Rashi comments: “ va yered yehudah” Yehudah went down – his
descent was figurtative in the sense that his brothers deposed him from his
position of leadership. This narrative interrupts the story of Yosef to teach
how Yehudah’s brothers lowered him in esteem because of the incident with
Yosef, for when they saw their father’s intense grief, they blamed Yehudah for
it. “You told us to sell him,” they charged. “Had you advised us to send us to
send him back to Father, we would have listened!” As a result of their
disenchantment with him, Yehudah moved away from the family and settled in Adullam,
where he became the business partner of Chirah.”
Adullam means “justice
for the people,” the sages tell us that because of Yehudah’s culpability for
Yakov’s suffering, he was repaid by losing his two oldest sons, so he would
experience the same grief as his father – Sforno.
It is rather ironic
that the same words “identify if you please” used by Yehudah to ask his father
to identify Yosef’s garment(37:32) are the same words Tamar uses when revealing
Yehudah’s infidelity with her – see vs 38:25 – “haker na” –
As the old adage goes
“what goes around comes around” or as the second writings succinctly states -
Gal 6:7 Do not be led astray: Elohim is
not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he shall also reap.
“Chirah” refers to a
noble family – Strongs 2437. However the Hebrew root of this word – charar - is
to “shame or to wax pale” Strongs 2357
This sounds like
Yehudah was so down because of what happened that he simply decided to
assimilate.
Assimilations is the
struggle of Yehudah and all those grafted into the same family tree today. We
are so pressured by the world and by the spirt of this world to conform to the
pattern of this world.
Instead of taking a
stand we succumb to the pressure. This is the curse of the “galut”
See commentary Stones
Chumash page 208 vs 2&6-10.
Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you prove what is that good
and well-pleasing and perfect desire of Elohim.
Gen 38:2 And
Yehuḏah saw there a
daughter of a certain Kenaʽanite whose name was
Shuwa. And he took her and went in to her.
Kenanite – is never referred
to as a merchant in the Torah. The Torah describes Kenanites as the descendants
of Cham, only later did the word Canaanite, acquire the additional meaning of trade or
merchant (Zephaniah 1:11, Ezekiel 16:29)
This
proves that the rabbi’s are wrong when they say that Jewishness comes from the
mother and not the father. Praise YHVH
in the case of Yehudah it is correct to assume that Jewishness is determined by
the father and not the mother. If the rabbi’s are right, the Jewish nation are
descendants of Cham and the Kenanites. This is impossible because Messiah came
from the tribe of Yehudah.
Shuah – can
also mean a cry of help because of desperation.
The Hebrew word “galut” applies to those who live
outside the land. The Hebrew word “gala” which means to go into exile can also
mean to be naked or uncovered – and thus to be ashamed and vulnerable.
Gen 38:3 So
she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Ěr. (Heb – awake)
Gen 38:4 And
she conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan. (Heb –
strong)
Gen 38:5 And
she conceived yet again and bore a son, and called his name Shĕlah.(Heb –
petition) And he was at Keziḇ (Heb – false)
when she bore him.
Gen 38:6 And
Yehuḏah took a wife for Ěr
his first-born, and her name was Tamar. (Heb – palm tree)
Gen 38:7 But
Ěr, Yehuḏah’s first-born, was
evil in the eyes of יהוה, and יהוה took his life.
Gen 8:8 And Yehuḏah
said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s
wife and
marry her, and raise up an heir to your brother.”
Gen 38:9 And Onan
knew that the offspring would not be his. And it came to be, when he went in to
his brother’s wife, that he spilled on the ground, lest he should give an
offspring to his brother.
Gen 38:10 But what
he did displeased יהוה, so He took
his life too. (He did not perform the duty of the Levirate marriage. Deutr 25:5)
Gen 38:11 Then
Yehuḏah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law,
“Remain a
widow in your father’s house until my son Shĕlah is grown.” For he said, “Lest he also
die as his brothers did.” And Tamar went and dwelt in her father’s house.
Gen 38:12 And
after a long time the daughter of Shuwa, Yehuḏah’s
wife, died. And Yehuḏah was comforted, and went up to his sheep-shearers at
Timnah, he and his friend Ḥirah the Aḏullamite.
Gen 38:13 And it
was reported to Tamar, saying, “See, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah
to shear his sheep.”
Gen 38:14 And she
took off her widow’s garments, and covered herself with a veil and wrapped
herself, and sat at the entrance to Ěnayim which was on the way to Timnah. For
she saw that Shĕlah was grown, and she was not given to him as a wife. (He too did not perform the duty of the
Leverage marriage.)
Gen 38:15 And
Yehuḏah saw her, and reckoned her for a whore, for she had
covered her face.
Gen 38:16 And he
turned aside to her by the way, and said, “Please let me come in to you,” for
he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, “What do you
give me to come in to me?”
Gen 38:17 And he
said, “Let me send you a young goat from the flock.” And she said, “Do you give
me a pledge until you send it?”
Gen 38:18 So he
said, “What pledge should I give you?” And she said, “Your seal and your cord
and your staff that is in your hand.” And he gave them to her, and went in to
her, and she conceived by him.
Gen 38:19 And she
arose and went away, and removed her veil and put on the garments of her widowhood.
Gen 38:20 And
Yehuḏah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend the Aḏullamite,
to receive his pledge from the woman’s hand, but he did not find her.
Gen 38:21 And he
asked the men of that place, saying, “Where is the cult prostitute who was
beside the way to Ěnayim?” And they said, “There was no cult prostitute in this
place.”
Gen 38:22 And he
returned to Yehuḏah and said, “I have not found her. And the men of the
place also said there was no cult prostitute in this place.”
Gen 38:23 And
Yehuḏah said, “Let her take them for herself, lest we become
despised, for I sent this young goat and you have not found her.”
Gen 38:24 And it
came to be, about three months after, that Yehuḏah was
informed, saying, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has whored, and see, she has
conceived by whoring.” And Yehuḏah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned!”
Gen 38:25 When she
was brought out, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, “By the man to whom
these belong, I am pregnant.” And she said, “Please examine whose these are:
the seal and the cord and the staff.”
Gen 38:26 And
Yehuḏah examined and said, “She has been more righteous than
I, because I did not give her to Shĕlah my son.” And he never knew her again.