Parashat Vayigash, Part 2: Never Feel Death

The following essay is a revised version of the d’var Torah I posted here in 2025. This year I have re-edited it into two parts.

According to the midrashic text The Aleph Bet of Ben Sira, Jacob gave Serach a blessing saying: “This mouth that informed me about Joseph being alive will not taste the flavor of death.” Interestingly, Serach appears alive in other midrashim that take place in time periods centuries later in the Torah and Tanakh, and even as a character in Rabbinic texts, carrying on this idea that she became immortal. 

Yonatan ben Uziel, in his Aramaic translation/commentary of the Torah, has a slightly different take, suggesting that she was able to walk into the Garden of Eden “without having to die first.” So maybe, the gift was to choose when to physically die?

 Another strange legend is that she lived until the 12th Century CE when she died in a fire in a Persian synagogue, where she was buried. In various folklore, some supernatural beings can only die by specific means, such as fire, and this seems to tap into that.  

Among other midrashim about her are that due to her long life, she was able to tell Moses where Joseph was buried when they left Egypt (Talmud Sotah 13a) and that she prevented a war during the time of King David (Aggadat Bereshit 22). But life is more than just living. A joy of life is sharing and creating, so how is she blessed if she lives longer than her family and the people she cares for, having to watch them all die? 

The words of Jacob’s blessing, “taste the flavor of death,” probably refer to the tradition of her immortality. If we analyze them further, though, perhaps he also means that she will not experience the feeling of death in the worst sense: not feeling a loss of someone dying as Jacob did himself, thinking that his son was devoured by a beast. Instead, maybe, she would experience the death of a loved one by feeling that the person is always with her, present, but in a different form. I believe this is likely Jacob’s blessing to Serach. This is because it is directly related to what Jacob himself was experiencing at that moment: hearing from her how much his son had evolved, it’s like Joseph died and was reborn. Joseph, in many ways, has started a new life in Egypt with a new name, career, and family.

While we are alive, we go through different types of deaths. Everything that is part of us, at some point, dies and is reborn, like the winter snow that kills some plants, but also renews nature by regulating the climate and gently resupplying water to the soil. For example, most of our cells die and are replaced. Recent studies show that even eye cells, which we thought did not regenerate, do so and are replaced. There is the death and replacement of our mental perspectives and the renewal of all our relationships.

Too often, when we cannot solve a problem, if we are able to leave it alone completely and come back to it at a better time or when we feel inspired, we have the answer. Renewal and having a balance between joy and sadness are biologically necessary. Meditation can also help create this naturally-needed state of “lowness” without having to ever feel sad. What Serach did was deliver a meditation, through her art, but in this case, it was to gently bring her grandfather to a higher state of joy. 

Perhaps, Serach had herself experienced grief from death before, and now she would be able to replace that pain with a new sense of the presence of her loved ones. According to some interpretations (including the Ramban), she wasn’t even Asher’s biological daughter, but his stepdaughter. Classical texts do not talk about her biological father and his family, but we can imagine that perhaps they died. This interpretation also makes her role in the midrash all the more significant because it is not only given to a girl, but to an outsider adopted into the Israelite family. 

We can surmise that this altruistic behavior from her and the empathy for her grandfather’s joy allowed her emotions to transform into something magnificent for her. We can imagine that she changed emotionally, from mourning her previous family separation to rejoicing with her grandfather. Also, I have heard stories and personally witnessed how completely genuine, strong feelings from someone bestowing a blessing can bring amazing results.

For colorful meditations, check out also my book Better Than You Wished For