In this week’s Parasha “VAYEISHEV” (He Settled), there is a very strange portion stuck in the middle of the story of how Joseph was sold by his brothers to be taken a slave down to Egypt. It is told in the middle of the Parasha the story of Yehudah and Tamar.
Tamar was a beautiful woman who had married Yehudah’s oldest son, but since he didn’t want her to have children and he wasted his seed his life was cut short, then she married his second son by Yibbum (levirate marriage) so she could have a child and name him after her first husband so his life could be perpetuated. This second son of Yehudah repeated the mistake of the first and he also died. Tamar was sent home by her father in law to wait for the third son but the years passed and this never happened. She knew by prophesy that the Messiah would come through her union with Yehuda’s lineage.
So she decided to disguise herself as a prostitute and entice Yehudah to go with her. He gives some of his belongings as payment. She gets pregnant and is charged for adultery given the death penalty. When she shows the ring and the signet belonging to Yehudah ( who was a Judge and very prominent man) he acknowledges his faults and she is allowed to live. Tamar gives birth to twin boys, one of them (Peretz) becoming the great grandfather of King David.
Crazy story, almost rated X!!!!! Why is this on our holy Torah?
This is here to show us that while the problem of exile started for the Jewish people at the same time G-d was creating the cure for redemption through the birth of Peretz.
Chassidut teaches that in order for very lofty souls to be able to come to the world they have to be disguised in unholy scenarios so the forces of evil will be confused through a seemingly sinful act.
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