“El talento es más barato que la sal de mesa. Lo que separa el talento individual del éxito es un montón de trabajo fuerte.” -Stephen King
No recuerdo cuando escuché por primera vez el axioma americano de “Trabaja más inteligente, no más fuerte.” Era el lema de un consultor. Guía de un encargado. Cerebro, no el músculo. Pensemos en soluciones para el hombre perezoso. Vamos a diseñar dispositivos de ahorro de esfuerzo y tiempo para trabajar menos. Trabajo se convirtió en una mala palabra. Éxito provendrían de inteligencia. Trabajo manual era peor que estar desempleado.
Ahora hay millones de desempleados hiper educados endeudados y millones de puestos de trabajo para aquellos dispuestos a utilizar sus manos y la espalda.
El éxito puede requerir un retorno al trabajo manual y duro. Sin embargo, el Netziv en Génesis 39:6 tiene un origen diferente para el éxito de empleo.
El texto nos dice que cuando Joseph es un esclavo en Egipto, sus maestros notan su éxito divina. ¿Joseph tenía una señal sobre su cabeza proclamando la ayuda de Dios? ¿Dios firmó su nombre en el trabajo de José en luces de neón intermitentes? ¿Qué significa cuando se dieron cuenta de que su éxito vino de Dios?
El Netziv explica que se hizo evidente a los maestros de Joseph, que su éxito fue desproporcionado a sus capacidades o esfuerzos. La única respuesta fue que provenía de Dios. No es que no necesitamos talento, inteligencia y trabajo duro – pero Dios es a menudo el último ingrediente para el éxito.
Que podamos experimentar el éxito en todas nuestras buenas obras.
Shabat Shalom,
Ben-Tzion
Dedicación
A Mike Rowe quien ha elevado mi interés y aprecio por el trabajo “Sucio”.
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” -Stephen King
I don’t recall when I first heard the American truism of “Work Smarter NOT Harder.” It was a consultant’s motto. A manager’s lodestone. Brains, not brawn. Let’s think of solutions for the lazy man. Let’s design time and effort-saving devices in order to work less. Work became a dirty word. Success would come from intelligence. Manual labor was worse than being unemployed.
Now there are millions of debt-ridden hyper-educated unemployed and millions of job openings for those willing to use their hands and backs.
Success may require a return to manual and hard labor. However, the Netziv on Genesis 39:6 has a different source for employment success.
The text tells us that when Joseph is a slave in Egypt, his masters notice his divine success. Did Joseph have a sign over his head proclaiming God’s assistance? Did God sign his name on Joseph’s work in flashing neon lights? What does it mean that they realized his success came from God?
The Netziv explains that it became obvious to Joseph’s masters that his success was out of all proportion to his capabilities or efforts. The only answer was that it came from God. Not that we don’t need talent, intelligence or hard work – but often God is the final ingredient for success.
May we experience success in all our good work.
Shabbat Shalom,
Ben-Tzion
Dedication
To Mike Rowe who has elevated my interest and appreciation for “Dirty” Jobs.
“An ounce of cheerfulness is worth a pound of sadness to serve God with.” -Thomas Fuller
Jacob’s sons convince their father that his favorite son Joseph is dead. Jacob falls into an inconsolable grief. Ibn Ezra (on Genesis 37:35) adds that Isaac, Jacob’s father, shared in the grief for his missing grandson and that both Isaac and Jacob were no longer able to commune with God because of their sorrow.
Ibn Ezra learns about sadness cutting the ability to communicate with God from the story of the prophet Elisha. Elisha the Prophet (see II Kings) had been sad ever since his master, the prophet Elijah, had passed away. Elisha called for a minstrel to play a tune to cheer him up, which then allowed him to talk to God.
Similarly, as long as Jacob and Isaac were sad, they would be unable to receive any prophetic messages. Hence the dictum that one cannot effectively contact God if one is in a poor frame of mind.
May we always strive for happiness and thereby more readily reach God.
