He opened up the conversation with a question: If you could meet a Jewish hero from any time period, who would you ask to meet and why? I, wishing to be different maybe, chose Tamar. Er is sinful Genesis and is killed by G-d. So Yehuda gives Tamar his next son, Onen, as her yavam. A yavam is a man who marries the wife of his childless dead brother in order to continue his name.
Yehuda tells Tamar to wait until the next brother is older but many days go by and nothing happens. Tamar sees that the next brother is getting older but Yehudah is not marrying them Genesis She decides to take action. In those days, this mitzvah could be done with any male relative, in our case even Yehudah. Tamar hears that Yehudah is passing by. She dresses up as a prostitute and Yehuda comes to her, not knowing who she is. She becomes pregnant so Yehuda sentences her to be burnt.
She hints that he is the father. He admits his wrongdoing and stops her death. She has twins, one of them Peretz, who is the ancestor of David, and please G-d soon, the Messiah. There are many different explanations to this story but the one statement of Chazal that fascinated me and made me want to meet her not that I would mind doing so now, either!
Yehudah comes across Tamar, waiting on the roads like a prostitute. Therefore, he did not suspect her. Rashi has a great question. How was it that Yehudah did not recognize Tamar, his daughter-in-law, close up? His answer is twofold. Firstly, she covered her face. Besides being interesting on its own, I was really impressed by one point.
Using this argument, it seems Tamar went against her own modest nature to entice Yehudah because she felt it necessary. Moreover, ultimately she is rewarded with great descendants! Many of the examples are extreme, such as that of Avraham Avinu, who takes his long sought after son, and is prepared to kill him. What can we learn from these extreme examples? Maybe we need to learn that there are times to go against the grain, whether it be society or our own nature.
