Sisters at Sinai: New Tales of Biblical Women

Penitence

79 Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot; in fact, she is with child by harlotry .” “Bring her out, said Judah, “and let her be burned.” As she was being brought out, she sent this message to her father-in-law, “I am with child by the man to whom these belong.” And she added, “Examine these: Whose seal and cord and staff are these?” Judah recognized them, and said, “She is more in the right than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he was not intimate with her again. —GENESIS 38:24–26 While Israel stayed in the land, Reuven went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel found out. —GENESIS 35:22 T hey were sitting just on the border of the shade, the sharp line between blinding brightness and succulent gray. Tamar sat in the sun, her coppery skin like a battalion of soldiers with shields. Bilhah sat in the shadows. Her hennaed hair had been doused in well water moments before. Strands were dripping onto the rust-colored cushion beneath her. Tamar poured a cup of black liquid from a stone pitcher. PENITENCE k The two women had been silent for some time. Previously, they had been discussing the famine in Canaan, the men’s upcoming trip to Egypt, the respective prospects of Jacob’s marriageable granddaughters. Now Tamar dropped her eyes toward the coffee. She did not pick up the conversation where it had left off. Bilhah picked up an orange from a bowl and began to peel it. She looked at Tamar through the corner of her eye. “I heard something about you from Naftali’s wife.” “What was that?” Tamar sipped her cardamom-laced coffee. Juice squirted between Bilhah’s fingers. “She said . . . well, she said that Judah doesn’t know you.” Tamar smiled wryly. “So the idiom goes.” Bilhah turned her carob-colored face toward Tamar, squinting as her glance entered the sunlight. “You spend all that time together, exchange all those warm looks, and he never touches you? Doesn’t Judah like women?” “You’re thinking of a different son of Jacob. Judah solicits female prostitutes, remember?” Tamar craned her neck to where the twins, Peretz and Zerach, were playing. There were no unusual sounds. She turned away. Bilhah tore a ragged piece of skin off of her orange. “Then why is he holding back from you? Is he punishing you? Is he in love with someone else?” “It isn’t a matter of romance, it’s a matter of ethics. I married two of his sons—I’m practically his daughter, even though I’m also the mother of his children. That afternoon at the gate of Enaim a sin was committed as far as he’s concerned. A lesson from God. He doesn’t want to make the same mistake twice.” Tamar flicked away a fly that had landed on her toenail. Bilhah snorted. “Reuven and I have made the same mistake a hundred times—and that’s a good thing, as far as I’m concerned.” 80 S I S T E R S A T S I N A I “Even though you’re likely to get into trouble?” Tamar asked. Bilhah laughed aloud. “I’m Jacob’s concubine. How much more trouble could I get into?” Tamar had thin lips like dried rose petals. She moved them slightly, moistened them. “You could be burned at the stake. I nearly was.” Bilhah snorted. “Judah wanted to get rid of you because you were inconvenient. I’m not inconvenient to anyone.” Tamar shook her head. “You could be an embarrassment to Jacob. I was one to Judah.” Bilhah laughed. “You’re even more of an embarrassment now that people say Judah must be too old to perform! You can’t tell me he stays away from you because you used to be his daughter-in-law!” Tamar grinned maliciously. “Perhaps he’s afraid of dying. My lovemaking had a negative effect on my first two husbands.” “Judah’s first wife, Bat-Shua, used to rock the tent when she was with him,” Bilhah argued. “Reuven used to say Judah moved to another camp so that his brothers would stop making fun of him for his constant lovemaking. He’s not that old, Tamar. You can’t convince me it’s because...