Vayeishev 5774: Tamar

In this week’s Torah portion, the narrative about Yosef (Joseph) is interrupted by an account of Yosef’s brother, Yehuda (Judah), which comprises the entire chapter 38 (30 verses) of Bereishit (Genesis) and the entire fourth aliyah (reading). http://www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading.asp?AID=15555&p=4

Yehuda leaves his brothers and marries a Canaanite woman known as Bat Shua (Shua’s daughter.) He has three sons with her named Er, Onan and Shelah. “And Yehuda acquired a wife for Er, his firstborn, named Tamar.” (Bereishit 38:6) According to the Kehot Chumash, Tamar is the daughter of Noah’s son, Shem, who died 66 years before Tamar’s marriage; this means that Tamar was at least 67 years old when she married Er.

The Kehot Chumash says that despite her age, Tamar still is very beautiful. Afraid that bearing children will diminish Tamar’s beauty, Er interrupts his marital relations with her, deliberately spilling his seed and not regretting that he has broken G-d’s first commandment to be fruitful and multiply. Now Er, Yehuda’s firstborn, was evil in the eyes of the L-rd, and the L-rd put him to death.” (Bereishit 38:7)

"So Yehuda said to Onan, ‘Come to your brother’s wife and perform the rite of the Levirite, and raise up progeny for your brother.” (Bereishit 38:8) Known in Hebrew as yibum, the Levirite rite is that when a man dies childless, his widow marries the man’s brother in order to continue the family name and to assure the widow a place in the family.

“Now Onan knew that the progeny would not be his, and it came about, when he came to his brother’s wife, he wasted [his semen] on the ground, in order not to give seed to his brother.” (Bereishit 38:9) Onan is concerned that fathering a son will reduce his own inheritance, so he prevents Tamar from conceiving. “Now what he did was evil in the eyes of the L-rd, and He put him to death also.” (Bereishit 38:10) From Er and now Onan, we learn that Jewish law prohibits the practice of “onanism,” wasting sperm through masturbation or interrupted coitus.

“Then Yehuda said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, ‘Remain as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up,’ for he said [to himself], “Lest he, too, die, like his brothers.’ So Tamar went, and she remained in her father’s house.”  (Bereishit 38:11)  Since Tamar lost two husbands, Yehuda suspects that she is a “lethal woman,” in Hebrew, isha katlanit. Wanting to protect his youngest son from the same fate as his brothers, Yehuda sends away Tamar.

Shelah comes of age, but Yehuda does not allow Tamar to marry him. Meanwhile, Yehuda’s wife dies; after a period of mourning Yehuda resumes his normal activities and attends to shearing his sheep. (Sheep shearing is a festive occasion, so a mourner would not participate.)

According to Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum in Women at the Crossroads, Tamar prophetically understands that she and Yehuda must produce a child who will be the progenitor of King David and of the future Moshiach (Messiah). The Rebbetzin notes that Sforno contends that Tamar’s intention is “for the sake of heaven” when she takes matters into her own hands and devises a plan to conceive a child with Yehuda.

“She [Tamar] took off her widow’s garb, covered [her head] with a veil and covered her face, and she sat down at the crossroads…When Yehuda saw her, he thought she was a harlot, because she covered her face. So he turned aside toward her to the road, and he said, ‘Get ready now, I will come to you,’ for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law, and she said, ‘What will you give me that you should come to me?’ And he said, ‘I will send a kid from the herd,’ and she said, ‘[Only] if you give me a pledge until you send [it].’ So he said, ‘What is the pledge that I should give you?’ And she said, ‘Your signet, your cloak and the staff that is in your hand.’ So he gave them to her, and he came to her, and she conceived his likeness. Then she arose and went away, and she took off her veil, and she donned her widow’s garb.” (Bereishit 38:14-19)

Kehot Chumash comments that Yehuda does not recognize Tamar because “she always covers her face when she visits his house as his daughter-in-law, thus showing herself to be a paragon of modesty and righteousness.” Tamar’s experience with Yehuda on the crossroads is therefore out of character for her; she engages in behavior unnatural to her in order to achieve a holy purpose.

The Rebbetzin remarks that the text says Yehuda “turned to” Tamar, rather than “went to” her. She writes: “Da’at Zekeinim explains that Yehuda wanted to pass her by, when Tamar lifted her eyes and prayed…Immediately G-d sent the angel Michael to turn him back.” (Michael is the angel in charge of physical desire and he is able to change Yehuda’s will.)

Yehuda sends his friend, with the promised kid, to look for the woman and collect his signet, cloak and staff.   Although he asks around, the friend cannot find the woman and returns empty-handed. To avoid becoming a laughingstock and to protect his public image, Yehuda calls off the search.

“Now it came about after nearly three months, that it was told to Yehuda, saying, ‘Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot, and behold, she is pregnant from harlotry.’ So Yehuda said, ‘Bring her out, and let her be burned.’” (Bereishit 38:24) Explains the Kehot Chumash: “When humanity collectively forswore licentiousness after the flood, it agreed to punish priests’ daughters who act licentiously with death by burning, echoing the Torah’s decree.” Since Tamar is the daughter of Shem, a priest, Yehuda orders Tamar’s death sentence.

Tamar has the means to save her life and that of her unborn child. She could publically display Yehuda’s possessions and “out” Yehuda as the baby’s father. Instead, she sends Yehuda the items with a private message: “‘From the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant,’ and she said, ‘Please recognize, whose signet ring, cloak and staff are these?’” (Bereishit 38:25) Writes Rashi: “She did not want to embarrass him and say, ‘From you I am pregnant.’…She said, ‘If he confesses by himself, let him confess, and if not, let them burn me, but I will not embarrass him.’”

“Then Yehuda recognized [them] and he said, “Tzadkah mimeni -- She is right, [it is] from me, because I did not give her to my son Shelah.” (Bereishit 38:26) Yehuda thereby justifies Tamar’s actions and takes responsibility for his own actions.

The Rebbetzin notes that the phrase tzadkah mimeni may have a different translation and interpretation: “She is more righteous than I.”  She offers a third interpretation, that the word mimeni (from me) is proclaimed by a heavenly voice: “From Me and My Agency have these things happened.” In other words, the sequence of events that leads to Yehuda and Tamar’s union, and their subsequent conception of the progenitor of kings, is pre-ordained.

After a shortened pregnancy of seven months (Midrash, Bereishit Rabbah 85:13), Tamar gives birth to twin boys whom she names Peretz and Zerach. The Book of Ruth (4:18-22) concludes with a genealogy that traces the ancestry of King David from Peretz.