MISS DERMARK'S COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 38

This is my own personal commentary on Chapter 38 of the Book of Genesis... my simple opinion. Retold in my own Lemony style...

0) AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...
Chapter 37 of Genesis ends with some slavers selling Joseph (the slavers had bought the boy from his stepbrothers) to the commander of the reigning pharaoh's royal guard. Chapter 38 opens not with the continuation of this lad's adventures, but with Judah, the stepbrothers' leader, leaving home and going to live with a certain friend of his, a pagan/believer in the old gods, called Hirah. It's like if John Fricking Cleese popped up at the commander's mansion and went: "And now for something completely different: Judah leaving home to eke out a living of his own!" followed by a cut back to the clan camp and Judah waving his birth family goodbye. The subplot is surreptitiously and unexpectedly inserted in the middle of the Joseph story for no inherent reason, like any good Big-Lipped Alligator Moment. However, unlike most BLAMs, this one makes up for its nature by simply being a great standalone story of its own.

1) WHEN JUDAH MET SHUA
The chapter begins with Judah leaving home to found a new clan of his own and seek his fortune. Flying the coop, one could say. And the first thing he does upon leaving home, obviously, is finding a friend, one Hirah or Hiram, whom I imagine as older than Judah and a more experienced mentor. And a Canaanite/pagan/believer in the old gods as well. So Judah goes to live with said new-found friend, and, during their travels, Judah sees a certain daughter of Canaanites, whose name is Shua (alternately spelled Shuah, with a final H). Maybe Hirah introduced the young people to one another. The narrator does not explain if he was lovestruck or he found out that her family was wealthy, but the story gives away that he plans to marry her. And, obviously, he marries Shua (not without asking her parents for her hand or arranging the wedding first, I imagine, for that would be the most obvious course of action). So, Judah has flown the coop, made at least a friend, and married. And what comes next, obviously, is sexual intercourse.

2) THEIR THREE SONS
Judah and Shua make love off-stage, in a pretty fairytale-ish manner that disregards the ins and outs of coitus: "he lay with her, and she was pregnant and gave birth to a son," thrice in a row (If you have the intent to read some Biblical erotica, I warmly recommend the Song of Songs). So Judah and Shua have three boys in a row and call them... Dimitri, Ivan, and Alyosha? (Facepalms) Oops, wrong story. Another try... Robert, Stannis, and Renly? (Facepalms and groans) Uh-uh. Let's see: Er, Onan, and Shelah (or Shaila, which sounds as cutesy and stripling-esque as Alyosha or Renly). The three-brother pattern is often found in fairytales, with the youngest one (Cinderelliot/Cinderlad, Ditzy Ivan, Jack the Fool) being the lucky one, and the two unpleasant older ones being punished. Now the parents didn't choose the names in vain: Er is Re backwards, and Re is something like bad/evil/wicked. So Er is like Dab or Dekciw in English, which, by warding off evil through reversing the order of letters, would sound positive: this lad would be anything but bad/wicked... IRONY, as we shall see. Onan means Strong, yet another highly optimistic name that time will prove ironic. And Shelah... it means like Wish, or Petition. A third optimistic name chosen without thinking of the consequences. It's also worth noting that not only is he the youngest son/brother, but also the only one whose place of birth is mentioned: Shua gave birth to him on some spot called Kezib (or Chezib). These clans are nomads and move from place to place (but we will soon discover that the key player in the story hails from a farming village society, with different mores). Neither Er's nor Onan's birthplace are mentioned, but Shelah's is, which at first also appears relevant (yet, as you read on, it will prove another red herring).

