The Secrets of Chumash with Rabbi Shnayor Burton

Tamar is the ideal woman for the royal house: in the days of Yehuda, in the days of David, and in the days of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi.

You can email Rabbi Burton with questions or comments at: [email protected]

For a lecture series on major topics in Jewish philosophy, see here: https://anchor.fm/shnayor-burton

Yehuda's royal progeny is at risk of coming to an end. Tamar is the life force that preserves it, and after her, Rus, who continues both the story of Tamar and that of Lot's daughters.

 Yehuda needed Tamar in his family. She provided him with the opportunity to rise from his fall. She is the woman who could bring goodness by fixing man's aloneness, the only thing "not good" in creation.  

When Yehuda "turned to a certain Addulamite," he was turning off the path of Hashem's ways, the path of prophecy. This is consistent with the sale of Yosef, that terrible act that initiated a long period of divine concealment.

The narrative of Yosef is interrupted with a story about Yehudah. 

This mysterious story takes us from Yosef's challenges to realize his kingly destiny to Yehudah and his royal house. The theme of divine hiddenness, introduced through Yosef and his sale, continues and takes on different dimensions. 

Sources:

מלאכי ב יא-יב

שופטים יד-טז

מגילת רות

You can email Rabbi Burton with questions or comments at: [email protected]

For a lecture series on major topics in Jewish philosophy, see here: https://anchor.fm/shnayor-burton

When the brothers 'lifted up their eyes and saw a caravan' there was also something that they didn't see. They didn't see properly and they misinterpreted the symbol that presented to them.

This shiur highlights the concept of symbols, their meaning, and the prophetic skill of interpreting them correctly.

Sources:

You can email Rabbi Burton with questions or comments at: [email protected]

For a lecture series on major topics in Jewish philosophy, see here: https://anchor.fm/shnayor-burton

The Medanim/ merchants and the metaphysical status of land/ a summary of chapter 37 

You can email Rabbi Burton with questions or comments at: [email protected]

For a lecture series on major topics in Jewish philosophy, see here: https://anchor.fm/shnayor-burton

The reason that Yaakov couldn't be comforted/ Yosef like an only son/ selling Yosef was an unforgivable and unforgettable act/ the hunger in Egypt was really a hunger for the word of Hashem

Sources: 

עמוס פרק ח

Yaakov's sin was to live in a way that was hidden from Hashem – in a dimension where He isn't fully present. Like King David who sinned in the same way, he was punished with strife in his family, and, measure for measure, the great drama revolves around disguises and concealment.

You can email Rabbi Burton with questions or comments at: [email protected]

For lectures on major topics in Jewish philosophy, visit: https://anchor.fm/shnayor-burton