Pinchas
Can we incline our hearts towards beauty?
Reflection by Rebecca Schisler, IJS Core Faculty & Or HaLev Faculty:
"Serach Bat Asher is mentioned in the tribal genealogies in this parsha, which is startling, as she is also mentioned among the seventy family members who accompanied Jacob to Egypt several centuries earlier. How can it be that she both enters Egypt and the land of Canaan?
There is even a midrashic tradition that Serach is among the souls who enter Gan Eden alive, and a sense that this timeless nature of hers is expressive of the essence of Am Yisrael.
Who is this mythical character?
My favorite midrash in which Serach appears takes place after Joseph is found to be alive in Egypt. His brothers return to Jacob to inform him, but, worried that the shock might be so great he won't survive it, they recruit their niece Serach to deliver the news. Known for her grace, she is a talented musician. She doesn't just tell Jacob what happened; she sits before him, playing her lyre, opening his heart to the beauty of the music. Then she begins to gently sing, `Joseph my uncle did not die, he lives and rules all the land of Egypt.`
Jacob is pleased and heartened; it says that the 'ruach hakodesh,' the holy wind, rests on him, and he senses the truth in what she says. Then, when his sons come to tell him the news, he is ready to receive it; he believes that what they say is true.
We learn from Serach the importance of the 'how' as well as the 'what.' She could have delivered that same message, but without the beauty and grace - and it might have been a great and potentially harmful shock. But delivering the news as a song opened Jacob's heart, making him available to receive the message he needed to hear.
We can bring this wisdom into our practice. While we can't control what shows up in our experience, we always have a choice in how we meet it. We can invite an inclination towards beauty, towards artistry, into our very posture, into our quality of awareness. Whatever it is that we observe - can we perceive it as part of the great song of life? Can we allow that inclination towards beauty to open our hearts to the messages we need to receive?"