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Hanukah,
Ben-Tzion
Dedication
To the Comedy for Koby comedians who just completed their 2012 Israel Tour. May they continue to bring good cheer wherever they go.
“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”
– Christopher Reeve
Joseph had a power. He had a power to interpret the strange, irrational, often incomprehensible images of the unconscious mind that we call dreams. He was able to read the prophetic messages conveyed in the dreams and alert the waking world.
The Ohr Hachayim (Genesis 40:8) thinks that we have the cause and effect of dreams mixed up. He claims that the interpretation of the dream is what makes it come real. The dream is just the canvas of future potential. The interpretation, the enunciating, the giving of form and structure and content to the visions of the mind, brings the dream to the real world and gives it shape, purpose and fulfillment.
He adds one caveat. The dream must be interpreted that day. It cannot be allowed to linger as a mist in the mind. It must be seized, jumped upon, brought to the light of day and out of the shadows of the night. Only then do we have a hope of the dreams becoming real. Only by acting on those dreams can we hope to see them fulfilled.
No one understood or realized how Joseph’s power worked. No one understood that Joseph was creating reality as he desired from the stuff of dreams. No one realized that if they were determined enough they could make their dreams come true. Now we know.
May we have worthy dreams, and when we wake up in the morning, let’s verbalize them and make them happen.
Shabbat Shalom,
Bentzi
Dedication
To Thedor Herzl. He was not the first to have the dream. The dream was beating in the heart of the Jewish nation for two thousand years. He interpreted the dream. He wrote about the dream. He brought the dream to our brothers throughout the Diaspora and helped make it real.
Every few months, or even weeks, my father comes up with a new insight into human or divine nature and goes about sharing it with everyone he meets, whether head of state or waitress, accompanied by a personal anecdote. He likes to dig into the deeper meanings of life, which may account for my penchant to philosophize.
A number of weeks ago, his Rabbi was hospitalized in poor health. A few days after that, the Rabbi was up on his feet showing amazing strength and stamina. Upon meeting the Rabbi’s physician, my father asked the doctor if the Rabbi’s incredible recuperation was a function of DNA or perhaps supernatural. The doctor, uncomfortable with the question attributed DNA as the factor. A young man overhearing the discussion suggested that the Rabbi was able to change his DNA and thereby reach supernatural performance. People on four continents have since heard this anecdote.
Not surprisingly, the Kli Yakar has a similar philosophy. Joseph is accosted by the seductress, Potiphar’s wife. Joseph flees. The exact word in Hebrew is ‘vayanas’. The same verb is used to describe how during the Exodus, at the Splitting of the Sea, the waters ‘fled’ from the Children of Israel. This supernatural event is attributed to the merit of Joseph (whose remains Moses took with him).
The Kli Yakar explains (Genesis 29:12) that Joseph fled from (his) nature, that he transcended and rose above nature and the world. As a result he was then rewarded, as Viceroy, with control and dominion over nature and basically the civilized world at the time. So too his descendants were given the chance to rise above nature at the Splitting of the Sea, and retain that potential. In essence, as the Rabbi and the young man of my father’s anecdote suggests, we can overcome our initial human limitations, we can change nature itself and reach supernatural heights.
May we realize our potential and aim beyond it.
Shabbat Shalom,
Bentzi
Dedication
To my father. For changing his DNA on a regular basis and for taking the rest of us along with him for the ride.
“Execute the slave,” Pharaoh intoned, while sipping delicately from his wine, “why need we be troubled by such a common case?”
“It is Potiphar’s slave,” the High Priest responded, “he himself requested the audience.”
“Curious,” Pharaoh replied, raising his eyes from his silver goblet, “let him in then.”
A royal guard solemnly announced:
“The Grand Chamberlain, Potiphar.”
Two other guards opened the tall, gold-encrusted doors to Pharaoh’s public audience room.
