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| Parshat Vayeshev | |
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| Parshat Vayeshev | |
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Parshat Vayeshev Let us learn a posuk with Rashi. The dramatic moment when Tamar announces that she has slept with the owner of the signet and the staff which she displays (38:25), causes a significant reaction in Yehuda, the man who owned the various items. (38:26), "She is right (has justice on her side), more than I (mimeni)." The Hebrew word mimeni is not perfectly clear and Rashi explains it in a special way. "She is right in what she says; it is from me that she became pregnant!" The verse continues: "?because I did not give her to my son Shela, and he was not intimate with her anymore." Rashi expands the content of the confession and Yehuda says: "She acted correctly, since I did not give her to my son Shela". Not only was he (Yehuda) guilty for sleeping with a prostitute, and in this case a woman who was forbidden to him, but he also admits that he was the cause of her difficulties and the reason that she acted as she did. However assuming that Yehuda did not recognize the woman he slept with, and that he did not know that his own daughter in law was involved, he is basing his confession entirely on the fact that she shows up with the staff and other personal items that belonged to Yehuda. One might imagine that this is little enough evidence upon which to confess to this particular sin. He may have slept with a strange woman and he may have given her some personal items but they (the items) may have long left the possession of the first woman and find themselves now in the possession of Tamar. Yehuda is guilty of something, but how does he know that he is guilty of making this woman pregnant? Rashi recognizing this problem quotes the statement of Chazal in Makkot 23b, and points out: "Our Rabbis expounded further; a divine voice announced: "mimeni, from myself - I was the cause of the matter." Yehuda knew that he was responsible, not because Tamar brought certain personal items, but because in heaven the announcement was made and even heard on earth (divine voice). This is not the end of the story. Rashi continues. "Since she was modest when she lived in her fathe- in-law's house, I decreed that kings should be born to her. This progeny would be from the tribe of Yehuda the family of kings in Yisrael. In fact it was her modesty that enabled the sequence of events to take place. We learned previously (verse 15) that because she "covered her face" Yehuda didn't recognize her. Rashi says again that this was because "in her father-in-law's house she had been modest, and Yehuda did not recognize her". Tamar was innocent, as she was modest. She was trying to make the prophecy (directive?) of Yehuda that she would be the mother of kings, come true. It was important that Yehuda admit his role in order that the children would be worthy of their destiny (kingship). In order to insure that all would know the lineage of the children born to Tamar, a divine voice was employed to ensure that Yehuda would admit his role and establish the position of the children. A further note. When the brothers came to their father Yaakov and presented him with the bloodstained cloak that he had given to his favorite son, Yosef, he remarked: (37:33) "My son's tunic, an evil beast devoured him. Yosef has surely been torn to bits". Once again we are confronted with a similar question. Why was Yaakov so certain that his son was actually killed. The fact that the tunic was covered with blood is certainly not sufficient evidence. That might have happened in a number of ways and was not positive proof. Rashi makes an important comment. "the holy spirit flickered within him". Rashi is concerned about the fact that Yaakov is saying something that is not true, that he was devoured by a beast, and moreover this untruth was recorded in the Torah, which is emet truth. So Rashi explains that the statement was true but in another context. "Yaakov prophetically alluded to the fact that Potifar's wife would provoke him," and that is the evil beast that Yaakov is referring to (prophetically). Rashi goes on to ask why didn't Hashem reveal to Yaakov that his son was still alive? Rashi's answer was as follows: "Because the brothers cursed anyone who would reveal this fact to Yaakov and made Hashem a partner to the curse". This exegesis which appears first in the medrash might be explained as follows. Yaakov had lost track of the sequence of events. He knew that the family would be exiled and spend hundreds of years in Egypt. He also knew that Yosef would be instrumental in insuring the safe passage of the family to their temporary quarters in Goshen. However, at the moment he did not know what had happened and continued to be in the dark (so to speak) for many years. Therefore it was easy for him to accept the notion that something terrible had happened and that he was responsible because he had sent Yosef to his brothers. When Yaakov added to the report from his sons and said "an evil beast devoured him" he meant a force that could counter the divine plan. Truly, "an evil beast". Gut Shabbos-Chaim Brovender
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