3) ER WHO ERRED
Some time later (Genesis does not give the length of the time skip) Judah finds a wife for his firstborn and heir, and said wife's name is Tamar (Not much about her is said, but, later on, she will be revealed to hail from a nearby farming village and to be an orphan, bereft of both her parents). This is a marriage of convenience, arranged by the parents against the will of the bride and groom, and thus we find (like many other times across history) both young newlyweds trapped in a loveless marriage, literally till death do them part. Thank the gods that the rights of women and children in the present, and the freedom and comfort these outgroups are offered, are far more widespread in our days than in the past. Fortunately, Tamar is saved by a rather literal case of deus ex machina: Er is wicked (there comes the irony I had spoken of), and thus, the LORD puts him to death. What kind of wickedness led Er to merit such karma and how the LORD smote him are never explained (Genesis, always that ambiguous!), I picture him as a lout who drank hard and beat his wife. Yes, there are still that kind of bastards, most of them (but NOT ALL of them) white trash, in our days. And, to keep on with that conjecture, he was killed in a brawl outside the local tavern. (Er became such a lout to develop a bad boy persona as protest against parents who, in his eyes, were living his life.) So, good news for Tammy. The children she never had would never suffer...
No, Tamar can't be free, for she is widowed and childless. And thus, Tradition steps into the stage to fill the vacant slot of antagonist...

4) ONAN THE BARBARIAN
After Er has croaked, Tradition (ever so obstructive!) forces Tamar to marry Onan, the next brother in line. The unwritten law of Canaan stated that a childless widow had to marry the next-in-line younger brother of her late husband, and this was seen as a ghost marriage, in which the bridegroom stood for his late older brother-in-law. The children Tamar would have from this second marriage would be regarded as Onan's nephews, as children of the late Er. No wonder that Onan is so frigging pissed: his claim as heir to the dynasty is, thus, at stake. Like Scar. Like Stannis Baratheon, in fact, less like Scar and more like Stannis. At least both Onan and Stannis had a point. Fortunately, Onan knows what to do... Whenever he sleeps with Tamar, he spills his seed on the ground. Now this seed of Onan's is the milk-like liquid more familiarly known as semen ("seed" in Latin) or sperm ("seed" in Greek).
Which leads to the next item in our agenda: debunking the sin of Onan. This sin was NOT masturbation, NOT sex for pleasure, NOT any deviance from the ideal of straight sex within marriage. The sin of Onan was COITUS INTERRUPTUS. He made love within marriage, but he pulled his sword out of the scabbard as soon as he felt it harden. Nevertheless, the LORD isn't that sweet on coitus interruptus either, so he smites Onan with death as well (I think of a stroke or a heart condition during the sexual act, which would up the ante of irony on so many fronts...). Yes, Onan was a barbarian. A barbarian with a point to support, but nevertheless a barbarian in the eyes of the LORD. And Tammy is once more widowed and still childless. Next in line is the youngest brother Shelah, but he's still a little boy, while our heroine, or rather our shero, is still an adolescent. Doesn't that remind us of a certain Westerosi character?

5) TAMMY AND THE MARGAERY TYRELL CURSE
Indeed, Tamar appears to share something with Margaery. Married a young man, who suddenly died leaving her childless. Married a stripling, who suddenly died leaving her childless. Now betrothed to a child, whom she will marry when he comes of age, and regarded by society as a cursed black widow. TaMargaery, for that could have been our shero's name as well, is now established as an outcast, unlike her charming and heart-ensnaring Westerosi counterpart (Yet there is a happy ending to this story... wait and see!). So her father-in-law tells her to return to her parents' home (it's mentioned, but her parents are never mentioned themselves) and wait until Shelah has come of age. And thus, Tamar returns to her birthplace and waits and waits and waits for years... not entirely, I mean, it's tiresome waiting in idleness for so long, so I picture her doing odd jobs, running errands, doing the washing, anything that might affect her life and the other villagers' and distract her from waiting. Tammy, Tammy, Tammy... In the end, the bridegroom has come of age (a boy became a stripling, nay, a young man at 12 in those days: life was so fooking short). Tamar's been surely waiting for three or four years. But Judah won't give the only child he has left to marry this lady who appears to be cursed and give the kiss of death to her every husband (Mind: Tamar IS NOT Sarah, the demon mistress who will appear oodles of books later!!). To spare Shelah an untimely fate, Judah uses... PARENTAL MARRIAGE VETO!! It's super effective! One of the few rare cases in which it's the male character's father who opposes the marriage. Unlike Cersei, Shua does nothing. And what happens next cements, for once and for all, the fact that she is expendable.

