Judge Us With Mercy
In the dream of 27-28 Kislev, I was 'reminding' HaShem to remember His great rachmanut from the beginning of creation of this olam and to 'stretch' His great rachmanut till the end.
כי אמרתי:עולם, חסד יבנה; שמים, תכן אמונתך בהם. For you have said, Mercy will be made strong for ever; my faith will be unchanging in the heavens
The month of Tevet (beginning Friday) is a very difficult month. It is a winter month that is equivalent to the summer month of Av, a hard judgment month.
Malchut Bet David (King David kingdom) began based on Midat HaRachmanut (mercy). Without HaShem's rachmanut, c'v, the world would have long ago ceased to exist.
How did Malchut Bet David begin? Yehuda, zs'l, has three sons. The eldest son marries Tamar, a'h. Unfortunately he dies shortly afterwards. The Jewish custom is "Yibum--Leverite Marriage", the next son in line marries his widowed sister-in-law. The second son also dies.
Yehuda then tells Tamar (38:11) "Sit as a widow in your father's house until my third son is old enough to marry you". After much time goes by, it becomes clear to Tamar that Yehuda has no intention of giving his remaining son. This puts Tamar in a very precarious situation. According to Jewish law, she isn't married because her husband is dead. At the same time, she isn't really single because as long as there is someone who can perform the Leverite marriage, she is joined to him until he either marries her, or performs "Chalitzah"--a ceremony that lets him off the hook. According to the laws of Yibum, if there are no brothers to marry the widow, the father is next in line!
'Coincidentally', Yehuda's wife suddenly dies and he goes up to Timnah to get away from it all and shear some sheep. Tamar seizes the opportunity and dresses up like a prostitute and sits at a crossroads on the road going up to Timnah. Yehuda sees her and (38:15) "Thinks that she is a prostitute because her face is veiled". Yehuda then approaches Tamar and propositions her and offers her, the seal, string and staff. Tamar gets pregnant and immediately goes home the next day.
Three months later, Tamar is beginning to show and someone tells Yehuda that his daughter in-law is pregnant. Yehuda seems to view her as a married woman because he says (38:24) "She must be taken out and burned" as would happen to a married woman who committed adultery. On her way out to be killed, Tamar sends Yehuda the 3 security items with a message (38:25) "To whomever these things belong, is the one from whom I am pregnant". Whereupon Yehuda owns up to the whole affair by admitting out loud "She is more righteous than I".
The "seal" that he gave her is not merely a signet ring. Rather, it's the "seal" that Hashem puts on every Jewish man--i.e. the Brit Milah (circumcision), which represents the Covenant Hashem made with us. As part of this Covenant we expect Hashem to watch over us and in return He expects us to keep His mitzvot. One mitzvah we are expected to keep, specifically symbolized by the Brit Milah, is refraining from immoral behavior (which is why the Brit is done where it is). By transgressing this mitzvah with Tamar, Yehuda gave away his "seal" i.e. his Brit Milah.
The second thing that Yehuda gave Tamar was his string, or "P'til". The string is a symbol for Tzitzit, which are put on a four-cornered garment and include a "P'til T'chelet-blue string". In the prayer "Shema Yisroel", we say that tzitzit act as a reminder of all mitzvot. One way we see this is by adding up the numerical value of the Hebrew letters "Tzitzit" (=600) and adding to that the 8 strings of the Tzitzit and the 5 knots, which = 613. That number corresponds to the total number of miztvot we have. Tzitzit is also supposed to be a deterrent for sexual immorality. As it says in Shema "And you will see the tzitzit and YOU WILL NOT STRAY AFTER YOUR HEART"--which refers to immoral activity. In transgressing this, Yehuda gave Tamar his Tzitzit as well.
The third security that Yehuda gives Tamar is his staff. The staff represents leadership/royalty. Moshe Rabenu (zs'l) performed miracles with his staff and thus "ruled" over the Jews, like a King rules with a staff or scepter. A King is commanded not to have too many wives, because it could lead to immoral sexual activity. Since Yehuda involved himself in this kind of activity with Tamar, he gave away his staff as well.
כי אמרתי:עולם, חסד יבנה; שמים, תכן אמונתך בהם. For you have said, Mercy will be made strong for ever; my faith will be unchanging in the heavens
Although a person can come out of Hashem's Presence, it can never be that Hashem's Presence be removed out of the person.
