וירד יהודה מאת אחיו, “Yehudah separated from his brothers;” he could not bear watching the anguish of his father. Rashi here writes that the word וירד, which means: “he descended,” means that he had been deposed from his position of being the brothers’ spokesman and leader by the other brothers. He derives this from the expression: מאת, understanding the meaning of that word as being: על ידי, “through the action of;”You could well ask that seeing that it took only 22 years until the brothers under the leadership of Yehudah went down to Egypt in order to buy grain, how was it possible that during these few years not only did Bat Shua, Yehudah’s wife bear him three sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah, but that two of them had already become married? And a few years after the death of Onan, Yehudah sired twins from his daughterinlaw Tamar, all before the descent of the brothers to Egypt for the first time? The answer to such questions is that in those times girls and boys were able to both sire and conceive and give birth already at the age of seven. According to a historical text accepted by our sages as accurate and reliable, called seder olam, Er, Yehudah’s oldest was born approximately a year after the sale of Joseph. Bat Shua bore Yehudah two more sons in short order, before she died (verse 12). When Er was seven years old he married Tamar. When he died and married Onan, and Onan died, Shelah was still too young to marry. Tamar remained a widow in the house of Yehudah for a year before returning to her mother’s home. When two or three more years had passed and she was not allowed to marry Shelah, she took matters into her own hands and contrived to become pregnant from a member of Yaakov’s family, her dearest desire, i.e. she became pregnant by her fatherinlaw, Yehudah. All of this had only taken about 19 years after Yehudah had been deposed and moved away from his brothers. In the meantime, Peretz, one of the twins Tamar had born to Yehudah had married at the age of seven and had himself become a father of Chetzron and Chamul, (Genesis 46,12) all before Yaakov and his family moved down to Egypt after the brothers’ second trip there. By the time Chetzron and Chamul came to Egypt, only twenty two years had elapsed since the sale of Joseph.[While this is interesting, this Editor cannot reconcile it with G-d having punished both Er and Onan at the tender age of 7 or eight years, for having deliberately failed to produce children (38,7 and 10) Where is the source for the culpability of such young children anywhere? Ed.]

בת שוע, איש כנעני, “Bat Shua, daughter of a merchant. She was not a Canaanite, as the sons of Yaakov would not marry women of this nation.

והיה יהודה בכזיב בלדתו אותו, “and Yehudah had been in Keziv (Achziv, according to Atlas Carta) when she gave birth to him.” (about 20 km north of Akko). This was the reason she named this son Sheylah; had Yehudah, the father been present at his birth, he would have named him. Rashi, commenting on this verse states that he has seen a comment in Bereshit Rabbah, according to which the name Sheylah means that Bat Shua announced that her pregnancy had come to an end. The word could be a reference to her being disappointed about her husband’s absence while she gave birth. Compare what the woman from Shunem had said (אל תשלה אותי) to Elisha when promised she would have a son, i.e. and the son had died (Kings II 4,28).

וימיתהו, “He killed him.” The sin was that he did not sleep with his wife in such a way that she could become pregnant with his semen. Tamar had remained a virgin even after having been married to Onan, so that Yehudah was not guilty of sleeping with a close relative whose previous marriage had been consummated, so that she would have been forbidden to him on that score. Our author, at this point raises the same question this Editor had raised at the end of 38,1, i.e. that they should not have been culpable until the age of 20.

ויבם אותה, “he performed a levirate marriage ceremony on her.” This is one of the expressions which can be used positively as well as negatively, i.e. constructively and destructively. Other expressions that are similar are;,פארות, תפאר or מסעף פארה, בסעיפות קננו, in this instance it means he lifted marriage restrictions from her so that she could remarry. The same applies to the expression: ויבמה, “he preformed the levirate ritual of marriage for her.”

וידע אונן, “Onan realised;” [the author’s problem with this expression is that the term ידע, normally refers to something in the past which was known as a fact. Ed.] The author quotes הידוע נדע, “how were we to know,” in Genesis 43,7 as proof that the term can also be used here.

כי לא לו יהיה הזרע, “for the child would not be named after him;” according to the plain meaning of the text, זרע is used with the production of a crop in the field, not a human being.'והיה אם בא וגו, “and whenever he would engage in marital relations, etc;” he reasoned that if he were to impregnate his wife (the widow of his brother) the result would be that he would at the same time destroy his own ancestral share of the land. For who would then do the plowing and all the other work needed to be performed in the field?

לבלתי נתן זרע לאחיו, “not to provide semen for his brother;” we find similar considerations in the Book of Ruth 4,6 when a potential redeemer declined to perform a levirate marriage with Ruth;” [as the latter had not been a Jewess, and a Moabite even, his consideration was not sinful. Ed.] Besides, there was another redeemer willing and anxious to perform such a ritual for her.

