1. Judah and Tamar
Redemption * Jehoedah – Tamar * Rechem * deception * Boaz * Moab * conception * modesty * arrogance * science
The stories about the redemption deserve special attention. I am especially thinking of the redemption occurring in the story of Judah and Tamar. Judah does not want to give his third son Sela to his daughter-in-law Tamar after both his elder sons Er and Onan died, while –as we are told - in a certain sense it was his duty to do so, and Tamar, despite her deceit, was right after all. I am also thinking of a second delivery, viz. the redemption-story of Ruth, where also a first redeemer refuses and Boaz acts as second redeemer.
Both
redemption-stories – and these are the only ones in the Bible – take place in
the same lineage, viz. the Messianic lineage, for from Judah and Tamar Perez came first, and Boaz’s pedigree
goes back to Judah via Perez and, from the unison of Boaz and Ruth came David.
So there is definitely a link between the story of the Messianic pedigree and
this redemption-story, which to so many people is unbelievable and
unreasonable. Now indeed there appears to be a close connection between this
redemption of the woman, coming from a deceased brother, and the Messiah’s
delivery. It is not without reason that these redemption-stories only occur in
the Messianic lineage and not in other ones. Should this redemption not have taken place, then, according
to our logic, there would also be no pedigree to beget David.
This redemption and
delivery are in fact the foundation of the world. Indeed, we see the same
principle again and again in other fields. The word “womb”, Rechem, is the same
word as the word “mercy”, because both words are the bases of a new world. The
Germanic word “baren” is the same as the Hebrew word for “Create”, which is
“bara”. So “womb”, “baren”, “create” and
“Mercy” are actually words of the same origin, and this is so because
the foundation of the world is mercy. Just as the womb receives the new life,
and develops it to give it to the world, just as the womb carries the new life,
so it is with the creation of the universe, with all worlds. Creating is in
fact no different from being taken into a
womb, being protected to grow and to be finally, as it is called, delivered.
Birth is a delivery, for when the time is ripe the fruit appears from out of
the peel, the child appears from out of the womb and the world appears from out
of the covering; a covering that has protected and raised her during all this
time.
The redeemer should
in fact redeem counter to his feelings. He should not wonder whether he wants
to redeem this woman; he should just take her in. It is exactly this taking in
unseen, not wondering about one’s own feelings of sympathy or antipathy, of
understanding or misunderstanding, but accepting with closed eyes, which also
in the Bible finally brings delivery.
Judah actually could have disowned Tamar and nothing would have been the
matter; Tamar would have been punished and would have died. But the public
humiliation of Judah by acknowledging that he had been deceived into doing the
right thing brought the great victory. He had come to do the right thing
involuntarily, but only because someone had deceived and seduced him. This
humiliation caused the break-through, as the name Perez also means.
And thus we see how
the Ploni Almoni, the Mr. X in the story about Ruth, does want to redeem the
field, the possession. But when he hears that there is also a person involved
he becomes afraid; so he consults his feelings and does not blindly accept a
task, which he has to assume. He does not want to bring difficulties upon
himself, and he refuses. He may
afterwards have had a nice and quiet life in this world and the story about him
is now over and done with, while Boaz, who did accept what he knew to be his
duty, becomes the ancestor of David. Boaz means “in him is the power”, so the
power to conquer himself, to redeem blindly.
This is how man
stands facing the world, and how the whole of creation stands facing the
foregoing. Man always gets to face something unredeemed, something that
presents itself to him as Ruth from Moab, from a sinful, heathen region;
something that is driven towards him. On the other hand man also longs for this
world, to be here in a strange environment, in a new environment, where he
feels to have his destination; thus everything comes to man again and again and
wants to be taken in blindly, not according to man’s measurements of
appreciation. If man would start reasoning he would say:
“This is something
sinful, it comes from Moab, I cannot trust this. Why would I make up such
experiments?” To the world he would act wisely this way and be rid of it. It is
indeed the special aspect of a delivery that it is not something one likes and
takes pleasure in, but rather the opposite; a delivery is in a sense
frightening, perhaps even repulsive, or in any case may be defective; for then
this delivery is in accordance with the foundation of the world, viz. with
mercy. And just as God appointed the womb to be the embodied mercy, to bring
forth new life, man should take in everything, without knowing what it is going
to be, trusting that it will be alright. It is indeed modern man, who does not
want to deliver except when he himself takes pleasure in it, who starts
reasoning as to what the womb will or will not receive, who gets interested in
what might finally appear from out of this womb; and if he thinks that it will
bother him or that it may bring him into difficulties (especially if these
difficulties are economic) he simply refuses to create. Thus much of what
presents itself to us in this world is rejected by us because we expect
difficulties to arise from it and we are in no way willing to accept it blindly
and, as it is said, to leave it to God as to what will become of it. And it is
indeed this blindly accepting things that will bring delivery. Who, in the
Bible, refuses this acceptance, will be so to speak humiliated before the eyes
of the entire people. He pulls out his shoes, for the shoes are in our physical
appearance that which connects us with the earth; in fact the shoes are in a
sense the animal on which we stand.
