Tamar, Crimson Thread, Anniversary

Mazal tov on your "blogiversary"!

Mazal Tov! You're only half a year behind me (or so). I so enjoy your blog, and feel like we've become friends. I hope you keep blogging for a long time!

Happy blogiversary from me too! Keep on the good work. I started my first blog almost two years ago but only started regular blogging less than a year ago.

Congratulations on your blogging anniversary! This month marks mine also, although I'm not sure about the exact date, I need to check...
About the crimson thread: does that refer to the red thread that Rachav the prostitute hung outside of her window to signal to the Israelites not to attack her house when they capture Jericho?
Tamar: Tamar did not reveal her true identity to her father-in-law Judah, who thought she was a prostitute (am I sensing a theme here?)This was virtuous because her intention was to continue Judah's line after his son died and left her childless. Or something like that.
Dreams: Ummm...three, I think. The baker's dream, the winemaker's dream, and Pharoah's dream about the fat cows and the skinny cows.
How'd I do?

Raizy, thanks for dipping into the quizzes on the parsha!
Yes, the red thread shows up in Yehoshua 2 as well as in this week's parsha. Not sure if they are related, however.
Lots on red thread in this post.

Tamar: could be.

Dreams: you got the first two right. Pharoah's cow dream is next week. You are missing some of Yosef's...

Mazal Tov on year one! May your blogging grow from strength to strength and may your influence of good extend itself to even more people.

Regarding the questions...
1) Crimson thread, I don't know how it connects with this weeks Parsha. Although I do like the comparison that Raizy made, with Rachav.

2) I am going to blog about it, :-). Will post the link when its ready. You inspired me to.

3) Four dreams, two of Josephs and than the butler and baker at the end of the Parsha.

Keep it up!
Aron Grinshtein

Aron, thanks, will write about red thread at/or about Weds, looking forward to your post, yes on dreams and thanks for commenting!

Happy Anniversary Leora..My 2 year is coming up in January..

Happy Blogversary!

Tamar gave birth to twins. At first, only the arm of a child emerged from the womb. A red cord was placed around the wrist. The arm then went back into the womb. The first child to fully emerge lacked the red cord, but the second child had it. Therefore the second (fully) born child was considered the bechor (first born). This was Peretz, who is the direct male ancestor of Boaz, who married Ruth, whose great grandson was King David. Thus the messiah will descend on the male line from Peretz.

Judah's descendants merited to be Kings of Israel (and Judah himself to be the chief among the 12 children of Jacob/Israel) because of his willingness to admit to fault during the incident with Tamar. It would have been easy to cover the problem up in several different ways, but instead he forthrightly admitted to being in the wrong.

Larry, "The first child to fully emerge lacked the red cord, but the second child had it" I thought Zerach got the red cord and Peretz became the ancestor of Boaz and David didn't?

Yes, that explains why Judah had the merit, but why did Tamar? (Rashi gave one suggestion).

You are correct - Peretz emerged fully first. (I mentioned earlier that as a personal challenge I do these from memory only).

Someone discusses the obstetrical aspects of the birth on the Jewifery blog.

I'll watch with interest to see what other people say about why Tamar merits being the great^n grandmother of Moshiach. One problem is that the normal rules of yibbum don't ever include the father-in-law, but of course this is all occurring pre-Sinai.

>I do these from memory only
And I look up everything... I found a bit more on Tamar last night. Much more on Yosef for this parsha.

Mazal tov! So glad that you have stuck around. You are always learning and teaching--even on a post about blogging.

>You are always learning and teaching
I think I'm a natural student. I apologize to anyone who feels like they are in school when they read my posts; l'havdil, other way around, should just be fun to learn new things.

Tamar was a very gutsy lady. I've blogged about her. She risked everything to have a baby in the Yehuda line, like his mother Leah and later on Ruth/Naomi.
Yehuda was supposed to marry his youngest son to her and didn't so she dressed like a prostitute and seduced him. Then he went on his way and couldn't find her to pay her. When it was discovered that she pregnant, the court, Judah as judge, ordered her to be executed. Then she showed him the "deposit" the father left, and he declared her tzadeket.
http://me-ander.blogspot.com/2005/12/shabbat-alone-and-parshat-shavua.html

Batya, thanks for the link to your post. That was an interesting approach, focusing on Yehuda's wife. I've never heard it presented that way.

Ok, so I'm late with this one, but happy blogversary!
I thought you were blogging for more than a year!

I love your parsha posts, always something interesting.

So the crimson thread was the red string on the baby's hand?

How many dreams were there? 3?

4 dreams. Aron Grinshtein wrote the answer first.

I've learned to study one parsha ahead on Shabbat, so I can think of something for next week.

Yes, the watercolor had the answer. I didn't write a lot about the red thread, but it seems to show up throughout Jewish history.

o, I didn't look at the other comments.

Always good to plan ahead.

interesting...