{"id":44940,"date":"2018-12-01T19:49:16","date_gmt":"2018-12-01T17:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=44940"},"modified":"2022-03-29T07:11:51","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T04:11:51","slug":"joseph-and-tamar-two-escape-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/joseph-and-tamar-two-escape-artists\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph and Tamar: Two Escape Artists"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[523,368,567],"acf":{"old_id":"44940","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36663,"related_cahpter":"39","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Lessons to learn about changing one's fate","content":"

There are two people in this week\u2019s parsha who have things in common. They are both able to use their thoughts, whether dreamed or planned, to sustain them in situations which might have seemed impossible to undo and to escape.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though the usual pairing is Jacob and his son Joseph, as the midrash in Genesis Rabbah 84 says, \u201call that happened to Jacob happened to Joseph\u201d we can look further than this.<\/p>\n

Joseph seems to be literally stuck, in the pit (37:24) and in jail (39:20) and later in Egypt itself. None of them congenial places to be, and none with an obvious exit sign. And yet, Joseph gets out of the pit, sold by his brothers into slavery.<\/p>\n

A second time, after he refuses the advances of his master\u2019s wife, Joseph finds himself in jail since it was more convenient for all to believe in the guilt of the victim Joseph than the attack of the true assailant, the wife of Potiphar. Again there does not seem to be even a remote possibility of an exit strategy. And yet, God is with Joseph and \u201cthat which he did, God made successful\u201d (39: 23).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sandwiched between the two escapes of Joseph from the pit and jail, is a woman who is stuck as a widow in her father\u2019s house since her first two husbands have died.\u00a0 Her father in law is supposed to allow her to marry his third son, conveniently named \u201chers\u201d (shelah<\/em>, 38: 5).\u00a0 Yet her father in law reasonably surmises that \u201chers\u201d might die like his brothers (38:11) and stalls on going forward with this marriage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a woman in a patriarchal society with not means of going to court to sue her father-in-law for justice, Tamar needs to create a way to exit the trap of being childless. She needs a sperm donor from the family she has married into.\u00a0 And one day, after much time has passed and she is told her father-in-law has gone to shear his sheep in Timnah. She takes off her widow’s garments, covers herself with a veil and dwells in a place called \u201copen eyes\u201d (38: 14).\u00a0<\/p>\n

That Judah became her sperm donor is the G-rated version of this chapter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tamar and Joseph share the ability to create possibilities and enable escape even when the situation looks objectively impossible.\u00a0Joseph is able to use his ability to interpret dreams, and the memory of his childhood dreams, to sustain him in the pit and in Egypt.\u00a0 Tamar uses only her own imagination and planning to bring a new life into the world, without guidance from dreams or from God, whose only mention in this chapter is in relation to the deaths of the sons (38:7, 10).\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the 11th<\/sup> century Midrash Lekach Tov, \u201cthe salvation of God is like the blink of an eye.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Dreams and plans don\u2019t hurt in ensuring that this salvation is hastened though and the examples of Joseph and Tamar are a lesson to anyone in a difficult situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":103482,"id":103482,"title":"-624286f6e1d74--624286f6e1d75gen39-birds cage escape.png","filename":"624286f6e1d74-624286f6e1d75gen39-birds-cage-escape.png.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/12\/624286f6e1d74-624286f6e1d75gen39-birds-cage-escape.png.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/joseph-and-tamar-two-escape-artists\/624286f6e1d74-624286f6e1d75gen39-birds-cage-escape-png\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"624286f6e1d74-624286f6e1d75gen39-birds-cage-escape-png","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":44940,"date":"2022-03-29 04:11:34","modified":"2022-03-29 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