Dear Friends,
It takes courage to stand up to a thoughtless, lecherous father-in-law, and get what you truly deserve! Especially when one is a marginalized woman, a widow, to boot, in the book of Genesis. Or, anywhere else, for that matter.
Such is the story of Tamar. She was the daughter-in-law of Judah, one of Jacob’s twelve sons, and she suffered the untimely death of her husband, Er. When the family did not rally around her, she discarded her widow’s garb, dressed like a prostitute, and seduced Judah, to conceive and be sure she would bear a child (a son) and continue the familial line. Eventually, though she is excoriated and threatened by Judah, she maneuvers to reveal Judah’s duplicity, and prevail so that she is both exonerated and supported. And, she would bear twins, one of whom would be the forebear to King David.
Ultimately, through Tamar’s will and courage, not only would our people eventually have its greatest King, but vitally, Tamar took into her own hands the responsibility to be personally independent and financially stable.
Tamar transformed vulnerability into vindication. We should read her story not as a woman using her body with guile in order to turn the tables on a misogynistic father-in-law, but as a woman who understood that she had to look out for herself, and not abdicate the right to her own fiscal security and personal dignity. Ironically, through a questionably moral behavior, Tamar demonstrated a necessary, and rare moment of moral courage.
We should study moments of such courage. Our nation and our world need to embrace and elevate this kind of will. We are living in a time of moral abdication – with vituperative language abounding, hostility on social media, public figures stooping to racist and nativist tropes, and too few Tamar’s standing straight to reveal such public failings. It should not fall to the Anti-Defamation League to call out and chastise the phobic, bully voices which are dominating the airwaves. It should be each of us, with some inspiration from Tamar, who demonstrates the courage to speak and demonstrates truth and probity in a world of twisted mistruths.
Thank you. Tamar! May we live with a measure of your willfulness and courage!
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Douglas Kohn.
It takes courage to stand up to a thoughtless, lecherous father-in-law, and get what you truly deserve! Especially when one is a marginalized woman, a widow, to boot, in the book of Genesis. Or, anywhere else, for that matter.
Such is the story of Tamar. She was the daughter-in-law of Judah, one of Jacob’s twelve sons, and she suffered the untimely death of her husband, Er. When the family did not rally around her, she discarded her widow’s garb, dressed like a prostitute, and seduced Judah, to conceive and be sure she would bear a child (a son) and continue the familial line. Eventually, though she is excoriated and threatened by Judah, she maneuvers to reveal Judah’s duplicity, and prevail so that she is both exonerated and supported. And, she would bear twins, one of whom would be the forebear to King David.
Ultimately, through Tamar’s will and courage, not only would our people eventually have its greatest King, but vitally, Tamar took into her own hands the responsibility to be personally independent and financially stable.
Tamar transformed vulnerability into vindication. We should read her story not as a woman using her body with guile in order to turn the tables on a misogynistic father-in-law, but as a woman who understood that she had to look out for herself, and not abdicate the right to her own fiscal security and personal dignity. Ironically, through a questionably moral behavior, Tamar demonstrated a necessary, and rare moment of moral courage.
We should study moments of such courage. Our nation and our world need to embrace and elevate this kind of will. We are living in a time of moral abdication – with vituperative language abounding, hostility on social media, public figures stooping to racist and nativist tropes, and too few Tamar’s standing straight to reveal such public failings. It should not fall to the Anti-Defamation League to call out and chastise the phobic, bully voices which are dominating the airwaves. It should be each of us, with some inspiration from Tamar, who demonstrates the courage to speak and demonstrates truth and probity in a world of twisted mistruths.
Thank you. Tamar! May we live with a measure of your willfulness and courage!
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Douglas Kohn.
