{"id":61001,"date":"2019-08-12T15:59:24","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T12:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=61001"},"modified":"2023-03-05T15:36:08","modified_gmt":"2023-03-05T13:36:08","slug":"the-wise-woman-from-abel-of-beth-maacah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-wise-woman-from-abel-of-beth-maacah\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wise Woman From Abel Of Beth-Maacah"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[363,404,600],"acf":{"old_id":"61001","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33877,"related_cahpter":"283","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A minor biblical personality who becomes the undying \"Wise Old Woman\" of Jewish legend and folklore\u00a0","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our chapter records in detail the rebellion against King David led by Sheba son of Bichri. This narrative begins with his dramatic proclamation: \u201cWe have no portion in David, no share in Jesse\u2019s son! Every man to his tent, O Israel!\u201d and ends with his being beheaded (20:1-22).\u00a0 In putting down this rebellion, Joab, David&#8217;s captain, pursues Sheva ben Bikri to the fortified town of Abel of Beth-maacah. Just as Joab is about to breach the wall and destroy the town, a &#8220;wise woman&#8221; suddenly cries out from the city and convinces Joab to let the town hand over the rebel hiding there rather suffer complete destruction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This otherwise unnamed &#8220;wise woman&#8221; identifies herself by saying: \u201c\u2019<em>Anokhi Shelumey \u2018Emuney Yisra\u2019el.\u201d <\/em>In the biblical context this might be translated: &#8220;I am from among the peaceable and faithful of Israel&#8221;. But the Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 94:9), interprets the word \u201c<em>Shelumey<\/em>\u201d to refer not to peaceability but to completion. This leads to the additional identification of the \u201cwise woman\u201d as the one who completed the number of seventy persons who accompanied Jacob to Egypt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In its primary context, this Midrash serves to solve a numerical problem in Genesis, Chapter 46:8-27, which states that \u201cthe total of Jacob\u2019s household who came to Egypt was seventy persons\u201d but lists only sixty-nine individuals (see Ibn-Ezra to Genesis 46:27). The Midrash states that it was Serah the daughter of Asher who completed (<em>hishlimah<\/em>) the number of seventy. Though Serah is actually named among the seventy persons who came to Egypt (Genesis 46:17), the Midrash here apparently counts her as two persons due to her exceptional longevity, having lived from the time of Jacob until at least the time of David. The Midrash goes on to quote Serah as adding: \u201cIt is I who conveyed (<em>hishlamti<\/em>) the faithful (<em>ne&#8217;eman<\/em>) to the faithful (<em>ne\u2019eman<\/em>), Joseph to Moses\u201d. This is an elliptical reference to Serah\u2019s earlier role in assisting Moses to recover Joseph\u2019s bones at the time of the Exodus from Egypt and convey them for reburial in Shechem in the Land of Israel (see Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael Be-Shallah 1).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the Bible, Serah bat Asher remains just a name. But because her name is included in both the list of those who went down to Egypt with Jacob (Genesis 46:17) and also in the list of those who made the Exodus from Egypt with Moses (Numbers 26:46 and I Chronicles 7:30), the Rabbinic Sages determine that Serah &#8220;spanned the generations\u201d from Jacob to Moses. Having granted her such remarkable longevity, the Sages go on to include this extraordinary woman among those few immortals who &#8220;never tasted the taste of death&#8221; and who are said to have &#8220;entered Paradise alive&#8221; (Yalqut Shimoni 2:367, Derekh Eretz 1:18).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By identifying Serah as the \u201cwise woman\u201d from Abel of Beth-maacah , the Rabbis develop this minor biblical personality into the undying &#8220;Wise Old Woman&#8221; of Jewish legend and folklore.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image: Johann Christoph Weigel, Joab and the Wise Woman, woodcut, 1695 \/ 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