Potiphar, who had been waiting in the antechamber, walked in slower than usual. He was often summoned to the hall for Pharaoh’s business. This was the first time he approached Pharaoh with such a sensitive personal issue. Potiphar noticed the rows of attendant priests sitting on either side of the hall. He saw the eunuchs standing at either end of the long marble encased hall, with large palm branches. They fanned constantly, making the spacious room significantly cooler than the sun-baked outside. Potiphar walked past columns with statues of previous Pharaohs and other figures from Egyptian history.
Potiphar approached the throne. At three paces distance he lowered himself to his knees and performed the customary obeisance. “Hail, Pharaoh! King and Lord.”
“Hail, Pharaoh!” the priests rejoined, “King and Lord.”
“Potiphar,” Pharaoh motioned for him to rise, “why do you bother us with such a petty crime. Kill the slave and be done with it.”
“It is not so simple, O Pharaoh,” Potiphar cleared his throat, “I am not sure that the slave is guilty.”
“We do not understand the problem,” Pharaoh said in a perturbed tone, “your wife, The Grand Chamberlain’s wife, accuses a lowly slave of accosting her and we are sitting here debating his innocence? Have him killed and get yourself a new slave.”
“Will the Master of Justice,” interrupted a priest from the side, “not seek out justice?”
“Who is this insolent dog?” Pharaoh asked the High Priest, “can you not rein in your own priests?”
“I am but a humble servant,” the daring priest continued with a perfect bow, “ready to serve Pharaoh in this case, that he may arrive at a wise and true resolution. Thus, all the subjects of his Kingdom will know yet again the divinity of his wisdom and power.”
“Continue, priest,” Pharaoh sat back, somewhat appeased.
“Potiphar’s wife, Zelichah, has accused their household slave of accosting her. Potiphar himself seems unsure. It may be worthwhile to examine the claims further, to arrive at a deeper understanding of the truth.”
“Potiphar,” the priest asked, “were there any witnesses to this supposed attack.”
“No.”
“So it is his wife’s word against the slave’s,” Pharaoh interjected, “it is clear we listen to the wife.”
“That is unless, O Pharaoh” the priest continued, “there is reason to believe Zelichah is not telling the truth.”
“Why should she lie about such a matter?” Pharaoh asked.
“O Son of Heaven,” the priest waved dramatically, “Pharaoh, of all people knows that all is not as it seems. Pharaoh can already sense that there is a mystery in this case, that only the brilliant mind of Pharaoh can uncover.”
“Yes,” Pharaoh cheered up, “you speak the truth priest. We shall bring light to the mystery, where no mortal can. We must determine what truly happened. It may not be as she claims.”
“By making the correct inquiries,” the priest continued, “by thinking as no mere mortal can, Pharaoh will reveal the truth.”
“When did this theoretical attack occur?” Pharaoh asked Potiphar.
“Yesterday.”
“Yesterday was the Overflowing of the Nile,” Pharaoh thought out loud. “The entire kingdom was at the celebration at the river banks. That would explain why there were no witnesses. A convenient day for mischief.”
“Does your wife bring any evidence of this attack?” Pharaoh pushed further.
“Yes,” Potiphar answered. “She has the slaves’ garment that she claims he took off before his attack.”
“That is a poor omen for him,” Pharaoh stated, looking at the priest for guidance. “Why would the slave disrobe in her presence unless it was for dishonorable intentions?”
“We should examine his garment,” the priest suggested.
“Yes. Excellent idea,” Pharaoh exclaimed, “fetch the slave’s garment.”
“And hers also,” added the priest.
“Hers also?” Pharaoh was confused. “Why do we require her garment?”
“Much may be learned from the fabrics that witnessed the true events,” the priest explained.
“Of course,” Pharaoh agreed. “Bring the garment she wore at the time of the reported attack,” Pharaoh commanded a nearby guard. “Make sure you receive verification from someone else of the household, that they are indeed the correct garments. And be quick about it,” Pharaoh added excitedly, “we gods do not have forever.”
The guard rushed out of the hall.
“In the meantime, what else can we discover about the case?” Pharaoh asked eager to make progress. “Where are your wife and the slave now?”
“In the antechamber.”
“Wonderful!” Pharaoh was gleeful. “Who should we start with?”
