Vayeshev
Genesis 37:1 - 40:23
Précis: The story of Joseph begins with the words, “And Jacob dwelt (vayeshev) in the land of his father’s travels.” We learn that Joseph is Jacob’s favorite son. Joseph receives the famous coat of many colors, and dreams strange dreams and relates them to his brothers and father, creating additional concern (jealousy) on their part. The sons conspire to do away with Joseph, but before he dies, they sell him into slavery. Jacob is devastated when the sons present evidence of Joseph’s “death.”
We then have an intervening story about Judah. He marries off his first son to Tamar. The son soon dies, and, the next son (Onan) is married to the widow (“levirate marriage”) and also promptly dies. Judah is loath to offer the third son. The widow dresses as a harlot, seduces Judah, becomes pregnant, and reveals herself to Judah as a woman wronged. He acknowledges her as a rightful daughter.
The scene shifts back to Joseph, who is now a servant in the household of Potiphar, an Egyptian official. Potiphar’s wife attempts to seduce Joseph but he refuses her advances. She accuses him of attempted rape and Joseph is tossed into prison. There, he meets jailed servants of Pharaoh, for whom he interprets dreams successfully. When the chief butler is restored to his post, he promises to “remember” Joseph, but the parasha ends with the words, “but he forgot him.”
38:6-26 “Judah got a wife for Er his first-born; her name was Tamar. But…God took his life. Then Judah said to Onan, ‘Join with your brother's wife…’ and God took his life also…. A long time afterward… Tamar…took off her widow’s garb… When Judah saw her, he took her for a harlot…So he…said, ‘Here, let me sleep with you…’ But she said, ‘You must leave a pledge until you have (paid).’ 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…{She] sent this message to her father-in-law, ‘I am with child by the man to whom these belong.’ And she added, ‘Examine these: whose seal and cord and staff are these?’ Judah recognized them, and said, ‘She is more in the right than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my [third] son Shelah.’"
Rabbi Chaim Landau (MyJewishLearning.com, 12/12/11) asks why it was that the kings of Israel are descended from Judah, and not through Joseph’s offspring Menachem and Ephraim, or even through Reuvain, Jacob’s first born son.
In these verses, Tamar assumes the dress of a prostitute and seduces her father-in-law Judah after the death of her two husbands. Judah succumbs to temptation. Joseph, you may recall, when propositioned by Potiphar’s wife, refused her advances. Judah gives in to temptation while Joseph resisted. Earlier in the narrative, Judah suggests selling Joseph from the pit into which he had been cast to passing slavers. He is the leader of the brothers, but does not try to save Joseph and return him to their father. These hardly seem to be the actions of a proper leader, let alone the father of future kings.
Given these faults, why did Judah’s descendants merit the kingship of Israel? The rabbinic literature suggests that a great leader is not one who is perfect, but rather is one who fails, repents, and then recovers. Midrash teaches that Judah’s admission of his relations with Tamar was received with blessings in Heaven, with the angels intoning "Blessed are you, Lord, who is gracious and forgives repeatedly" (a phrase which has been incorporated into the daily Amidah). One who truly repents has the courage to admit failings, and to emerge the stronger for it.
We live in an age where leaders (congregational and political) rarely own up to their faults. From “I am not a crook” to ”no crime was committed” we have observed time and again a refusal by leaders to admit errors. Great leaders demonstrate the courage that is needed to acknowledge when they have erred. This is the rabbinic explanation for Judah’s claim to royalty. This is the kind of courage for which we all need to strive.
