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The Birth of the Messiah
By OJ | December 31, 2007
I will not be the first or last to comment on the spotty origins of the line of David, the lineage of the Messiah ben David.
Genesis 38:2 ????????-???? ???????? ????-????? ??????????, ???????? ??????
“And Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man, and his name was Shua”
This line occurs immediately after Joseph is sold into slavery. Though I would posit the two stories were once separate, here they have been joined. There are, in face, two Messiah’s in Jewish tradition. Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah Ben David. Perhaps as we learn of the dishonor done to Joseph, we are then to learn of the origins of Judah’s progeny.
Few women are named in the Bible, but enough are mentioned by name, sometimes without even more details than that, that it can be assumed they were well known people.
The Torah details the drunken incest in the fathering of Moab, the line of Ruth who married (against a literal reading of the Torah), Boaz, a descendant of the line in discussion. Why is it, then, that the daughter of Shua who births the sons in the story, Er, Onan, and Sheila is not named, but Tamar, who marries the sons, is named? Moreover, was not Esau recently rebuked by Isaac (Gen. 26:34–35.) for taking Canaanites as wives? Why is it not questioned here for Judah?
It is hard to say since the Torah doesn’t address the issue. On the one hand, Judah’s children bring him shame. On the other hand, they are ancestors of Messiah ben David. No more interpretation is given.
My thought is that the name of Judah’s wife isn’t given so as not to embarrass Judah’s lineage with the name of his Canaanite wife, as they are named in Toledot (Judith! and Basemath). How different things are today that this would pose no issue other than under which Rabbi she should convert.
In Judah’s time, a married woman simply took the status of her husband in all matters (whereas her default status is to belong to her father * This is why I think my wife should get a Levi alyiah as an ??? ???, the wife of a Levite. She’s taken my last name and my status, just as the wife of of a cohen/priest can eat trumah but the daughter of a cohen who married a Yisrael can no longer eat trumah)
Getting back to my main point– what does this story teach on its own and what does it teach in juxtaposition to the Joseph story? It seems that the Torah, by focusing on how Tamar came to give birth, is comparing two stories where things went badly, in the end brought about a greater good. Joseph’s being sold to Egypt resulted in his rise to power both in Egypt and as a tribal house in Israel. He is the only of Jacob’s sons with two (half) tribes. Similarly, it is because of the sins of Joseph’s sons of his Canaanite wife that he sired the Messianic/Davidic line.
We can learn from this that even good can come of bad things, that misfortune and bad deeds can be redeemed. Of course, this is all ?????? (ex post facto); the ends do not justify the means. Nonetheless, one must take action that good can come of even the worst situation.
Topics: 5768, Uncategorized |
