[Avodah] Yosef Kappara and Tamar

[Ilana Sober Elzufon]

More on RMR's question: Why did Tamar wait until her pregnancy was obvious?

I already mentioned that she couldn't have been sure of the pregnancy - she
would have strongly suspected, but many women have done pregnancy tests when
they were pretty certain of a positive result, and gotten a negative. Also,
miscarriages are more common in the first trimester.

One possible direction for thinking :Tamar seems to be a bit like Yosef -
inclined to create dramatic confrontations and situations rather than deal
with things quietly behind the scenes. Did Yosef really HAVE to accuse the
brothers of being spies, hide the payment in the sacks of grain,
mysteriously seat them in order of age, plant the cup with Binyamin and have
his men dramatically discover it, etc?

I haven't thought through Yosef, but I do have a possible answer for Tamar.
With her last minute presentation of the evidence, she put Yehuda into a
situation where he had two choices. (1) Go through with the execution,
realizing that she had been justified in her actions, and he had wronged
her. (2) Publicly acknowledge that the child (actually children, as it
turned out) was his.

She risked her life - correctly as it turned out - on the understanding that
Yehuda would have the courage and decency not to choose (1). In that way,
she bore children who were ACKNOWLEDGED descendants of Yehuda.

Had she chosen to send him a quiet message before anyone else suspected a
pregnancy, he might have been tempted to send her away to bear the child in
secret, offering to turn a blind eye to her z'nut in exchange for her
continued silence regarding paternity.

- Ilana
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