Indeed, standing on both feet is standing on the entire world,
possessing both opposite parts, also possessing the opposition: life and death,
this and the coming world. And in this physical appearance pulling out a shoe
causes the abandonment of the opposites, the wish to solve the things we see in
only one half.
And as it is with
man, it is with the entire world. Already at the creation this whole humanity
is placed opposite to the ancient worlds; matter coming from an antiquity, the
time of which we cannot count or calculate, since time is lost in it. Man is
put into this world to serve her and to deliver her, again without asking why,
according to standards given to him by God. Although man is willing to deliver,
he wants to know what it is that he delivers; he wants to have his own
standards and that is why he eats from the tree of knowledge of good and evil,
since this tree itself provides him with standards; and now he can, like God,
see why he delivers and how this tastes. But the foundation of creation is
mercy and mercy does not inquire after the one whom mercy must be done to.
Otherwise it would not be mercy and so wanting to know the standards beforehand
is wanting to act with a kind of principle of justice and not with the
principle of love, of mercy. And
thus this whole world is actually nothing but a redemption, a deliverance from
the old one. For it is the ancient worlds, that which was there before man,
that in this appearance stand for the woman who must be delivered by the man.
That is why in this life the woman longs for the man and it is not so much the
man who longs for the woman, at least as long as the man is indeed kernel and
man. In times when the man abandons his kernel-position, breaks adrift and
feminizes one sees the so-called social chivalry, when the man pretends, and
also believes, that he longs for the woman. The longing of the woman for the
man is the longing of ancient worlds, of matter, for delivery. Just as the
woman dresses up, matter dresses up so to speak, in order to seduce; but one
should also call to mind the seduction of Judah by Tamar. Since we do not
naturally have the feeling and the urge to redeem, the woman and matter must
seduce us in order to be redeemed.
Ruth too is in a
sense sent to Boaz by Naomi to get into touch with the redeemer. Thus matter
and everything that meets us makes itself attractive in order to be able, at
least by this way of deceit, to be delivered. Girls or young women, who dress
or make up especially for a man, do the same as Tamar did; and finally the man,
just like the world, realizes that injustice is on his side and that he should
have redeemed because it was his duty to do so, and not because he was seduced
to; In that case he would have acted in accordance with God.
Judah’s fear that
the same would happen to Sela as to Er and Onan was a logical fear, which,
however, he had to ignore; he only had the duty to redeem, not to look and do
as he thought well.
So the whole
creation is nothing but a redemption of the old world and that is also why this
world is always the second half of the circle. We accept an inheritance of a
former world, unknown to us, of a world in our form of appearance, which may be
compared with the inheritance of a brother, an elder brother, who has not been
able to complete his task, and now his wife, or matter, is offered to us and we
have to redeem this woman. If we do this we also lay the basis for the full
delivery of the world, or at least we also provide a building-stone.
If we do not, life,
in a sense, as seen from the other side, is useless. That is why this world is
always represented as the second one, as the second part, and the first part
must remain closed for us. Who inquires too much after the first part might
reject it because he would see the possible shame of it. In his view it would
be measured according to his standards and then it would not be possible. That
is why we accept (and God made it in a way that it would happen to the world)
the ancient worlds; the first part of the circle unseen; we cannot but accept
it or deny it.
It is told how the
soul, when she must descend into the body, resists, as she is afraid of living
together with this body. She abhors this body as a material thing, but she is
finally forced to enter the body, just as she must be forced to leave it again
in the end. This is the same conscious refusal to redeem, for the soul redeems
the body like God redeems the world, like the man redeems the woman and like
man redeems the whole world; (the world considered as matter here).
That is why
everything in this world has the nature of the second, which must accept
blindly. And that is why the tendency to explain everything from out of the
position of the 1 is a tendency which stands in the way of a redemption, and so
also of a delivery. That is why redemption and mercy go together. And as soon
as the human standard of logic comes in, the way of delivery is impeded; then
deceit and seduction have to assist in reaching the end by means of emotions,
rise and decline etc, because the purpose must be achieved anyway.
Translation Mrs.
Duynstee
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