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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JUDAH,TAMAR,ONAN:HUMOR IN A SEEDY TALE WITH ROCK-HARD PROOF
Shalom:
Gary Rendsburg in his "David & His Circle in Genesis 38",posits that the insertion of the Judah and Tamar narrative in the Joseph story as foreshadowing of the succession of David to the throne. He concludes that the author's motive in telling the Judah story is to "poke fun at the royal family." He identifies the author as a commentator who sought to entertain his audience. The only way he could do this during the reign of the king is to hearken back to the ancestors of the king, and lampoon their behavior. There is no rock-hard evidence of this from the seedy story of Judah, Tamar and Onan.
There is great word play in the Tamar-Judah story as well as the entire Joseph story. The Talmud does make a distinction between latzim (the scornful) and jesters. As discussed in a prior essay , RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:TALMUDIC VIEW OF JEWISH HUMOR:JESTERS BRING REDEMPTION , the Talmud gives honor to jesters, the juggling of Rabbi Gamaliel as well as magic tricks. Even word play and puns are accepted as with the two jesters who returned with a tongue symbolizing the best and worst of gifts. But if a rabbi goes too far and mocks Mishnaic law, he can he asked to leave the academy.
The Talmud, Midrash and our commenters make some interesting points about Judah and Tamar. And while the word play in Hebrew is humorous the sages took it seriously and found themselves being apologists for Judah's behavior with his daughter- in- law, going so far as to say that God ordained Satan to convince Judah to have sexually relations with Tamar, playing the harlot, as she was destined to be the matriarch of the Davidic Kingship and Messianic line as she was the daughter of Noah's son Shem. (Midrash Beresheit Rabah 85:8-10). And hence Tamar gives birth two twins, Perez and Zerah. Her twin son Zerah, the patriarch, who's name means 'breach' is to remind us how the moon waxes and wanes. This is why when the sages declared the new moon (hence the new month) they used the code :Dovid melech yisro-ayl. chai v'ka-yom. David, King of Israel, lives forever.(Talmud Tractate Rosh haShana Daf 25a).
Is this foreshadowing King David's son Amnon raping his half-sister, also named Tamar? (Two Samuel 13).
Now how old this makes Judah's Tamar, I cannot fathom to calculate. But without sounding horribly misogynistic, with emphasis on 'sogy' (soggy), perhaps this is why Onan didn't want to fulfill his levirate duties, as while they were all anti-diluvian , Tamar, whom the Talmud does record as beautiful, may have been old and waterlogged. {Please consult our real sages for the possible reasons why Onan spilled his seed}.
Of course if there is any proof text in the Tanach of Dovid Melech being lampooned, it is by he himself, playing the mad man, in front of the king of the Gaths: One Samuel: 13 David ... became very much afraid of Achish, king of Gath. 14 So, as they watched, he feigned insanity and acted like a lunatic in their hands, drumming on the doors of the gate and drooling onto his beard. 15 Finally Achish said to his servants: "You see the man is mad. Why did you bring him to me? 16 Do I not have enough madmen, that you bring in this one to carry on in my presence? Should this fellow come into my house?"
This is one of my favorite Tanach puseks!
Shalom,
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Hilton Head Island, SC
Bluffton, SC
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