Summary Of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Much of this week's Torah portion may be familiar to you from such films as "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." While the story of Joseph and his brothers is ripe with lessons on sibling relationships, avoiding temptation, and using interpretation to one's own advantage, I'd like to focus today on a few lesser-talked about characters in this drama: the women.

To begin, let's go back a week to Vayishlach, which, as Daniel discussed in the previous Moishe Moment, mainly describes Jacob's fraught meeting with his estranged brother, Esau. Again, I'd like to skip over the men and jump instead to the fascinating (and very disturbing) story of Dinah. In short, Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, goes out to the fields and is violated ("ye'aneha") by Shechem, a Hivvite. Despite Shechem's heartfelt plea to marry Dinah and make things right with the sons of Jacob (including circumcising his whole town), Dinah's brothers are furious that their sister's honor has been besmirched. Simeon and Levi proceed to slaughter Shechem and all of his people, plundering their wealth in the process. Not exactly a morality tale.
What I find most lacking in this story, besides a shred of decency on the part of Simeon and Levi, is any sort of character development for Dinah.
We know nothing of what actually took place between Dinah and Shechem and how she felt about the whole situation. In "The Red Tent," Anita Diamant solves this problem by taking Dinah as her narrator, exploring her desires and inner thoughts. However, as it is written in the Torah, Dinah comes off as a flat character - a sister, a daughter, a virtuous, pure woman, shamed by a man and avenged by other
men.

Contrast that with one of the most prominent women in this week's parsha: Potiphar's wife (whose name we never learn). Unlike Dinah, her desires are clear as she pines for her hot houseboy, Joseph the Hebrew slave. After repeated attempts to get him into bed, she feels scorned by his virtuousness and claims loudly to all who will listen that Joseph violated her. It is the inverse of the previous situation: Joseph does nothing wrong, but is blamed for the crime anyway and is thrown into prison.

In this story, Potiphar's wife plays another prototypical female character: the seductress. Evil and cunning, her sexuality leads her to harm the pious men around her. In other words, she's a whore.

The dichotomy between the pure, virtuous Dinah and the sexual, conniving wife of Potiphar exists in many stories in the popular canon, from ancient times to the present. Sigmund Freud referred to it as the "Madonna-whore complex," and others know it as the "virgin-whore dichotomy." In this trope, women are divided neatly into two categories: completely non-sexual, moral beings (the virgins), or overly sexual, debased creatures (the whores). The lesson of Dinah vs. wife of Potiphar is clear: women can either be good or sexual - but not both.

But wait! There's hope for us feminists who like to read Torah! Vayeishev contains not only the story of the slutty wife, but also a fascinating and under-valued tale of a woman who is both the virgin and the whore (and thus, neither). Enter Tamar.

Tamar is the daughter-in-law of Judah, one of good sons of Jacob. After Tamar’s husband (Judah’s son Er) dies, Judah follows the Levirite law and allows her to marry his next son, so as not to leave her destitute. Unwilling to perform his marital duties (see: the sin of Onan), he is struck dead, just as his brother was. Judah is now reasonably freaked out that Tamar is some sort of curse on his sons, and he demands that she return to her own father's house to wait virtuously until the youngest son grows up. Judah proceeds to forget all about her and pretend she never existed.

Well, this was just no good for Tamar. Stuck waiting in her father's house, impoverished and unable to legally marry, she hatches a master plan. Knowing Judah's travel route, Tamar dresses up as a prostitute and stands by the road seductively. Judah, unable to resist the temptation and not realizing that it's actually his daughter-in-law, sleeps with her, whereupon she becomes pregnant. Later, upon finding out that Tamar slept around and got knocked up, Judah is furious and, honor besmirched, he demands that she be burned. Hold up a sec...Tamar pulls out Judah's staff and signet ring, thus proving that it was Judah who impregnated her after all! A Biblical paternity test, ala Montell Williams!

Mortified, Judah calls off the execution and realizes that his treatment of Tamar has been woefully neglectful. From that point forward, he provides for Tamar and her twin sons.

I love the story of Tamar: talk about a woman using her sexuality to empower herself and demand fair treatment. More than anything, this story breaks down the virgin/whore dichotomy - because Tamar gets to be both. She literally plays the whore, tempting her own father-in-law into bed. In the end, though, it is Judah who is abashed, and Tamar comes off as a strong, virtuous woman.

One more thing: it is not through Joseph, Simeon, or Levi that most Jews trace their heritage. The name of our people - "Jews" - comes from the tribe of Judah, and it was the son of Tamar, Perez, whose lineage led directly to King David. Without Tamar's sexual deviance, the Jewish people would not exist. Perhaps the Torah is trying to tell us that women are more than virgins or whores - they are fully fleshed-out human beings, with stories and feelings and (gasp!) desires. Now that's a Torah that I can get into.