Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 9 Tevet, 5784
Parsha Va-Yiggash (Genesis 44:18 – 47:27)
Fifth Portion: Genesis 46:8– 46:27

Good morning! Today we are more than half way finished with Parsha “Va-Yiggash” (and he approached).  Looking over my commentary the past two years, it seems as if we are going to catch a break given the depth of learning we’ve had this past week.  I think we are wrong in this assumption, because I think there is a lot of depth here to be found.

Looking at our learning – as we approach this idea of “going down” or “descending” into slavery – into chaos – Hashem gives us a break today it would seem. But let’s dig in.  The context here is that we left off with Jacob heading into Egypt. They arrived. They were there.  And Jacob went from Israel back to Jacob as a name in the Torah. So here we are.

And this is where we begin today’s portion:

8And these are the names of the children of Israel who were coming to Egypt: Jacob and his sons Jacob’s firstborn was Reuben.

9And the sons of Reuben were Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi.

10And the sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, and Zohar, and Saul the son of the Canaanitess.

11And the sons of Levi were Gershon, Kehath, and Merari.

12And the sons of Judah were Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah. Now Er and Onan had died in the land of Canaan; and the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

Ok. So this is interesting, right? One of these things is not like the other in the Torah; why?

First – let’s recap.

Reuben was first born. 4 sons.

Simoen was next. 6 sons. Saul gets a mention. This is also different. Saul was the “son of a Canaanitess”

Levi was next. 3 sons.

Then we get to Judah. 5 sons. And Torah reminds us of Er and Onan. And singles out Perez.  Why?

For this, we have to travel back into the Torah – to Va-Yevesh “And He Settled.”

The Torah is interesting here. Almost like a “choose your own adventure” we have a choice as a reader.  We can just gloss over this curiosity, or we can dig into it.  Likewise, I will give you a choice – you can go back to my commentary on Judah, Er, and Onan – because it is QUITE fascinating- or keep reading and I’ll pull out some highlights.

First, the Torah portion Va Yevesh relating to Judah begins with this:

38:1Now it came about at that time that Judah was demoted by his brothers, and he turned away until [he came] to an Adullamite man, named Hirah.

I wrote this:

So. Judah was demoted. He descended too. He lost positional power with the brothers. And what did he do when he lost his positional power? He turned away and went to Hirah.

The Torah, in our portion today, seems to hearken back to Judah’s demotion.  This was after Jacob found out Joseph was sold into slavery.  Er and Onan were a product of Judah’s descension. The Torah is time traveling us back to remember Judah’s descent.  And it does so without drawing full attention to “Judah screwed up.”  Because he didn’t.

38:2And there Judah saw the daughter of a merchant named Shua, and he took her and came to her.

38:3And she conceived and bore a son, and he named him Er.

38:4And she conceived again and bore a son, and she named him Onan.

38:5Once again she bore a son, and she named him Shelah, and he (Judah) was in Chezib when she gave birth to him.

I wrote this:

I put myself in Judah’s shoes. What might he be feeling?

Guilt? Shame? Sadness? After what happened with Joseph – I am wondering if Judah had regrets. He lost power. He tried to lead as best he could with Joseph and the conflict. But he must have felt defeated.

Something else I notice. Judah had three sons with the daughter of Shua. The Torah says he named the first one – Er. She named the second two; Onan and Shelah.

Er means “Awake.”

Onan means “Trouble” or “Vigor”

Shelah means to “extract” or “prosper”

The Torah in today’s portion reminds us – for Judah, Awake and Vigor died.  And – hope of extraction and prospering had NOT died with them. But this still doesn’t explain Perez being singled out does it?

The next thing that happens? Judah tries to find a wife for Er – Tamar.  And a lot of bad things happen which really caused Er and Onan to die – read more in the commentary linked above.

After Judah’s wife passes, Tamar basically disguises herself as a Harlot and Judah sleeps with her without realizing this is the woman he had given in marriage to his two sons. And she becomes pregnant with twins.

I wrote this about Tamar:

So Tamar becomes a major focal point. Her name means “date” (the fruit) or “date palm” or “palm tree.”  Either way – we see Tamar representing fruit, growth, development.

