Defining Sariah in the “White Space”
By Jen Mabray
In Latter-day Saint tradition, we love Sariah, the Matriarch in the Book of Mormon. However, no matter how often I read the Book of Mormon text, the verses about her never grow in number and only offer a tease of who she might have been. What if the Book of Mormon text could offer more details about Sariah than we realize?
As part of my graduate work in the Hebrew language and Jewish history, I study Jewish Midrash. Midrash is a collection of ancient oral commentaries that expounds on passages in the Hebrew Bible and is used as a companion text to the Talmud (a central text in rabbinical Judaism). Midrash is not definitive nor concrete and is a type of “imaginative literature” that incorporates the study of thought and behavior of the original culture to fill in the gaps of ancient texts.
A familiar Talmudic saying expresses that “the Torah given to Moses was written in black fire on white fire.” One Midrashic interpretation suggests that the “black letters” represent the eternal law (written by the finger of God) and the “white space” around the “black letters” holds hidden insight and commentary yet to be written. Let’s explore the “white space” around Nephi’s “black-letter” narrative in the Book of Mormon, using a Midrashic imagination, to fill in some gaps in Sariah’s story.
One area of potential exploration could be Sariah’s relationship with her husband. In the “black letters,” Nephi shares that Sariah complained against Lehi because she believed her four sons had perished on their journey to Jerusalem (1 Nephi 5:2). When we read the “black letter” text, it takes seconds to move from her anguish in verse two to her comfort found in verse seven, “when we had returned to the tent of my father… my mother was comforted.” Let’s not jump to her comfort just yet. It is important to explore Sariah’s grief and separate it from her joy to understand potential changes in her life.
Remember, Sariah felt she had lost FOUR sons, and started to mourn. In the “white space” we can empathize and see that her pain would have been excruciating. In an act to try and comfort her, Lehi shares his fast belief in the goodness of God, that he was saved by not remaining in Jerusalem (1 Nephi 5:4-5). His invisible faith was supposed to counter the visible aspect that her sons had not returned. Here we see that Sariah and Lehi are in opposition with each other.
The singular event of Sariah losing her sons was a paradigm shift, and changed her forever. Her kind of trauma affects our whole being; our hairs turn grey, anxiety riddles us, depression attacks, our hearts fill with complete anguish, nightmares haunt us, and body pains plague us for years; our bodies remember. Yes, Sariah’s sons returned, and she ceased to mourn, however, without a doubt, she never forgot the pain from this event.
Let’s explore one more “white space” concept about Sariah. We often believe that Sariah willingly followed her husband into the wilderness. Yet, what if in the “white space” we find that she did not want to leave Jerusalem and perhaps did not fully trust her husband’s judgment? In the “black letters” of 1 Nephi 5:2, Sariah accused Lehi of being a visionary man, potentially meaning she felt he had a foolish imagination. Laman and Lemuel, Sariah’s oldest sons, also accused Lehi, using the same language complaining their father was led away by foolish imaginations and that he was a visionary man (1 Nephi 17:20 and 1 Nephi 2:11).
At the initial onset of the wilderness period, the two boys did not have confidence in Lehi’s judgment, and Sariah doesn’t seem to either! However, a transformation happened with Sariah that did not happen with Laman or Lemuel. After the intense trauma of almost losing her sons, the Matriarch of the Book of Mormon shares a compelling new confidence, as powerful as her grief. She exclaimed,
Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath commanded my husband to flee into the wilderness; yea, and I also know of a surety that the Lord hath protected my sons, and delivered them out of the hands of Laban, and given them power whereby they could accomplish the thing which the Lord hath commanded them (1 Nephi 5:8).
This was an element of growth here for Sariah. She developed a witness of her husband’s call that Laman and Lemuel did not, probably because unlike her two oldest sons, she was looking for a witness. In the “white space,” using a Midrashic approach, Sariah wanted to believe that her husband was not foolish but conceivably had no qualifying opportunity to believe his judgment. The trial of nearly losing her sons was the qualifying opportunity that enabled her to trust that her husband had been commanded to flee and therefore was not foolish.
As women, we can connect with Sariah in the “white space” around the “black letter” text. Midrash is not definitive and one can imagine many different interpretations of the events in Sariah’s life. Midrashic interpretation is a companion literature for devoted learners of “black letter” text. Exploring Sariah in the “white space” draws us back to the treasured “black letters” of the Book of Mormon which have the potential to bring us closer to Christ. The “white space” surrounding Sariah contains undiscovered richness that can fascinate our minds, touch our hearts, and give her life and personality.