Description
This monograph explores one of the most fascinating themes in Jewish and Hebrew fiction, Tamar, Wife of Er. The book covers more than 150 Jewish versions of the theme, based on the original Biblical story, through external and Hellenistic literature, midrash, piyyut, medieval commentary, sermon literature, moral literature, chronicles, Kabbalistic, Sabbatean, Hassidic literature and modern Hebrew literature from the Enlightenment to the present day. The course of the versions is delivered chronologically within an interpretive clarification of them against the background of the different genres in which they were written, the cultural spaces in which they evolved and the Jewish languages in which they were narrated.
The story 'Tamar, Wife of Er' contains the important nuclei of tribal Israeli culture: inter-familial relationships, the laws of Yibum, the relations of men and women in the family unit and the hegemonic status of the chosen tribe in determining the royal dynasty. As a story that contains aspects of transgression, sexual seduction, incest and the birth of a Messiah from a forbidden union, it has captivated the attention of preachers, commentators, writers and creators for generations.