6) EXIT SHUA, STAGE LEFT
"Shua died". Yes, about the same time as Shelah came of age, his mum croaked, becoming part of the many deceased mothers in folklore and literary tradition. So many mums that pass away to make their husbands turn into drunken louts or into brooding career jocks, and/or to make their children helpless waifs in a hostile world. The Plot Reaper took away the mums of Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, the Little Mermaid, the Little Matchgirl, Oliver Twist, Eveline, Merope Gaunt, Mayella Ewell, Colin Craven, the Lannister twins and imp, the von Trapp children, Cosette, etcetera. Rare is the case of the fairytale family in which mothers and children (especially daughters) are both alive, by one another's side. And now the Plot Reaper steps in to whisk Shua away... Fortunately, Judah doesn't take to drink or corporal punishment: his response to widowerhood is the one observed in Captain von Trapp, Sir Archibald Craven, and Tywin Lannister, id est, that of becoming a brooding career jock without any emotions. So, Shua is as expendable as all the other examples given above and exists solely to marry, bring children to the light and raise them, then die only for the purpose of breaking her husband's heart. That's Shua in a nutshell. A stark contrast to Tamar, who can fend herself on her own and defy Tradition and Society, minding her own business, standing her own ground on her own two feet, aggressive, dynamic, self-centered, self-reliant, willful. Shua is the Perfect Wife, while Tamar is the Deviant who may be a dangerous Femme Fatale or an Iron Lady ahead of her times (I vote for the second option).

7) JUDAH'S BAD ROMANCE
To take Judah's mind off the loss of Shua, in steps his bestie Hirah, who invites the brooding widower over to the sheep-shearing festival in Tamar's home village. Yes, sheep were so important in those days' Canaan that their shearing (cutting off the wool) was a reason for revels, though the springtime equinox may be another cause of the celebration (sheep are shorn in spring). Indeed, it's springtime and everything is sunny and in bloom, and Judah surely needs some guilty pleasure and some social life. He agrees, at first a tad reluctantly. Now if you look at every single example of Manic Pixie Dreamgirl's brooding love interest in the media (except Mary Poppins), you'll find that the brooding, uptight fellow's backstory usually features a Lost Lenore, i.e., a deceased wife or girlfriend, always the catalyst for the male character's introversion and formality, otherwise the trope would not have effect (Mary Poppins being the exception, 'cause she's a servant and below the master on the ladder, hence the master's wife alive and kicking and a successful suffragette). Since Judah is a regional VIP, the rumour that he will attend the festival spreads like wildfire, and soon it reaches Tamar's ears. By now, she has assumed that Judah has abso-freaking-lutely no intention to make her a daughter-in-law for the third time. But Tammy won't despair. Like a certain 90s superduck, she thinks: "Let's get dangerous!" So she dresses up as a sacred prostitute, a sex priestess (there WERE sex priestesses in those communities in those days) and pops up by the wayside at the village entrance, the typical haunt of the average sex priestess. Basically, Tam dons some pretty sexier clothing and veils her hair and face like a hiyabi. The Clark Kent effect ensures she's unrecognizable, and so does the evening twilight. A trap has been set for Judah, and he falls into it hook, line, and sinker. Like... he doesn't recognize her and goes "Hello-o-o priestess!" (said with the "Hello-o-o nurse!" voice of Animaniacs). Love at first sight for sure, and Shua is soon forgotten as Judah and the priestess, at twilight, have a roll in the grass by the wayside. At dawn, when they part and it's half dark, they agree on the payment of the "priestess's" services: one young goat, one young goat, one goat my father for two coppers bought... Sorry, I got too carried away, but the facts are that they agree that the "priestess" should be paid with one young goat. (Must resist urge to sing that song!!). To remember the agreement, Judah gives Tamar his (phallic power symbol of a) herding staff and a charm he wears, called a signet. Don't forget these, 'cause, according to Chekhov's Law, the signet and the staff will prove very important at the climax of out story!!! Then they part ways and carry on with their lives... A while later, Judah sends his friend Hirah into Tamar's hometown with one young goat, one young goat, to be paid to a young sacred whore. (Did I sing it!?) The locals, however, deny that there ever was a sex priestess around on their turf during the shearing festival days. And Hirah is puzzled. So the whole incident with the priestess is soon forgotten... until spring turns to summer and Tam, and her fellow villagers, discover something rather unpleasant...