“The slave,” volunteered the priest.
“Why the slave?” Pharaoh eyed the priest suspiciously.
“Pharaoh already knows what Zelichah claims, but he has yet to hear the slave,” the priest calmly explained. “Perhaps the slave will admit his sin, which will bring the case to a quick solution.”
Pharaoh seemed mildly dejected by the thought.
“Or perhaps he will reveal some new information that only the insightful mind of Pharaoh will perceive. Pharaoh will then have opportunity to test his suspicions and recheck Zelichah’s claims against Pharaoh’s new elucidations.”
Pharaoh nodded in agreement. “Call in the slave,” he commanded.
Joseph walked into the hall wearing a simple slaves’ tunic. He looked curiously at the statues, and paused briefly by one as if in recognition. He continued to make his way towards the throne. All eyes looked impassively at Joseph. Most of all Pharaoh’s.
“We requested the slave.” Pharaoh asked in confusion, “who is this handsome princeling?” For Joseph indeed seemed handsome to Pharaoh, perhaps the most beautiful man he had ever encountered. And he seemed to Pharaoh hauntingly familiar.
“I am Joseph. Slave to Potiphar. I am a Hebrew, unrightfully brought from Canaan.”
A murmur of incredulity stirred from within the attendant priests.
“A Hebrew!” Pharaoh asked with a mix of repulsion and curiosity. “But so handsome? You look more like a man of royal descent than a slave.”
“I am the great-grandson of Abraham, whom you may recall visited your ancestor more than a century ago.”
“Abraham! Can it be?
To everyone’s surprise Pharaoh jumped out of his throne and ran to Joseph. He took Joseph by the arm, and forcefully dragged him back down the hall, towards the entrance.
The surrounding guards quickly followed their liege. The priests got out of their chairs and followed the strange procession. The High Priest and Potiphar caught up and stayed close to Pharaoh. The eunuchs stayed in their places, mechanically fanning the room.
Pharaoh stopped next to one of the female statues and placed Joseph next to it.
“It is true! He is the spitting image of her!”
“Who is she?” Potiphar asked.
“That is the statue of Sarah. The legend is told that she was the consort of our predecessor, for a short while. She was considered the most beautiful woman in the world. It was our great-great grandfather that commissioned this statue of her as a reminder of her extreme beauty.”
The assembled crowd kept looking at Joseph and back at the statue of Sarah. They were clearly related. They were too much alike to be coincidental. The fine shape of the nose. The clear brow. The high cheekbones. The almond-shaped eyes. The firm lips. Even the curl of the hair was identical.
“What a mystery indeed,” Pharaoh exclaimed, “your accused slave is none other than Sarah incarnate! Why is everyone standing around? Back to your posts!”
“What was your name again?” Pharaoh turned to Joseph as the priests and guards skittered back to their places.
“I am Joseph, O Pharaoh.”
“Yes, yes. Joseph. Let us continue with this investigation.” Pharaoh strode back to his throne with Joseph, Potiphar and the High Priest close behind. Pharaoh sat again with a regal flourish.
“Slave,” Pharaoh addressed Joseph, “did you or did you not accost Potiphar’s wife?”
“I did not accost my master’s wife, O Pharaoh.”
“Why does she claim otherwise?”
“I cannot say, O Pharaoh,” Joseph glanced meaningfully at Potiphar.
“You know that the penalty for a slave attacking a master is death,” Pharaoh explained. “If you do not produce a viable explanation, we shall have no choice but to execute you, as pretty as you might be, or as illustrious an ancestry as you may have.”
“I could only guess at the motivations of my master’s wife in accusing me where I am blameless. However, were I to in turn cast aspersions upon her, it may dishonor my master who has been so good and kindly to me.”
“Handsome and honorable,” piped in the daring priest, coming back from the sidelines.
“True,” Pharaoh noted. “But it does not help his case or chances of survival. He may be dismissed. Bring in Potiphar’s wife!”
Joseph was unceremoniously escorted out of the chamber. A few moments later Zelichah walked in.
