The only Israelite to go down to Egypt and enter the Promised Land was a woman.
In the years after the Civil War, heritage groups began honoring a rare category of Americans: Real Sons and Real Daughters — children born to aging veterans of that war. Not grandchildren. Not great-grandchildren. Their actual children. Living, breathing links to a fading past.
Today, the same honor is given to the children of Holocaust survivors. These are voices that don’t just remember history — they carry it.
In the Torah, there is one figure who embodies this idea more than any other.
Her name is Serach bat Asher.
According to legend, she enters Egypt with Jacob’s family — and, somehow, centuries later, she helps Moses find Joseph’s bones, enters the Promised Land and even consults with 3rd Century Rabbis of the Talmud. She provides us with a paradigm for a social institution that is undervalued... the Living Legacy. We explore this critical source of cultural history in the Bible, Rabbinic texts, other religions and cultures.
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Safaria Source Sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/662562
Transcript on episode web page: https://madlik.com/2025/07/16/serach-the-keeper-of-israels-collective-memory/