; כי אמר פן ימות , “for he had said (to himself) ‘”lest he die too;”On this line Rashi comments that Yehudah felt that Tamar was one of those women who has a tendency to bring about the death of her husbands. We have a statement to this effect in the Talmud Yevamot 64 as well as in Ketuvot 43, that if two husbands of a woman have died, one risks one’s life if one marries her. Even according to the opinion that such conclusions cannot be drawn unless the same woman had lost three husbands, Yehudah was afraid for the life of his son. The Talmud forbids a potential suitor to marry a woman with such a record.

עד יגדל שילה, “until Sheylah would have come of age.” Yehudah felt that once Sheylah would mature, he would be wise enough not to repeat the sins of his older brothers who had died. An alternate exegesis of this paragraph: Yehudah wanted to wait until Sheylah would grow up, in her father’s house by which time, hopefully, Sheylah would have married someone else and would have produced children from such a marriage. Once that had occurred, Yehudah was willing to let Tamar marry him as he would have no reason that his semen would given to Tamar in order to keep alive the name of his deceased brothers, would at the same time destroy his own future.

על גוזזי צאנו, “with the shearers of his flocks.” The word על here is used as meaning the same as עם, “with.”

עולה תמנתה, “ascending toward Timnat;” when Yehudah travelled this route it was spiritually uplifting for him (in retrospect) seeing that two righteous people would be born from that union. When Shimshon in Judges 14,1, travelled the same route, this is described as a “descent,” as it eventually led to his being blinded and dying, [and we have no record of his having sired any children at all. Ed.]

לגוז צאנו, “to shear his sheep.” Tamar deliberately chose a time for this encounter when her fatherinlaw, Yehudah, would be in good spirits. At such a time one is more prone to fall victim to temptation, especially as at the conclusion of such a shearing there would be a festive meal and much wine would be consumed. If you were to ask how G-d could have agreed that all of the kings of the Davidic dynasty were the result of the illegitimate pairing of Yehudah with his daughterinlaw through Peretz? The answer is that it was better that David would be descended from the daughter of Shem who had been a priest of Hashem as we know from Genesis chapter 14, than that he should be descended through a Canaanite woman, a cursed nation. [The author appears to contradict what he wrote about Bat Shua, Yehudah’s wife not having been of Canaanite descent. Compare page 281. Ed.] Furthermore, it is erroneous to describe the union between Tamar and Yehudah as sinful incest, seeing that before the giving of the Torah, when the seven laws only plus circumcision were binding for the descendants of Avraham, one could perform levirate marriages with any relative, including with the father of the deceased brother. (Compare B’chor shor) Seeing that Yehudah had not allowed Sheylah to perform the rites of the levirate marriage on Tamar, she was available to him for that purpose. Once the Torah was given, the rules about the levirate marriages were revamped to apply only to surviving brothers of the deceased. However, even after the Torah was given, the practice of the levirate marriage to other members of the family did not stop. [This editor is not sure whether the author means that after the Torah was given it remained permissible but was not obligatory for other members of the family, or whether what had once been allowed could not be abolished in practice, just as the use of private altars, though forbidden once the Israelites settled in the land of Israel, continued in spite of this, and it took until 100 years before the destruction of the Temple to eradicate that practice. Ed.] What Boaz did with Ruth is an example of this practice hundreds of years after the Torah had been given.

ותכס בסעיף, “she wrapped her veil so as to cover her face.” This was not something that widows used to do.

ויחשבה לזונה כי כסתה פניה, “he assumed that she was a harlot because she had covered her face.” She had only done this when he was approaching, in order that he could not recognise her. The letter ח in the word ויחשבה, is vocalised with a semivowel sh’va.

אם תתן ערבון, “if you will leave an item as guarantee.” This is an abbreviated verse, which should have concluded with the words: “then I will accept your proposition.”

חותמך פתילך, “your signet ring and your cord;” these were both items that he could not be without for any length of time. He needed the signet ring for confirming any transactions, and the cord to tie up the sheep. (The third item, his staff, was less important as he was in his prime.)

זנתה תמר כלתך, “Tamar, your daughterinlaw, has committed an act of infidelity.” She observed the norms of a woman awaiting the levirate marriage, and therefore was out of bounds to any other male pending the resolution of her problematic marital status. She would be released only if her prospective “redeemer” refused to honour this obligation.

וגם הנה הרה, “and she is also visibly pregnant.” She can no longer hide her condition.

ויאמר יהודה, “Yehudah, acting as judge ruled;” was there no one more qualified to sit in judgment of Tamar than her fatherinlaw? Both Yitzchok and Yaakov were still alive! The fact is that they all sat in judgment of her. The reason why Yehudah was the first one to announce his opinion was because according to the rules of Jewish law when sins or crimes involving capital punishment are discussed the most junior of the judges is asked for his vote first.