Pray to Hashem to rule with Midat HaRachamim during the time of Midat HaDin and to send us the Geula with much needed Rachmanut, Amen Ve'Amen.
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כי אמרתי:עולם, חסד יבנה; שמים, תכן אמונתך בהם. For you have said, Mercy will be made strong for ever; my faith will be unchanging in the heavens
The month of Tevet (beginning Friday) is a very difficult month. It is a winter month that is equivalent to the summer month of Av, a hard judgment month.
Malchut Bet David (King David kingdom) began based on Midat HaRachmanut (mercy). Without HaShem's rachmanut, c'v, the world would have long ago ceased to exist.
How did Malchut Bet David begin? Yehuda, zs'l, has three sons. The eldest son marries Tamar, a'h. Unfortunately he dies shortly afterwards. The Jewish custom is "Yibum--Leverite Marriage", the next son in line marries his widowed sister-in-law. The second son also dies.
Yehuda then tells Tamar (38:11) "Sit as a widow in your father's house until my third son is old enough to marry you". After much time goes by, it becomes clear to Tamar that Yehuda has no intention of giving his remaining son. This puts Tamar in a very precarious situation. According to Jewish law, she isn't married because her husband is dead. At the same time, she isn't really single because as long as there is someone who can perform the Leverite marriage, she is joined to him until he either marries her, or performs "Chalitzah"--a ceremony that lets him off the hook. According to the laws of Yibum, if there are no brothers to marry the widow, the father is next in line!
'Coincidentally', Yehuda's wife suddenly dies and he goes up to Timnah to get away from it all and shear some sheep. Tamar seizes the opportunity and dresses up like a prostitute and sits at a crossroads on the road going up to Timnah. Yehuda sees her and (38:15) "Thinks that she is a prostitute because her face is veiled". Yehuda then approaches Tamar and propositions her and offers her, the seal, string and staff. Tamar gets pregnant and immediately goes home the next day.
Three months later, Tamar is beginning to show and someone tells Yehuda that his daughter in-law is pregnant. Yehuda seems to view her as a married woman because he says (38:24) "She must be taken out and burned" as would happen to a married woman who committed adultery. On her way out to be killed, Tamar sends Yehuda the 3 security items with a message (38:25) "To whomever these things belong, is the one from whom I am pregnant". Whereupon Yehuda owns up to the whole affair by admitting out loud "She is more righteous than I".
The "seal" that he gave her is not merely a signet ring. Rather, it's the "seal" that Hashem puts on every Jewish man--i.e. the Brit Milah (circumcision), which represents the Covenant Hashem made with us. As part of this Covenant we expect Hashem to watch over us and in return He expects us to keep His mitzvot. One mitzvah we are expected to keep, specifically symbolized by the Brit Milah, is refraining from immoral behavior (which is why the Brit is done where it is). By transgressing this mitzvah with Tamar, Yehuda gave away his "seal" i.e. his Brit Milah.
The second thing that Yehuda gave Tamar was his string, or "P'til". The string is a symbol for Tzitzit, which are put on a four-cornered garment and include a "P'til T'chelet-blue string". In the prayer "Shema Yisroel", we say that tzitzit act as a reminder of all mitzvot. One way we see this is by adding up the numerical value of the Hebrew letters "Tzitzit" (=600) and adding to that the 8 strings of the Tzitzit and the 5 knots, which = 613. That number corresponds to the total number of miztvot we have. Tzitzit is also supposed to be a deterrent for sexual immorality. As it says in Shema "And you will see the tzitzit and YOU WILL NOT STRAY AFTER YOUR HEART"--which refers to immoral activity. In transgressing this, Yehuda gave Tamar his Tzitzit as well.
The third security that Yehuda gives Tamar is his staff. The staff represents leadership/royalty. Moshe Rabenu (zs'l) performed miracles with his staff and thus "ruled" over the Jews, like a King rules with a staff or scepter. A King is commanded not to have too many wives, because it could lead to immoral sexual activity. Since Yehuda involved himself in this kind of activity with Tamar, he gave away his staff as well.
כי אמרתי:עולם, חסד יבנה; שמים, תכן אמונתך בהם. For you have said, Mercy will be made strong for ever; my faith will be unchanging in the heavens
Although a person can come out of Hashem's Presence, it can never be that Hashem's Presence be removed out of the person.
Pray to Hashem to rule with Midat HaRachamim during the time of Midat HaDin and to send us the Geula with much needed Rachmanut, Amen Ve'Amen.
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