page_title: Vayeshev
section_title: Genesis chapter 38
hierarchical_section_title: Vayeshev / In classical rabbinic interpretation / Genesis chapter 38
context_page_description: Vayeshev, Vayeishev, or Vayesheb is the ninth weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. The parashah constitutes Genesis 37:1–40:23. The parashah tells the stories of how Jacob's other sons sold Joseph into captivity in Egypt, how Judah wronged his daughter-in-law Tamar who then tricked him into fulfilling his oath, and how Joseph served Potiphar and was imprisoned when falsely accused of assaulting Potiphar's wife.
  The parashah is made up of 5,972 Hebrew letters, 1,558 Hebrew words, 112 verses, and 190 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews read it the ninth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, in late November or December.
context_section_description: The Mishnah taught that notwithstanding its mature content, in the synagogue, Jews read and translated Tamar's story in Genesis 38. The Gemara questioned why the Mishnah bothered to say so and proposed that one might think that Jews should forbear out of respect for Judah. But the Gemara deduced that the Mishnah instructed that Jews read and translate the chapter to show that the chapter actually redounds to Judah's credit, as it records in Genesis 38:26 that he confessed his wrongdoing.
  Rabbi Berekiah taught in the name of Rabbi Samuel bar Nahman that the term "and he went down" (וַיֵּרֶד, vayered), which appears in Genesis 38:1, implies excommunication. The Midrash told that when Joseph's brothers tried to comfort Jacob and he refused to be comforted, they told Jacob that Judah was responsible. They said that had Judah only told them not to sell Joseph, they would have obeyed. But Judah told them that they should sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites (as reported in Genesis 37:27). As a result, the brothers excommunicated Judah (when they saw the grief that they had caused Jacob), for Genesis 38:1 says, "And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down (וַיֵּרֶד, vayered) from his brethren." The Midrash argued that Genesis 38:1 could have said "and he went" (וַיֵּלֶךְ, vayelekh) instead of "and he went down" (וַיֵּרֶד, vayered). Thus the Midrash deduced that Judah suffered a descent and was excommunicated by his brothers.
  Noting that Judges 14:1 reports that "Samson went down to Timnah," the Gemara asked why Genesis 38:13 says, "Behold, your father-in-law goes up to Timnah." Rabbi Eleazar explained that since Samson was disgraced in Timnah (in that he married a Philistine woman from there), Judges 14:1 reports that he "went down." But since Judah was exalted by virtue of having gone to Timnah (in that, as Genesis 38:29 reports, from Judah's encounter there, Tamar bore Perez, a progenitor of King David), Genesis 38:13 reports that he went "up." Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani, however, taught that there were two places named Timnah, one that people reached by going down and the other that people reached by going up. And Rav Papa taught that there was only one place named Timnah, and those who came to it from one direction had to descend, while those who came from another direction had to ascend.
  Reading the report of Tamar in Genesis 38:14, "She sat in the gate of Enaim," Rabbi Alexander taught that Tamar went and sat at the entrance of the place of Abraham, the place to which all eyes (עֵינַיִם, einaim) look. Alternatively, Rav Hanin said in the name of Rav that there is a place called Enaim, and it is the same place mentioned in Joshua 15:34 when it speaks of "Tappuah and Enam." Alternatively, Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani taught that the place is called Enaim because Tamar gave eyes (עֵינַיִם, einaim) to her words; that is, Tamar gave convincing replies to Judah's questions. When Judah solicited her, he asked her if she was a Gentile, and she replied that she was a convert. When Judah asked her if she was a married woman, she replied that she was unmarried. When Judah asked her if perhaps her father had accepted marriage proposals on her behalf betrothals (making her forbidden to Judah), she replied that she was an orphan. When Judah asked her if perhaps she was ritually unclean (because she was a menstruant, or niddah, and thus forbidden to Judah), she replied that she was clean.
  Reading the report of Genesis 38:15, "he thought her to be a harlot; for she had covered her face," the Gemara questioned how that could be so, for the Rabbis considered covering one's face an act of modesty. Rabbi Eleazar explained that Tamar had covered her face in her father-in-law's house (and thus Judah had never seen her face and did not recognize her), for Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani said in the name of Rabbi Jonathan that every daughter-in-law who is modest in her father-in-law's house merits that kings and prophets should issue from her. In support of that proposition, the Gemara noted that kings descended from Tamar through David. And prophets de
caption: Judah and Tamar (watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot)
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