The royal guard formally announced, “Zelichah, wife of the Grand Chamberlain.”
Zelichah glided into the hall in a serious and demure ceremonial gown. She bowed down next to her husband.
“Zelichah,” Pharaoh motioned for her to rise, “why do you claim that your slave accosted you?”
“Because he did, O Pharaoh,” Zelichah responded with a mixture of pride and pain.
“We have reason to believe that he may be innocent.”
“Innocent? I have stated otherwise, O Pharaoh. That slave has been eyeing me since the day he arrived. He waited patiently until the house was empty, lured me alone with him into my bedroom and there attacked me. I have the evidence of his garment which I understand Pharaoh has so wisely summoned. I was his prey.”
“Perhaps the hunted was really the hunter,” the priest whispered to Pharaoh.
Pharaoh looked at the priest trying to understand his words.
“What woman could resist the extreme beauty we just witnessed?” the priest continued in an undertone. “Perchance there was truly an encounter yesterday between Zelichah and Joseph, but the roles were reversed.”
“Prove it!” Pharaoh banged on his throne. “It is well and good to play at finding this slave innocent, but to accuse an important noblewoman of adultery is a dangerous game.”
At that moment the dispatched guard returned with two garments in his hand. He approached Pharaoh with them.
“Divine timing,” the priest said to himself. “O Pharaoh, if we were to ask the lady and the slave to wear their garments of the period in question, we may gain greater insight into the events.”
“Make it so!” Pharaoh thundered, losing his patience.
The guard handed the dress to Zelichah who exited after him.
A few minutes later both Zelichah and Joseph entered the hall and walked towards the throne.
“Zelichah, if I may,” the priest inquired, “why did you not participate in the celebrations of the Overflowing of the Nile yesterday.”
“I was ill.”
“And is this your customary attire when you are ill? Your dress reveals more than it conceals. I believe that except for the eunuchs, no man here can help but be drawn by your obvious and overflowing beauty. O Pharaoh, this dress has one purpose only: seduction.”
“That is no proof.”
“True. But it is an indication. Let us examine further. You will also note that Zelichah’s garment is in excellent condition, one that does not even hint at any violence. The slaves’ garment however is torn.”
“You might argue that in his fit of passion, the slave tore his garment, but let us examine the tear carefully.”
“O Pharaoh, if Pharaoh will, please grab the slaves garment there right by the rip.”
Bemused, Pharaoh got off the throne, walked to Joseph and grabbed the garment at the tear.
“In the divine opinion of Pharaoh, could this tear have been self-inflicted.
“No. The tear is in the back. He could not have reached it himself.”
“That eliminates the possibility that the slave ripped his garment out of passion,” the priest deducted. “Perhaps it caught on something, he tripped and then it ripped.”
“That is not possible either,” Pharaoh noted, “This garment was ripped by a human hand.”
“Heavenly deduction, my dear Pharaoh! Then if he did not do it himself and it was not some accident, and there was no one else in the house at the time, there is only one person that could have ripped that garment. Zelichah! The question now however is why? Was she ripping the garment in an effort at self-defense?”
“No!” Pharaoh exclaimed excitedly. “The tear is away from the body of the garment. That means the slave was moving away from the woman when she tore it. The slave is clearly innocent!”
“And the woman therefore is an ad–“
“Enough!” Pharaoh stopped the priest. “It is enough that the slave is innocent. We do not need to besmirch her name, or that of her husband. Furthermore, this matter cannot be revealed, and the slave cannot go unpunished, lest others then understand the truth. What shall we do with him?”
“Let him sit in jail,” the High Priest offered.
“Yes,” agreed Pharaoh, “jail is certainly better than execution.”
“Perhaps the royal jail,” whispered the daring priest to Pharaoh, “this one bears watching and keeping nearby.”
Pharaoh nodded and signaled his secretary.
“We have decided that the slave known as Joseph shall be placed in our royal prison,” announced Pharaoh with some pomp. “Word of this case, as gratifying as it was for us to solve, shall not leave this hall, on pain of death. Thus, truth is revealed, justice is served and the kingdom flourishes.”
