Weekly Torah Portion – וַיֵּשֶׁב – Vayeshev – “And he settled”; Genesis 37:1 – 40:23; Amos 2:6 – 3:8

Can redemption arise from shame, truth from deception, a royal future from a broken biography? And who are the people through whom God’s plan continues to weave precisely in the places no one is looking? Between Joseph in the pit and Jacob’s silence lies a seemingly marginal story – yet it is a key to understanding guilt, responsibility, breakthrough, and messianic hope. It is the story of Tamar and Judah.

At the heart of the weekly portion, between the dramatic sale of Joseph and the grieving father’s painful silence, hides another, almost overlooked story: the story of one woman and a great divine process of restoration. A narrative that at first glance seems incidental, yet from it royal rule itself is born. From it springs the line of David, all the way to messianic hope.

Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law, suffers a double loss. Her two husbands, Er and then Onan – both sons of Judah – die one after the...

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