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Abstract
Rabbinic tradition traces the genealogy of the Messiah, on the one side, to a father having intercourse with one of his daughters, and, on the other, to a father-in-law having intercourse with his daughter-in-law. (Also Moses, the lawgiver, was the product of a union between a nephew and an aunt.) The article considers the significance of these extraordinary genealogies. It concludes that in rabbinic tradition the precondition for both the arrival of the Messiah and the creation of law is erotic attachment.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Comment by Rashi to Exodus 6:20, “Jochebed his aunt”: “(As the Targum) the sister of his [Amram's] father, the daughter of Levi, sister of Kohath.” Abraham ben Isaiah and Benjamin Sharfman, The Pentateuch and Rashi's Commentary: A Linear Translation into English, Exodus (Brooklyn, NY: S.S. & R. Publishing Company, Inc., 1950), 56.
2. See commentary to “[And] the betrothed suitors [lit. “the takers”] of his daughters,” Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz, trans., Genesis/A New Translation with a Commentary Anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic and Rabbinic Sources, Vol. 1a (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, Ltd., 1986) (hereinafter Genesis, Vol. 1a), 19:14, 691.
3. Genesis, Vol. 1a, 19:17, 697.
4. See commentary to “[And] The older one said to the younger,” Genesis, Vol. 1a, 19:31, 713.
5. Genesis, Vol. 1a, 19:30, 711 and 713.
6. Genesis, Vol. 1a, 19:31–32, 713 and 715.
7. Genesis, Vol. 1a, 19:28, 709.
8. See commentary to “30. Lot's daughters,” Genesis, Vol. 1a, 711 and 713.
9. See Arthur J. Jacobson, “Job's Justice,” Cardozo Law Review 34 (2013): 983.
10. Genesis, Vol. 1a, 654, note 1.
11. “HASHEM” is one of the names of God in Hebrew. It is the name of God when acting according to His attribute of justice. The name of God when acting according to the attribute of mercy is the Tetragrammaton – four Hebrew letters – translated in English as “Yahweh,” but which Maimonides tells us is properly translated as “Existence” (he regards the Tetragrammaton as a contraction of the various tenses of the verb “to be”).
12. Dogs have names and understand that they have names. That is why dogs show remorse when caught doing something they know to be wrong.
13. Genesis, Vol. 1a, 19:26, 707.
14. See commentary to “And she became a pillar of salt,” Genesis, Vol. 1a, 19:26, 707.
15. Ibid.
16. The story of Judah's sexual relationship with Tamar and the birth of Peretz, their son, stretches from Genesis 38:1 through Genesis 38:30.
17. Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz, trans., Genesis/A New Translation with a Commentary Anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic and Rabbinic Sources, Vol. 1b (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, Ltd., 1986) (hereinafter Genesis, Vol. 1b), 38:6, 1673.
18. Genesis, Vol. 1b, 38:7, 1673 and 1674.
19. Genesis, Vol. 1b, 38:9, 1677.
20. Genesis, Vol. 1b, 38:11, 1679.
21. Genesis, Vol. 1b, 38:12, 1679.
22. The source of the obligation of the levirate marriage, Deuteronomy 25:6, imposes the obligation only on the brothers of the deceased. However, according to B'chor Shor, “before the Torah was given, levirate marriage could be performed by any close relative – even the father of the deceased.” Commentary to “So [lit. and] he detoured to her by the road,” Genesis, Vol. 1b, 38:16, 1683. See also Genesis, Vol. 1b, 1675, note 2.
23. Zechariah, 9:9–10.
24. Zechariah, 14:16–17.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Arthur J. Jacobson
Arthur J. Jacobson is the Max Freund Professor of Litigation and Advocacy at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. Among many other books, he has co-authored, with J. David Bleich, Jewish Law and Contemporary Issues (Cambridge University Press, 2015). He has taught Jewish law at Humboldt University in Berlin. He can be reached by email at: [email protected]