Hanukah and Vayeshev (Genesis 38): Tamar Sheds Light on Immaculate
Conception
The twice married, upright תמר Tamar courageously conceives the ancestor of King David
by playing a prostitute. She was not born Jewish, but she desperately wanted to
fulfill the promised Levirite marriage, and to bear the destiny of Judah’s
path. A most non-Immaculate Conception
of the Messiah !
The Hellenic re-write of conceiving the Messiah involves an
engaged Jewish virgin named Miriam/Mary who does not consent to a “Leda and the
Swan” -style supernatural conception. Active
vs. passive; real/fantastic; Jewish-universal/Jewish only to replace the Jews;
sex can be abused, but is the divine vehicle for giving love and life/ sex is filthy
but necessary for the lowly masses. There can be no greater contrast, nor more
important one, between these two heroines of the Hebrew Bible and the Greek
Gospels.
The name תמר Tamar
is about being “upright.” תמר TaMaR is a tall, straight palm tree, and a pillar
(Jeremiah 10:5) [E-Word entry: TRUNK]. Do you really think the Greco-Romans invented
the pillar? Or did the Creator of our Natural Universe show us the way?
Back in graduate school in American Literature I had a nominally-Jewish
professor who was a respected author and expert in Greek Mythology and the
sources of modern literature. We were learning Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter,
whose climactic scene has Reverand Dimmesdale condemning Hester Prynne in court
for adultery -- for carrying HIS own baby, which he would not confess to . Dr. S. was stunned to hear from a kid in the
back that this is the precise scene of Genesis 38 -- except that Judge Judah mans up when Tamar presents
evidence that Judah is the father of the child… who would give rise to David
and the Messianic line of actual Judean kings.
Could our Creator be telling us that courageous human endeavor
will engender redemption?
Hanukah is the time to hold a candle up to the black and white
differences between the Hebraic and the Hellenic. Happy Hanukah.