{"id":39271,"date":"2018-09-03T22:35:29","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T19:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=39271"},"modified":"2022-03-28T18:57:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T15:57:47","slug":"the-place-of-the-opened-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-place-of-the-opened-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Place of the Opened Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tamar is a character who does not believe her fate is sealed and that she has no say in planning a destiny for herself.<\/span><\/p>\n

In chapter 38, the childless twice-widowed Tamar opens her eyes, changes her clothes (38:14) and creates a new destiny \u2013 for herself and the Jewish people as a whole. Tamar does not let how others see her determine who she is, and for that reason she is one of the most interesting feminist heroines of Genesis. She comes up with a plan to get what she is owed and a crafty way of executing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, as Robert Alter pointed out so well in his <\/span>The Art of Biblical Narrative<\/span><\/em>, and as the midrash highlights, one of the linguistic leitmotifs of Genesis 37-50 is \u201crecognition,\u201d who recognizes who and what they see. In Genesis 38, Tamar, on being informed that her father in law Judah is going to Timna for sheep shearing(38:13), goes to a place named \u201cthe opening of the eyes,\u201d <\/span>petach eynaim <\/span><\/em>(38:14)<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Though we credit Tamar with taking the initiative in the relationship, it is actually Judah\u2019s assumptions that trap him. He assumes a woman sitting at the side of the road with a \u00a0covered face must be a woman who is looking for customers and asks to \u201ccome in\u201d (38:16) to her. His suspicions that she is a willing sex worker are confirmed when she asks what he will give her for the privilege (38:16). <\/span><\/p>\n

The deed is consummated and readers learn that the episode is a success for Tamar as she becomes pregnant, her quest for a sperm donor from this family successful. (Levirate marriage is later codified in law in Deuteronomy 25:5-10). The oddity here, as in the lack of recognition of Joseph when his brothers meet up with him again (42:7 and 43:24, 44:2 and 44:14-34) is that Judah is unaware of his proximity to his own daughter-in-law. <\/span><\/p>\n

Once Tamar is visibly pregnant (38:24 tells us three months) Judah is relieved that he now has an excuse to be rid of her.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the denouement comes when she shows the pledge he has given her and asks him to \u201crecognize\u201d it. \u00a0Not only does Judah recognize his property he acknowledges, with two words, both Tamar\u2019s just action and his own paternity: <\/span>tzadka mimeni<\/span><\/em>.<\/em> This can mean both \u201cshe is righteous, the child is from me\u201d and \u201cshe is more in the right than I am\u201d (Genesis 38:26).<\/span><\/p>\n

Tamar is the rare Biblical woman able to make right a situation in which she has been wronged and to be publicly acknowledged, both here in the story and later with her descendants in the book of Ruth (Ruth 4:12) for both her actions and her teachings, and<\/span> seen as a true heroine.<\/span><\/a>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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