8) TAMMY: EXECUTED?
Yes, Judah knocked Tammy up. But she's not in the predicament of Juno McGuff, but rather in that of Fantine or the French Lieutenant's Woman. A jilted single mother was always an outcast in the olden days. So there's gonna be a tragedy. The rumour, again and as usual in such local communities, spreads like wildfire, and Judah is soon made aware of the bun in Tamar's oven. There is a council of both nomadic chieftains and farming villagers held, in which Tammy's parents are as absent as ever (confirming my theory that they are deceased), to discuss the punishment of Tam's fornication, and Judah sentences her, coldly and precisely, to burn at the stake (a fate also given by the law to witches, queer people, and heretics, since their sins are too serious even for such offenders to be buried outside sacred ground). So they're going to burn Tammy at the stake, without any habeas corpus, Miranda rights, or even the witch test (to dunk her into water and see if she floats, or to weigh her against a duck). Yes, it was an unfair world back then. When being pregnant and not married was punished with death. Judah has been cold, precise, harsh, Tywin Lannister-like: "Burn the fornicator." And now we're expecting the worst, until Tam comes out to the stake and, before being tied, shows the public her Chekhov's trinkets as a last wish...

9) TAMMY'S EVIDENCE
In tales like Belle-Belle or The Six Wild Swans, the heroine is unfairly accused and sentenced to death, but she manages to escape her public execution thanks to an eleventh-hour last wish (The Tinderbox has the same scenario, but with a male hero). The same happens here, meaning this turn of events is not an unusual occurrence in fiction at all: "Now whose are this signet and this herding staff?" Tamar asks everyone present at the execution, as she shows them the objects she names. Judah stands there with eyes and mouth wide open like The Scream by Edvard Munch, upon recognizing his own status symbols. "Tam was the sex priestess all along!?" Rapidly, he changes his mind: "Pardon her, set her free. She has been far more righteous than I, for I did not give her Shelah." Indeed, the ruse has allowed Tamar to retaliate and force-feed her b***ard of a father-in-law a large helping of humble pie, and make him meet his Waterloo. A shrewd girl, a clever girl, who stands on her own two feet. That is what our Tammy is. An unlikely female way ahead of her times, which makes her awesome. But this pardon, and the fact that she marries neither Shelah nor his dad, is not the end of the story. Let us skip forward to the winter of that year, when we find out that Tamar has twins, twin boys! The midwife ties a scarlet thread to the wrist of the one that ostensibly comes out first, reaching out one arm, but his brother is the one to come out completely first... isn't that unexpected? Not only that, but the twin without the scarlet thread, Perez (yes, like the tooth mouse in Spanish folklore), turns out to be an ancestor of Jesus (whose whole lineage is composed of badasses, Tamar included). The other twin, Zerah... nothing more is said about him. And, though she has no man to care for her, and does neither marry Judah nor Shelah, making her an outcast and an outsider for being an emancipated female, Tammy raises her twins and does odd jobs and minds her own business on her own, careless of what others have to say. "Screw Tradition" is surely her motto. That could be called a happy ever after, can't it?

10) BACK TO JOSEPH... AND HIS MASTER'S WIFE
And there's the Cleese voice again re-jerking us back to Joseph. "And now for something completely different: the slavers sold Joseph to the commander of the reigning pharaoh's royal guards, who holds him in high esteem and sets him free, making him the household steward. The commander's wife, however, is a cougar, and she is sweet on Joseph." As if the Tamar story had never happened, and we returned to Joseph and his long road of trials: the cougar, the dungeon, the cupbearer, the seven years of fat cows, the seven years of gaunt cows, being made a vizier, the test of the stepbrothers. At least we know about what kind of family Judah had in the meantime. But now we return to Joseph and treat the Tamar events as things that happened in the meantime, while Joseph was stalked, imprisoned, foretelling dreams, busy as Hand of the Pharaoh gathering grain and then rationing it among the smallfolk. Not only does this story give Judah more humanity, it also presents us the first emancipated female (and one of the very few) in the Good Book: a really awesome and inspiring character.