Pharaoh turned towards the priest, but he was no longer there.
“Where is that priest?” Pharaoh asked not seeing him anywhere in the hall. All heads in the room turned to look for him, but the daring priest was nowhere in sight.
“Who was he?” Pharaoh then asked the High Priest.
“I do not know your Majesty,” replied the High Priest nervously, “we have never seen him before.”
“That is a shame,” Pharaoh answered nonchalantly, sipping from his wine again, “he would have made a good advisor.”
* * * * * *
Sources:
“Now Joseph was handsome of form and handsome of appearance. After these things, his master’s wife cast her eye upon Joseph and she said, “Lie with me.”
But he adamantly refused; he said to his master’s wife, “Look – with me here, my master concerns himself about nothing in the house, and whatever he has he placed in my custody. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has denied me nothing but you, since you are his wife; how then can I perpetrate this great evil and have sinned against God.”
And so it was – just as she coaxed Joseph day after day, so he would not listen to her to lie beside her, to be with her. Then there was an opportune day when he entered the house to do his work – no man of the household staff being there in the house – that she caught hold of him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me!”
But he left his garment in her hand, and he fled, and went outside.
When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, she called out to the men of her household and spoke to them saying, “Look! He brought us a Hebrew man to sport with us! He came to lie with me but I called out with a loud scream. And when he heard that I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment beside me, fled and went outside!”
She kept his garment beside her until his master came home. Then she told him a similar account saying, “The Hebrew slave whom you brought to us came to me to sport with me. But it happened when I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment beside me, and ran outside.”
And it was, when his master heard his wife’s words which she spoke to him, saying, “Your slave did things like these to me,” his anger flared up. Then Joseph’s master took him and placed him in prison – the place where the king’s prisoners were confined – and he remained there in prison.” Genesis 39:6-20
The Egyptian women once gathered to behold Joseph’s beauty. What did Potiphar’s wife do? She gave them each an etrog and a knife with which to peel it. She then summoned Joseph. As they gazed at Joseph’s beauty, the knives slipped and they cut their hands. She said to them, “If this is how you are affected when you see him only for a moment, how much more so I, who see him all the time! Tanchuma Vayeshev 5
There was no man of the household staff in the house. Genesis 39:11. Rabbi Yishmael said: It was the Overflowing of the Nile, where everyone would go, from the King and the ministers they would go to see and celebrate at the river. Hizkuni
Joseph was brought to the king, and the angel Gabriel came in the guise of a man, and told the king to have the garments checked. If the woman’s garment were ripped, than clearly Joseph attacked her, but if Joseph’s garment were ripped, it was the woman who accosted him. It was checked, and because Joseph’s garment was ripped he was not sentenced to death. In any case, he was not released immediately in order not to embarrass Potiphar’s wife to say that she accosted Joseph. It was the priests of Egypt who judged this judgment, and therefore Joseph did not take over their lands in the years of famine. Hizkuni
Potiphar’s wife was named Zelichah. Sefer HaYashar, Vayeshev
Joseph said, “You deserve the death penalty for purchasing me, for slaves are only from Canaanites, whereas I am a descendant of Shem and a son of kings. King Pharaoh made an image of Sarah. If it does not resemble me, you are right.” They did so, and his face resembled Sarah’s image. Midrash Agaddah, Bereshit
He (Joseph’s master) said, “I know that you are not guilty, but I must imprison you lest a stigma fall on my children for the people will say she acted the same way with others, and that our children are not mine. Bereshit Rabbah 87:9
Most prisoners are handled by the judges and police and placed in common prisons. However Joseph was placed in the royal prison out of the love Joseph’s master had for him. Nachmanides
Non-scientists do not always realize the power that Einstein’s equations unleashed. Einstein changed the worldview of fixed measurements and popularized the concept of everything being relative to each other. What may be more significant though, is the powerful relationship between mass and energy (E=mc2). Serious amounts of energy are required to change matter, however mass can turn into vast amounts of energy.
