Sotah 10b (י:) — the Talmud in English

Rather, “and he caused others to recite it” –

to others,

This teaches that Abraham our forefather caused the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, to be recited aloud by every passerby, –

for he taught people to call upon the name of the Lord, God of the world.

How so?

After

Abraham our forefather’s guests

had eaten and drunk

of his food,

they rose to bless

Abraham,

He said to them: “Have you eaten of my food? You have eaten of the food of the God of the world!”

Immediately

they acknowledged, praised, and blessed Him who spoke and brought the world into being,

and in this way he caused everyone to acknowledge Him'.

The Gemara returns to the matter of Tamar:

It is written:

“And Judah saw her and thought her to be a prostitute, because she had covered her face” (Genesis 38:15).

And we challenge this:

Because she had covered her face, he thought her to be a prostitute?

But the way of prostitutes is to uncover their faces rather than cover them.

And we answer:

Rabbi Elazar said:

This is how the verse should be understood: because

she had covered her face in her father-in-law’s house –

Judah had not seen her throughout all the years that she had grown up in his household, because she was modest; therefore, he did not recognize her when she uncovered her face.

As Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: Every bride

who is modest in her father-in-law’s house –

merits that kings and prophets emerge from her.

From where do we know this

do we learn this?

From Tamar –

from whom both kings and prophets emerged. We find that

prophets

emerged from her, as it is written: “The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz” (Isaiah 1:1).

Amoz was a descendant of Tamar, as will be explained below.

And we find that

kings

emerged from David

who belonged to the tribe of Judah and was among Tamar’s descendants.

And

from where do we know that Amoz, the father of the prophet Isaiah, was of the house of David?

Rabbi Levi said: We have received this matter as a tradition from our forefathers: Amoz

the father of the prophet Isaiah

and Amaziah

the king of Judah, who was descended from David,

were brothers,

so Isaiah the prophet was also of the house of David and among Tamar’s descendants.

It is stated concerning Tamar:

“She

was brought out (to be burned), and she sent to her father-in-law, saying: “To the man to whom these belong I am pregnant,” and she said: “Identify, please, whose are this signet, these cords, and this staff” (Genesis 38:25).

(to be burned), and she sent word to her father-in-law, saying: ‘By the man to whom these belong I am pregnant.’ And she said: ‘Please identify whose are this signet, these cords, and this staff.’”

And we challenge this:

It should have said, “She was taken out,”

which is an expression denoting that she was brought out against her will, rather than “she was found,” which denotes discovery.

Rabbi Elazar said:

The verse used an expression of discovery in order to hint that the identifying objects had been found,

for

after her identifying objects had been found –

the signet, the cords, and the staff, which proved that she had conceived from Judah –

there came

an angel,

Samael,

who is the guardian angel of Edom,

and distanced them,

so that she would be burned and David would not emerge from her to strike Edom in the Valley of Salt. And

there came

the angel

Gabriel and brought them near.

And

this is what is written:

“For the conductor, upon the mute dove, far away, by David, a michtam” (Psalms 56:1),

which refers to Tamar, whose identifying objects were made distant because she was destined and prepared for David to emerge from her.

For

Rabbi Yoḥanan said: From the moment her identifying objects were distanced, she became like a mute dove,

and therefore she is called in the verse “a mute dove.”

The reason her identifying objects were distanced by the guardian angel of Edom was

“by David, a michtam” –

for

he was destined to

emerge from her, David, who was mak

humble

and tam

whole and sincere in his ways

toward all.

Alternatively: he was called

He was called

“a michtam” –

because his wound

the place of circumcision, which is fit to be wounded –

was complete,

whole and perfected.

He was born circumcised,

and there was no need to circumcise him.

Alternatively: “a michtam” –

his affliction, meaning his humility, remained complete throughout all his days,

for

just as in his youth

before he became king –

he humbled himself before one greater than he in order to learn Torah, so

also

in his greatness

after he became king, he conducted himself in this manner.

Later in the verse concerning Tamar, it is stated:

“And she sent to her father-in-law, saying: ‘To the man to whom these belong I am pregnant.’”

And we challenge this:

She should have told him explicitly,

telling the messenger to say clearly that she was pregnant by him, and that these were his identifying objects.

Rav Zutra bar Tovia said in the name of Rav – and some say that Rav Ḥana bar Bizna said in the name of Rabbi Shimon Ḥasida, and some say that Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai:

It is preferable [

better]

for a person to cast himself into a fiery furnace rather than publicly shame another.

From where do we know this

do we learn this? –

From Tamar,

for she preferred to be burned rather than shame Judah. Therefore, she sent word to him that if he would acknowledge the matter and reveal it himself, that would be preferable; but if not, she would be burned rather than reveal the matter herself.

It is stated:

“Identify, please” (ibid.).

Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said:

Since

through “identify” Judah informed

his

father

of a matter that caused him distress, therefore

through “identify” he was informed.

And we explain:

Through “identify” he informed

his father, when he said to him concerning Joseph’s tunic:

“Identify, please: Is this your son’s tunic?”

(Genesis 37:32),

therefore

through “identify” he was informed –

“Identify, please, whose are

the signet, the cords, and the staff.”

