Helpful Things for Teachers to Know about Tamar
- Tamar in Biblical Hebrew means “date-palm.”
- To understand this story, you have to know that it involves a Biblical practice called levirate marriage (in Hebrew, yibum.) If a woman’s husband died without leaving her any children, his brother was obligated to marry her and have children with her, who would be considered offspring from the first brother. This tradition protected a childless widow, and continued the older brother’s line. So when Judah denies Tamar the right to marry his third son, he is breaking the law, and when Tamar manages to become pregnant through Judah, she is arguably acting within her legal rights.
- There is no description of Tamar’s origin, but it is unlikely that she’s an Israelite. She is not defined not by her tribe, but instead, as the daughter-in-law of Judah (Genesis 38:11).
- Our story ends with Tamar giving birth to twins, Peretz and Zerach. Peretz’s line leads to King David, whose line is said to lead to the Messiah. This surprising ending should be taken into account while reading the story.
- To avoid confusion: the Tanakh tells the story of two other Tamars, the daughter of King David (2 Samuel 13) and the daughter of Absalom (2 Samuel 14:27).
- Side note: later in the Torah there is an interesting ritual to release widows and brothers-in-law from the obligation of levirate marriage, more details herehttp://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Halitza.html