Tamar seemed to love Judah. Saw him at his worst. But knew he had within him – the potential to be a good man.

I then discussed Judah – how he treated “the Harlot” without knowing it was the Harlot he slept with. Here’s what I wrote:

Judah felt such guilt and shame over what he did? He projected that onto Tamar, didn’t he? She played the Harlot.  And instead of Judah seeing compassion and empathy and kindness? He saw anger. Because he was angry with himself. He slept with a Harlot (in his mind). He didn’t even consider Tamar in her grief making a poor choice. But this was all part of Tamar’s plan – to heal Judah’s wounds. To heal his guilt and shame.  Let’s keep going:

What followed in my blog was a discussion over guilt, shame, and regret.  And Tamar being the Divine Feminine mother within us. I wrote this:

Where are we feeling guilt and shame over our past?  Where we REGRET a decision we made (like Judah regretting what happened with Joseph).  We may not know how the regretful decision we made will turn out in the future – but we are stuck in the past and can’t let go of it.

Growth and Development (Tamar) may represent within us – the divine feminine – the divine mother. Who loves us and knows us more than we know and love ourselves.  And she is there helping us grow, learn, develop.  Tamar teaches us to remain curious. To not judge. And to allow ourselves to grieve.  That to me is the lesson here.  I am curious as to your thoughts!

So we then find out Tamar has twins in her womb – Perez and Zerah. Let’s read from there:

38:27And it came about at the time she was giving birth, that behold, there were twins in her womb.

38:28And it came about when she gave birth, that he (the infant) stretched out his hand. So the midwife took and bound a crimson thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.”

38:29And it came about, as he was drawing back his hand, behold, his brother emerged, and she said, “With what strength you have strengthened yourself!” And he (Judah) named him Perez.

38:30Afterwards, his brother emerged, the one upon whose hand was the crimson thread, and he named him Zerah.

So the Torah, in today’s portion “An He approached” refers back to a portion “An he settled” in which we see Judah descend and then come back up. Here’s what I wrote next:

Perez means “burst forth” or “breakthrough”

Zerah means – “arise” “dawn” or “sunrise.”

And look at that beauty.

Judah chose these names.  Judah was on a journey of awakening.  He THOUGHT Er was his awakening. But it wasn’t.  There was still healing that needed to happen. Tamar gave fruit to Judah – and his journey is now breaking through and rising up.

And this, my friends? Is the BEAUTY of the Torah.

If you have made it this far, thank you.  And. Really? This portion could be summed up with – “It is always darkest before the dawn.”

And I feel like this brings it all together:

And THIS is the dawn. This is the sunrise. This is our power.  Judah lost his positional power. He was demoted. He was brought down. But with Tamar? He grew. He reached the low. And it was time to rise.

So let’s come back to this time/space.  Today’s portion had this:

46:12And the sons of Judah were Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah. Now Er and Onan had died in the land of Canaan; and the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

I think this makes more sense now, doesn’t it? Tamar is a fulcrum here and she isn’t mentioned. And – like a Diamond, we can ONLY see her if we take the time and energy to press on the Torah – to CHOOSE to dig deeper. We can judge the Torah for NOT mentioning Tamar – or we can be curious as to WHY she isn’t mentioned? She was a diamond in the coal of Judah’s descension and re-emergence.

And the idea that the Torah FOCUSES on Perez instead of Zerah?  We get the suns of Perez (breaks through, bursts forth) – this seems to confirm – Tamar – the fruit tree breaks through this verse in the Torah – but only if we had chosen to dig and be curious instead of being bored by a timeline or a family tree!

Hezron and Hamul are the first grandsons mentioned of Jacob. Hezron means “from the walled town” and Hamul means “spared” or “merciful.”

What a BEATIFUL thought – from a “walled town” (within our hearts) comes mercy.  We’ve talked about the importance of grief as a way to be free.  When we wall off our grief, when it bursts through and heals, we get beauty.  Tamar was the key!

Once again – THIS is the beauty of Torah.

Let’s keep going:

13And the sons of Issachar were Tola, Puvvah, Iob, and Shimron.

