Midrash Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 26

רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן קָרְחָה אוֹמֵר: (שָׂרָה הָיְתָה אֵשֶׁת פַּרְעֹה,) מֵאַהֲבָתוֹ אוֹתָהּ כָּתַב לָהּ בִּשְׁטַר כְּתֻבָּתָהּ כָּל מָמוֹנוֹ, בֵּין כֶּסֶף בֵּין זָהָב בֵּין עֲבָדִים וְקַרְקָעוֹת, וְכָתַב לָהּ אֶת אֶרֶץ גֹּשֶׁן לַאֲחֻזָּה. לְפִיכָךְ יָשְׁבוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּאֶרֶץ גֹּשֶׁן, בְּאֶרֶץ שָׂרָה אִמָּם

Rabbi Joshua ben Ḳorchah said: (Sarah was the wife of Pharaoh Because of his (Pharaoh’s) love for her,  he gifted her written marriage contract (giving her) all his wealth, whether in silver, or in gold, or in man-servants, or land, and he wrote (giving) her the land of Goshen for a possession. Therefore the children of Israel dwelt in the land of Goshen, in the land of their mother Sarah.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

The Matriarch Rachel (wife of Jacob) is described by the Prophet Jeremiah (31:15) as weeping in heaven for us, her children, in exile.  This powerful maternal image, combined with the midrashic text above, was the inspiration for the following piece of creative writing. 

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

I am arranging to have this note left for you in your future home, so that you, my beloved descendants, will discover it and find hope and comfort in it.

I would do anything for my family.  I waited for many years for my only son(1) and loved him so much that when I heard that his life was at risk, or even taken, I could no longer live.(2)  When he was a boy, I fought for him and even risked breaking up my household in order to protect him from any bad influences.(3)  In my heart, I know that I would do the same for you, my future great-great-grandchildren.  I would fight for you too if I could.  Even though I was blessed with a very long life, I am, alas, no longer alive.  Therefore, I am relying on this note to offer you some amount of comfort in the difficult times in which you are living.

You are far from home and suspected of wrongdoing and therefore are being treated harshly.  I know this from a prophecy from my God and the God of Abraham.(4)  You are suffering.  I cannot explain to you why your lives must include this pain and harshness, but I can relay the Divine promise to you that you, or your children, or your children’s children will be redeemed and led back home.(5)

The idea of home is such an important component of a feeling of comfort and safety.  This is something I hope I can provide for you as you are enduring your suffering in this foreign land.  I explained above that I would do anything for my family.  At one point in my life, this even included consenting to potentially sacrificing my own self for my family’s safe passage in the same foreign land in which you find yourselves.  My husband Abraham told me that I had to pretend to be his sister.  This would protect him in case the foreign king saw me, desired me and wanted me as his wife.  If I were presented as Abraham’s wife, the king would have killed him to enable him to take me.  But if I posed as his single sister, the king could take me and leave Abraham alive.(6)  How could I have consented to such a plan?  I was young, impressionable, and would have done anything to help my family.  Also, my close relationship with God gave me hope.(7)  In the end, with God’s help, the king understood his evil ways and returned me to Abraham.  He sent me with the many gifts he had given me.  One of these was a piece of real estate in his country – the Land of Goshen.(8)

It is in this Land of Goshen – my possession that I bequeath to you, that you now live.(9)  It may not feel like it is your own because of the indignities and harsh work that are parts of your daily life.  In fact, it is not your true home.  Your true home is waiting for you when Our God decides to finally lead you there.

But for now, I want you to feel the comfort and safety of home.  While you are confined to this space for now, remember that I, your Mother Sarah, consider this to be my land, and I want to extend the hospitality for which my husband and I are known,(10) to you – our own descendants who are its current inhabitants.  Please feel my care in this place, as your mother.  Feel my love and concern and treat each other as loving sisters and brothers.  Take care of each other and do what you can to make each other comfortable in the ways that I would if I were there with you.  It is my land and I want you to feel comfortable in it and see it as a refuge from the cruel world outside of it.

Remember that the God of Sarah and Abraham has not forgotten you.  Feel at home in this temporary home but also look ahead to the time when you will be redeemed and brought back to your forever home, the promised one, that belongs to us all.

Genesis 11:30, 21:1-2

Midrash Genesis Rabbah 58:5

Midrash Genesis Rabbah 41:2

Midrash Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 26

Genesis 18:4-8 and Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 127a

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)