Were there to be one person in the world I could meet, be it an historical figure or someone alive today, it would be Serach bat Asher. For those who don't recall, Serach was the woman who revealed to Moshe where Yosef's bones were buried. She was part of the first generation of Jews who had descended to Egypt, and had seen her people grow from 70 to 3,000,000 (if not more!)
What touches me about her personality and identity is that she is someone who experienced the full scope of Jewish history, almost from start to finish, from freedom to slavery and then again to freedom.
The Torah speaks of the Jewish people at the splitting of Yam Suf, the Sea of Reeds, relating that it was only at that pivotal point when the freed Jewish slaves seeing their oppressors dead on the opposite side of the shore that they knew that they were truly freed.
As a simple exercise, I would recommend that each and every one of us ask him or herself, "If I could meet one person, alive or dead, who would it be?" I think the answer very telling about what we value as people, what we cherish and which character traits are most significant.
To be at that moment of the splitting of the Yam Suf not only in body but also in spirit must have been an extraordinary moment, prophetic at its essence. That is the consciousness with which Serach lived and why for me, she is the person who I would like to meet.
What touches me about her personality and identity is that she is someone who experienced the full scope of Jewish history, almost from start to finish, from freedom to slavery and then again to freedom.
The Torah speaks of the Jewish people at the splitting of Yam Suf, the Sea of Reeds, relating that it was only at that pivotal point when the freed Jewish slaves seeing their oppressors dead on the opposite side of the shore that they knew that they were truly freed.
As a simple exercise, I would recommend that each and every one of us ask him or herself, "If I could meet one person, alive or dead, who would it be?" I think the answer very telling about what we value as people, what we cherish and which character traits are most significant.
To be at that moment of the splitting of the Yam Suf not only in body but also in spirit must have been an extraordinary moment, prophetic at its essence. That is the consciousness with which Serach lived and why for me, she is the person who I would like to meet.
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