GEN1491 See [[GEN1466]] Genesis 37:32 examine FREUND 87-8

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GEN1493 This moment is a turning point in history. Judah is the first person in the Torah to explicitly admit he was wrong. We do not realize it yet, but this seems to be the moment at which he acquired the depth of character necessary for him to become the first real baal teshuva.  We see this years later, when he--the man who proposed selling Joseph as a slave--becomes the man who is willing to spend the rest of his life in slavery so that his brother Benjamin can go free Genesis 44:33. I have argued elsewhere that it is from here that we learn the principle that a penitent stands higher than even a perfectly righteous individual. Berakhot 34b. Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation: Genesis-The Book of Beginnings (Jerusalem: Maggid, 2009) 303 – 314.  Judah the penitent becomes the ancestor of Israel’s kings, while Joseph, the righteous, is only a viceroy, mishneh lemelekh, second to the king. Thus far Judah. But the real hero of the story was Tamar. She had taken an immense risk by becoming pregnant. Indeed she was almost killed for it. She had done so for a noble reason: to ensure that the name of her late husband was perpetuated. But she took no less care to avoid Judah being put to shame. Only he and she knew what had happened. Judah could acknowledge his error without loss of face. It was from this episode that the sages derived the rule …: it is better to risk being thrown into a fiery furnace than shame someone else in public.   It is thus no coincidence that Tamar, a heroic non-Jewish woman, became the ancestor of David, Israel’s greatest king. There are striking similarities between Tamar and the other heroic woman in David’s ancestry, the Moabite woman we know as Ruth. The ancient Jewish custom on Shabbat and festivals to cover the challot (or matza) while holding the glass of wine over which Kiddush is being made is performed so as not to put the challah to shame while it is being as it were, passed over in favor of the wine. There are religious Jews who will go to great lengths to avoid shaming an inanimate loaf of bread but have no compunction about putting their fellow Jews to shame if they regard them as less religious than they are. That is what happens when we remember the halakha but forget the underlying moral principle behind it. Never put anyone to shame. SACKS 57-8

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GEN1496 This [story illustrates an instance of justice via] resistance to personal authority in a family setting.   BANAL 171

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GEN1494 If [a person] is mentioned in connection with evil that he has committed, he should admit his failing – and not search for excuses in order to be cleared of it and to justify himself – as Yehuda said [this verse].   DUTIES 584-5

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GEN1495 If one has [validly] related evil of him, he should not attempt to contradict the man who spoke against him nor hate him for revealing the thing, but he should humble himself before the Blessed Creator, Who revealed but a small part to afflict and chastise him to return to Him.   And if what was said about him is false, here too, he should not shame the speaker or be angry with him. It once happened that evil was spoken of one of the pious men, and when this became known to him, he sent a gift to the speaker, writing him: “You sent me a gift of your merits, and I am reciprocating with this gift that I am sending you.”   For on the Day of Judgment mitzvos are produced on behalf of many people who did not do them, and when they say: “But we did not do these,” they are told: “Those who spoke evil against you had performed these mitzvos, and they were taken from them and given to you.”   The wicked, likewise, are shown transgressions that they did not commit, and when they protest: “But we did not do these,” they are told: “These are the transgressions of those you slandered; they have been taken from them and added to yours.” This is the intent of Psalms 79:12: “And return to our neighbors seven-fold into their bosoms their insult with which they have insulted you, O Hashem.” For all who insult a righteous man it is as if they have insulted the Holy One Blessed be He, as the foes of Israel are referred to as the foes of Hashem in many places [in Scripture]. TZADIK 65

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GEN1497 He could easily have suppressed [or denied recognizing] the evidence.  TELVOL 1:227

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GEN1498 See [[GEN741]] Genesis 9:22 saw KELLNER 380

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GEN1499 Although not expressed explicitly in the Torah, the Rabbis understood that, according to [this verse], Potiphar bought the Hebrew, Joseph, specifically for homosexual purposes.  Sotah 13b.  This is significant, as it clearly implies that homosexuality was prevalent in Egypt at that time.  Thus, when the Torah (later on) commands Jews not to imitate the ways of the Egyptians (and Canaanites), this prohibition could also include the practice of homosexuality that was commonly found in these societies.   This in fact is the Rabbinical source prohibiting lesbianism.   [See also 6:12 AMJV 140] AMJV 140

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GEN1500 See [[GEN740]] Genesis 9:22 nakedness ROSNER 201-2

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GEN1501 Abbaye said: “Upon the heels of Torah scholars comes blessing, as it is written: ‘And the Lord blessed the house of the Egyptian for the sake of Joseph” Berachot 42a  TEMIMAH-GEN 164

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