הוציאה ותשרף, “take her outside so that she will be burned to death!” Rashi comments that Tamar was the daughter (offspring) of Shem who had been a priest, and the Torah prescribes the death penalty by burning for women of priestly descent if they are found as having committed incest before marriage while betrothed. (Leviticus 21,9). In this particular instance, Tamar had not legally been betrothed to anyone, so that even after the Torah had been given she would not have been guilty of a capital offence. However, in those days people imposed severe penalties for infidelity in order to act as deterrent to eventual sinners. Besides, as pointed out, Tamar’s ancestor had been deprived of the title “priest” after when Avraham had defeated the four mighty kings of his era he blessed both Avraham and G-d but committed a fatal error by naming Avraham ahead of naming G-d. (Compare Genesis 14,1920) Nonetheless, (assuming Tamar was Shem’s his real daughter she would have been quite old. [Shem died in the year 2156 or 2157 B. C. E. having been born in the year 15567 B. C. E., and Yehudah, Tamar’s fatherinlaw was born in 2186 or 2185 B. C. E. At the time Shem was deprived of his status as a priest Avraham was between 75 and 87 years old, seeing that he had been born in the years 1948 B. C. E. If Tamar had been alive, then it does not require a mathematician to figure out how old a lady Tamar must have been when Yehudah selected her as his daughterinlaw for his son Er. Ed.] Some commentators (Talmud Avodah Zarah, folio 36) claim that even if Tamar had not been a daughter of Shem she would have deserved the death penalty if she had committed adultery with someone other than a partner in a levirate marriage ceremony. This is based on the assumption that she slept with a Canaanite. Even though Shem was dead, the court established by him continued to function after his demise. The court continued to be named after its founder. If you were to say that if Tamar was guilty of the death penalty then so was her partner Yehudah, we would have to answer that in that era an adult surviving would perform the levirate marriage rites, but if only brothers who were minors were available, the father would perform that duty.

והיא שלחה, “and she had sent;” the word is spelled with the letter י, [although usually we find it spelled with the letter ו, just like its masculine counterpart הוא, “he.” Ed.]

צדקה ממני, “she is more righteous than I;” why did Yehudah add the word: ממני? She did what she did because she wanted to become pregnant from him since she was afraid that Shilo also would spill his seed like his brothers had done and he would die. [The meaning is as follows: whereas both she and I indulged our libido, I did it for a merely physical gratification, whereas she was intent on becoming the mother of a member of the family of Avraham, Yitzchok and a Yaakov. I considered her as a potentially bad omen, two of her husbands having died on her, whereas her entire purpose was to bring life into the world. Ed.]

כי על כן, “because of this;” if I had not withheld her rightful husband, my son Sheylah from her because I had been afraid that he too would deliberately fail to impregnate her, she would not have felt forced to take such a drastic step in order to become part of my family. A different interpretation: “her righteousness is rooted in me so that I should free her of the death penalty, because if I were to convict her I would be punishing myself; [by killing the son she is about to bear for me. Ed.]

ולא יסף עוד לדעתה, “and he did not stop having marital relations with her,” seeing that originally I had intended to perform the levirate marriage ritual with her,” as explained on verse 25. Some commentators claim that in that era the only valid marriage ceremony was for the parties concerned sleeping together. Such “sleeping” together was legal as a form of marriage only if the manner in which it was performed was the generally accepted method, i.e. the male ejaculating his semen into the female vagina while in the ‘missionary’ position. Seeing that this was so, Tamar had never been married, as both Yehudah’s sons had not consummated the marriage. She was therefore legally married to Yehudah, who had never been her fatherinlaw. Another interpretation of the words: ולא יסף; “he never again had marital relations with Tamar again, as he was afraid she would cause death to any husband. [When he had done it the first time, Yehudah had thought he was sleeping with a harlot. Ed.] Still another explanation of the meaning of these words: he did not sleep with her again as he was ashamed to do so seeing that he was her fatherinlaw. This is based on the grammatical nuance that if it were to mean that he never stopped to sleep with her, [i.e. treated her as his wife, Ed.] the word לדעתה, with the prefix ל, would not make sense.

והנה תאומים בבטנה, “and here there were twins in her womb.” The midwife noticed this already before Tamar had commenced to give birth. This is why she had a means of identification ready to make sure the firstborn would be identified as such.

והנה יצא אחיו, “and here suddenly his brother emerged.” Seeing that future kings would claim Tamar as their original matriarch, it was important to know which was the older. (Compare Bereshit Rabbah 85,13)

פרץ, this name was given to the twin whose head came out first.

ויקרא שמו זרח, “he named him Zerach”. He was reddish skinned, and the word זרח appears in that sense in Kings II 3,22.