It is stated: “Identify

please” –

“please” is only an expression of supplication,

for

she said to him: “Please, identify the face of your Creator, and do not hide your eyes from me.”

It is stated:

“And Judah identified and said: ‘She is more righteous than I’”

and he acknowledged it publicly.

This is what Rav Ḥanin bar Bizna said in the name of Rabbi Shimon Ḥasida:

Joseph, who sanctified the name of Heaven in private

when he resisted the advances of Potiphar’s wife –

merited that one letter from the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, was added to his name,

as it is written:

“As a testimony in Joseph He set it” (Psalms 81:6),

indicating that the letter he was added to his name was the letter heh from the name of the Holy One, blessed be He.

Judah, who sanctified the name of Heaven publicly

by acknowledging the matter before everyone –

merited that his entire name was called by the name of the Holy One, blessed be He,

since all the letters yod, heh, vav, and heh are contained within the name Judah.

Once Judah acknowledged

the matter

and said, “She is more righteous than I,” a Divine voice emerged and said:

You saved

Tamar

and her two sons

with whom she was pregnant,

from the fire; by your life, I will save three of your descendants from the fire by your merit.

Who are they [

who are they]?

Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Judah said: “And

he said

‘She is more righteous than I.’”

And we challenge this:

From where did he know

that Tamar was indeed pregnant by him? Perhaps others had relations with her, and she became pregnant by one of them.

And we answer: A Divine voice said –

a Divine voice emerged

from Heaven

and said: “From Me these hidden matters emerged” [

secret words – the King’s decree], for it had been decreed before Me that kings would emerge from Tamar, and they could emerge only from Judah.

It is subsequently stated concerning Judah and Tamar:

“And he did not continue to know her”

(ibid.).

The elder Shmuel said [

the elder],

the father-in-law [

his father-in-law]

of Rav

Shmuel

bar Ami, in the name of Rav Shmuel bar Ami: Once he knew her –

once he knew that she was righteous and had acted for the sake of Heaven,

he no longer ceased from her,

and he derives this from “he did not continue.”

For

here it is written: “And he did not continue to know her,”

and elsewhere it is written:

at the giving of the Torah,

“a great voice, and it did not continue”

(Deuteronomy 5:19),

which we translate as “and it did not cease.”

We learned in the Mishna:

Absalom gloried in his hair, and he was punished through his hair.

The Sages taught

in a beraita:

Absalom, because of

his

hair, rebelled

and sinned,

for adjacent to the account of the rebellion he led against his father, the verse relates what caused him to do so: He was handsome, and throughout all Israel there was no one like him. He became arrogant over his beauty and his hair, and thought that among the descendants of David there was no one as worthy of the kingship as he was, and he rebelled,

as it is stated: “And like Absalom there was no man as handsome

in all Israel,

and so on; and when he shaved his head, it would be at the end of each period of days, when he shaved, because it was heavy upon him

(he would shave once every twelve months, since he was a lifelong nazirite),

and he shaved it and weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels by the king’s weight”

(II Samuel 14:25

–26),

And what is the king’s weight?

The tanna taught: A stone with which the people of Tiberias and the people of Sepphoris weighed.

And because his hair was exceptionally beautiful and he took pride in it,

therefore he was hanged by his hair,

as it is stated:

“And Absalom encountered the servants of David; and Absalom was riding upon the mule, and the mule came beneath the thick branches of the great terebinth, and his head caught in the terebinth, and he was suspended between heaven and earth, while the mule beneath him passed on.”

He took a sword and wanted to cut it [

Absalom took a sword and wanted to cut the hair]

in order to free himself. The tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: At that moment, Sheol split open beneath him,

and he was afraid of falling into it; therefore, he did not cut his hair.

It is stated there:

“And the king

trembled

(and was frightened),

and he went up

(David)

to the upper chamber

(the roof of)

the gate

(of the city),

and he wept; and as he went he said: ‘My son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son!’ And the king covered his face and cried out in a loud voice: ‘My son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son!’”

And we inquire about this:

These eight [

those eight] times that King David said

“my son”—why?

And we explain:

seven

times he prayed for him, and thereby succeeded in

raising him

[that is, he elevated him]

from the seven chambers of Gehenna

in which he had been destined to be.

And the other

[the eighth “my son”]

some say: that he brought his head close to his body,

as his head had been cast far from his body, and he brought it close.

And some say: that he brought him to the World-to-Come,

for he brought him to the life of the World-to-Come.

It is stated there:

“And Absalom took

the counsel

and erected for himself during his lifetime

a monument that was in the Valley of the King [to serve as a memorial for him after his death], for he said: ‘I have no son for the sake of having my name remembered.’ And he named the monument after himself, and he named it Yad Absalom, to this day”.

And we inquire about this:

What

is the meaning of the expression

“took”?

Reish Lakish said: He took a bad acquisition for himself,

and because he took a bad acquisition, he was punished.

Later there, it is stated:

“The monument that was in the Valley of the King, etc.”

Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa said:

“The Valley of the King” means that

by a profound counsel

of

the Almighty, who is

the King of the universe,

Absalom did this, for the Almighty had decreed this upon David through the episode of Bathsheba.