers — will be
revealed in our lifetimes.

Rabbi Debra Cohen was the chaplain

at JARC and the rabbinic resource

person at Congregation T’chiyah. This

article originally appeared in the JN on

July 2, 1999.

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SPIRIT
TORAH PORTION
Biblical Females

BY RABBI DEBRA COHEN

Parshat Pinchas: Numbers 25:10-30:1; Jeremiah 1:1-2:3.