Rabbi Hizkiyahu ben Manoach (Hizkuni) appears to indicate that similar laws function on the spiritual plane. Mountains can be physically moved. Up can be transformed into down and dimensions can be altered, all depending on ones spiritual power and direction.
Hizkuni notes an odd geographic incongruence in the story of Judah son of Jacob. Judah is recorded as “going up” to the town of Timnah. About six centuries later, famous strongman Samson is recorded as “going down” to the town of Timnah, ostensibly departing from the same location.
Hizkuni explains the change in direction as a result of metaphysical reasons. Both reasons were interestingly enough not known to the protagonists before their trek (and both had to do with romantic encounters). Samson was on his way “down” to his rendezvous with notorious Delilah, which would lead to the Philistine animosity, his blinding, destruction and ultimate failure. Judah, thanks to Tamar’s deception, was en route “up” to sire the future royal line of Israel.
It seems from Hizkuni’s comparison, that even future acts can have a relativistic and dimensional effect on current reality. Einstein might have approved of this possibility, as time is also just another dimension and subject to relativistic laws.
May all our acts be directed upwards, whether future, present or past (changeable as well according to Jewish metaphysical theory).
Shabbat Shalom and Chanukah Sameach,
Bentzi
Dedication
To my Vaad guys from “down under”. All from the Southern Hemisphere, they have truly ascended in their journey to Israel. May this year turn out to have been just another station in their upwards ascent.
Judah son of Jacob approaches the beautiful prostitute at the crossroads and asks for service (Genesis 38:15). Judah has no money or livestock to pay her on him, so he asks for credit. The apparent harlot is the disguised Tamar, Judah’s former daughter-in-law. Two of Judah’s sons had already died during their successive marriages to Tamar, and Judah withheld his third son from her, contrary to the tradition of the time.
The unrecognized Tamar agrees to extend credit to Judah, as long as he gives her some of his personal items as a guarantee. They then have relations and go their separate ways. Judah afterwards sends payment, but the prostitute is no where to be found.
A few months later it is discovered that Tamar is pregnant. Judah orders that she be burned to death – the punishment for her apparently illicit conception. She should have been waiting to consummate her marriage with someone from Judah’s family and should not have been cavorting with strangers. Tamar goes along willingly to her impending death, but she sends a message to Judah, along with his personal belongings, which she had kept until this point:
“To the man to whom these items belong, I am pregnant. Please recognize who these belong to.”
Rabbi Ovadia Sforno, (along with many other commentators) asks why didn’t Tamar just flat out state that it was Judah and present her evidence. Sforno quotes a famous passage from the Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Sotah 10b) that says:
“It is better that a person throw themselves into a fiery furnace than embarrass someone in public – we learn this from Tamar.”
Judah indeed recognizes his items, understands now that Tamar was the beautiful harlot at the crossroads, and understands her motivation. He claims: “She is more righteous than me.”
Tamar risked her life in order not embarrass Judah, who had been in the wrong and had mistakenly accused and sentenced her. The Bible relays this story as a message and the Talmud prescribes it as correct behavior.
Judah, an apparently important and proud man, repents for his error, and is not afraid of the public shame his admission brings. This unique union is blessed with twins, Peretz and Zerach. The Bible goes out of its way to tell us elsewhere (Ruth 4:18-22) that Peretz is the progenitor of King David. Tamar and Judah, because of their actions and character, are part of the formative ingredients in was is to become the royal dynasty of the Tribes of Israel.
May we learn from Tamar’s courage and Judah’s fortitude. May we know how to act if we ever have the potential of shaming someone. Likewise, may we have the strength to overcome any shame that may come our way. May we be blessed with progeny that become leaders in Israel.
Shabbat Shalom,
Bentzi
Dedication
To my brother Boaz, an amazing example of courage and fortitude. This is his bar-mitzvah reading, which is why I still remember parts of it. Happy Birthday! May we see you again soon in Israel for happier occasions.