14And the sons of Zebulun were Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

15These are the sons of Leah, that she bore to Jacob in Padan Aram, and Dinah his daughter. All the souls of his sons and daughters were thirty three.

Again – Issachar and Zebulun are back to the normal phrasing. Issachar had 4 sons. Zebulun had 3.

Then. Leah and Dinah get singled out.  We take a break from the family tree.  The Torah gives honor to Leah and Dinah – which is interesting considering how the Torah made us dig for Tamar.

Let’s keep going:

16And the sons of Gad were Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.

17And the sons of Asher were Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Briah, and Serah, their sister; and the sons of Briah were Heber and Malkiel.

18These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah, and she bore these to Jacob, sixteen souls.

Gad had 7 sons. Asher had 4 sons. And Serah – one of the first daughters mentioned – besides Dinah.

But let’s go back to verse 17. Serah is mentioned – and then? We get more grandkids – Heber and Malkiel. Heber means “Togetherness; partner; granite.” Malkiel? “God is my king.”

My takeaway from this is another review of a previous lesson in Torah. Harmony. The internal masculine and feminine divinity within us – working together – that is how we know Hashem is our king!

Let’s keep going with the sons of Rachel:

19The sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife, were Joseph and Benjamin.

20And to Joseph were born in the land of Egypt, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, the governor of On, bore to him: Manasseh and Ephraim.

21And the sons of Benjamin were Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Na’aman, Ehi, and Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

22These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob: all the souls were fourteen.

Joseph has two kids with the daughter of Potiphera.  They will figure prominently in the Torah moving forward. Benjamin? 10 kids. He is the winner of most children!

We close out with the sons Bilhah gave to Jacob:

23And the sons of Dan: Hushim.

24And the sons of Naphtali were Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

25These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Rachel, and she bore these to Jacob, all the souls were seven.

26All the souls coming to Egypt with Jacob, those descended from him, excluding the wives of Jacob’s sons, all the souls were sixty six.

27And Joseph’s sons, who were born to him in Egypt, two souls; all the souls of the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were seventy.

Dan has 1 son, Naphtali has 4.

What is the significance of all of this?

My take is this – the Torah knows we are shifting. We are moving towards slavery.  The choices have all been made. The sequence of events as such the next chapter of lessons will be founded upon. One decision – to sell Joseph into slavery – had consequences. And now – we could finish the story (if this was a movie) and say – WOW – what was bad became good! Look at how many lives were saved!  Seventy souls! All saved because Joseph was sold into slavery.

And yes – we could stop there.  We could stop reading the Torah, and go back to the beginning right now. And just remind ourselves how things happen for our good! But that is not the end of the Torah.

We have two more portions left this week. And then one final parsha before we leave Genesis. It will be interesting to study those and see what happens next!

These are my thoughts – what are yours?

Here are my commentaries from the past two years:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 5 Tevet, 5783

As we close out the year and enter into 2023, I really believe todays portion is a central theme for us. Who are we? Who am I? Who do I choose to be? These are the questions that should be on our mind as we descend into the potential chaos and repair that is coming our way.

In addition, thinking about our purpose; and why we are living our lives, is one final question. What is our intention for our purpose?

What are your thoughts?

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for Tevet 5, 5782

We left off yesterday with Jacob’s arrival in Egypt. The Torah then recounts the children of Israel, Jacob and his sons.

One thing that stands out to me goes back to Dinah. She is alluded to (although not by name) and is given the honor of being Saul’s mother; the son of Simeon. Dinah does get a mention specifically in verse 15.

The other thing I notice is in verse 15, this line; “All his sons and daughters (from Leah) totaled thirty-three souls.”

In fact the Torah uses this word “souls” for each of the people who joined Jacob in Egypt – there were sixty-six souls who came to Egypt with Jacob. Joseph added four souls to the mix (Joseph and his two sons and Jochebed); bringing the total to seventy souls

It is fascinating that todays portion looks at these humans as “souls.” And it goes back to the idea I shared (I think it was) yesterday; are we human creatures trying to live a spiritual life, or spiritual beings working through a physical existence? Who are we really? I’m really starting to believe that in the end, we are souls (Neshamas) navigating a physical existence. That has a lot of implications I am starting to see.

What are your thoughts?