Tamar and Judah

(11) Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Stay as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up”—for he thought, “He too might die like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

(12) A long time afterward, Shua’s daughter, the wife of Judah, died. When his period of mourning was over, Judah went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, together with his friend Hirah the Adullamite. (13) And Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is coming up to Timnah for the sheepshearing.” (14) So she took off her widow’s garb, covered her face with a veil, and, wrapping herself up, sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him as wife. (15) When Judah saw her, he took her for a harlot; for she had covered her face. (16) So he turned aside to her by the road and said, “Here, let me sleep with you”—for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. “What,” she asked, “will you pay for sleeping with me?” (17) He replied, “I will send a kid from my flock.” But she said, “You must leave a pledge until you have sent it.” (18) And he said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your seal and cord, and the staff which you carry.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she conceived by him.

(19) Then she went on her way. She took off her veil and again put on her widow’s garb. (20) Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adullamite, to redeem the pledge from the woman; but he could not find her. (21) He inquired of the council of that locale, “Where is the prostitute, the one at Enaim, by the road?” But they said, “There has been no prostitute here.” (22) So he returned to Judah and said, “I could not find her; moreover, the local council said: There has been no prostitute here.” (23) Judah said, “Let her keep them, lest we become a laughingstock. I did send her this kid, but you did not find her.”

(24) About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot; in fact, she is pregnant from harlotry.” “Bring her out,” said Judah. “She should be burned!” (25) As she was being brought out, she sent this message to her father-in-law, “It’s by the man to whom these belong that I’m pregnant.” And she added, “Examine these: whose seal and cord and staff are these?” (26) Judah recognized them, and said, “She is more in the right than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he was not intimate with her again.

(27) When the time came for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb! (28) While she was in labor, one of them put out a hand, and the midwife tied a crimson thread on that hand, to signify: This one came out first. (29) But just then it drew back its hand, and out came its brother; and she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” So he was named Perez. (30) Afterward his brother came out, on whose hand was the crimson thread; he was named Zerah.

The Secret of the Threads

Rachel Adelman

(6) Ten things were created on the eve of the Sabbath at twilight, and these are they: [1] the mouth of the earth, [2] the mouth of the well, [3] the mouth of the donkey, [4] the rainbow, [5] the manna, [6] the staff [of Moses], [7] the shamir, [8] the letters, [9] the writing, [10] and the tablets. And some say: also the demons, the grave of Moses, and the ram of Abraham, our father. And some say: and also tongs, made with tongs.

(12) Also, if one attacks, two can stand up to him. A threefold cord is not readily broken!

Ten things were created on the eve of the first Shabbat, in the twilight hour (Pirkei Avot 5:6)… and some say that among these were [Judah’s] seal, string and staff. About these three is it said that ‘Threefold is not readily broken.’ (Ecc 4:12)

The staff: would show the way, and be a tool of divination / a sorcerer’s snake.

The seal: would intimate when to stop, to seal things up, and when to get up and go.

The string: was the voice of conscience - as it is written: ‘Put upon the corner tzitzit a string of t’chelet blue… that you should not wander off after your hearts [desires

] and after your eyes, which you are wont to whore yourselves after.’ (Numbers 15:38-9)

This seal, string and staff had accompanied Judah, son of Jacob and Leah, from the time he had married and become a father, all the way through to his being bereaved of two sons and his wife.

After these things, ‘Judah was comforted, and went up to shear his flock’ (Gen 38:12) - along with his triumvirate of things, which shall not be easily broken.

Said the seal, the string and the staff: Come, let us get wise with him!

The staff brought Judah to the Timna road, and there, at Petach-Enayim sat a prostitute, wrapped in her veil.

She said to him: ‘Judah, Judah!’

The seal advised him: Stop.

Judah said: Here I am! ‘May I come in unto you?’ (Gen 38:16)

She said to him: ‘What will you give me if you come in unto me?’

He replied: ‘A goat kid from the flock.’

‘And what pledge shall I give you [meanwhile]?’

She replied: ‘Your seal and your string and the staff which is in your hand.’ (Ibid, Gen 38:16-18).

Judah entwined himself with Tamar until his string split into two: a thread of t’chelet blue, and a thread of scarlet — the voice of conscience and the voice of the heart’s perseverations interwoven one with the other. The thread of blue for the pure thoughts; and the thread of scarlet for the desires of the eyes.

When they brought out Tamar to be burnt, she sent ‘By the man to whom these belong am I pregnant... Do you recognise to whom this seal and these strings and this staff belong?’ (Gen 38:25). Note that here it is not written ‘string’ but rather ‘strings.’

Judah recognised this trifold set of things of his, and got up to get cut loose. He hastened to rescue Tamar and the two unborn children in her womb from the fiery furnace.

The seal he bequeathed to the dynasty of the royal Davidic line.

The staff he bequeathed to Moses and to Aaron.

And the two strings, the string of t’chelet blue and the string of scarlet, Tamar kept for herself.

‘And it came to pass, when she gave birth, that he put forth his hand and the midwife took it and tied a red thread around it’ (Gen 38:28) - like the red of the rising sun - ‘and she called his name Rising Sun / Zerach.’

For red is like blood, and its tikun / fixing is the hope that we have for the scarlet thread: ‘Even though your sins are red as scarlet, they shall be whitened as the snow.’ (Isaiah 1:18)

‘He retracted his hand and then out came his brother and she said, “Wow, what a Breach / Peretz you have breached!”’ (Gen 38:29)

If you rearrange the letters of ‘Peretz’ (breach) you get the word ‘retzef’ (continuity). For Tamar saw with the prophetic powers of the Holy Spirit that from him would come the Messiah, son of David.

Tamar tied the t’chelet thread upon his hand - that t’chelet which one distinguishes from white to see it is time for morning prayers [see Mishna Brachot 1:2]; that t’chelet which resembles the sea, which resembles the firmament, which resembles the Throne of Glory [see Bavli Menachot 43b].

From when does one recite Shema in the morning? From when a person can distinguish between sky-blue [tekhelet] and white. Rabbi Eliezer says: From when one can distinguish between sky-blue and leek-green.

It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Meir would say: What is different about tekhelet from all other types of colors such that it was chosen for the mitzva of ritual fringes?

It is because tekhelet is similar in its color to the sea, and the sea is similar to the sky, and the sky is similar to the Throne of Glory, as it is stated: “And they saw the God of Israel; and there was under His feet the like of a paved work of sapphire stone, and the like of the very heaven for clearness” (Exodus 24:10), indicating that the sky is like a sapphire brickwork. And it is written: “The likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone” (Ezekiel 1:26).

In the Book of Ruth we read:

‘These are the generations of Peretz. Peretz sired Hetzron. And Hetzron sired Ram, and Ram sired Aminadav. Aminadav sired Nachshon and Nachshon sired Salma. Salman sired Boaz, etc.’ (Ruth 4:18-21)

That thread of t’chelet was passed down until it came into the hands of Boaz who lived in Bethlehem in the land of Judah.