“Judah saw her, but mistook here for a prostitute because she had covered her face.”
Transforming the Bitter into Sweet
This account of Judah’s complex relationship with Tamar requires careful examination. Turning our focus to Tamar, who actively initiated the episode, we will meditate on her name.
In Hebrew, “Tamar” (רָמָּת) is a date palm, the seventh and final species with which the Land of Israel is blessed. It is also the root of the word “exchange” (הָרּמוְּת). Alternatively, we can divide the name Tamar into two words, Tam-mar, meaning “complete” (םָּת) and “bitter” (רַמ).
This alludes to the completion, or end of bitterness. Like a date palm, which can turn an arid wilderness into a flourishing oasis, Tamar knew how to transform that which is bitter into that which is sweet.
The date palm thrives on salt (bitter) water, transforming it into a honey-sweet fruit. Some of the events in this story are bitter pills to swallow, beginning with Er and Onan’s sins and their subsequent deaths, and concluding with Judah’s own questionable behavior.
Tamar’s act presents a clear example of turning the bitterness of death into the ultimate rectified sweetness of redemption. The light of Mashiach is the sweet fruit that emerges from bitterness. Tamar is the origin of Mashiach’s level of consciousness, which transforms “darkness into light and the bitter into sweetness.”
Sweetening a Bitter Thought
The Maggid of Mezritch, the disciple and successor of the Ba’al Shem Tov, explains,
The meaning of Tamar (רָמָּת) is ‘the end of bitterness’ (רַם־מָּת). A foreign thought is bitter, but in truth, it is innocent (הָמַּת).
Sometimes foreign thoughts trouble an individual during his prayers. In the better case, these may be thoughts about his business or family matters. In the worst case, sinful reflections enter his mind. At that moment, he must understand that this irritating thought has a positive root and source,
...He realizes that this [thought] originates in the holy letters; it is merely their order that is foolish.
The Maggid means to say that the source of all thoughts is in the sacred Hebrew letters—the building blocks of creation. If a specific thought appears foolish and sinful, it is because we have combined the letters incorrectly. The root of the initial thought remains pure and holy, but it is as if we have wrongly assembled the puzzle.
One example of such a letter-combination that is turned from good into evil is in the verse in our Torah portion, “Er, [רֵע] Judah’s firstborn was evil [עַר] in God’s eyes.”
When an individual realizes that his improper thoughts are a misinterpretation of something good,
He can enter the world of transformations, and from these combinations, other words can be formed; from words of folly emerge words of Torah.
A foreign thought is bitter and evil, but recognizing its source elevates it to its root, to the “world of transformations” in which the puzzle, so to speak, can be reconstructed, and the folly sweetened.
Rebbe Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the Alter Rebbe (the Maggid’s youngest and dearest disciple) writes that this method of elevating foreign thoughts is a type of service that should be undertaken only when a person is a tzaddik (righteous). However, the directive given to the general population is to ignore or expel the improper thoughts. Nevertheless, the realization that foreign thoughts are rooted in a positive source is something to which we can all relate. As we approach the final redemption, this service of the righteous will become increasingly available to all individuals.
The explanation offered by the Maggid shines a new light on the story of Judah and Tamar. Judah thought the woman he met was a prostitute (הָשֵדְק), but in truth, she was his righteous and holy (הָשֹדְק) daughter-in-law. He thought that Tamar had become pregnant illegitimately, but in truth, she was pregnant with Judah’s own child. Tamar, who covered her face, was like an improper thought that masks its true source. The moment Judah realized the truth, all the bitterness turned into sweetness.
We too can transform the bitterness of improper thoughts into sweetness, if, instead of being overwhelmed by them, we recognize them as misleading interferences, the source of which is pure and holy.
(excerpted from The Inner Dimension on parashat Vayeishev)
