The Weekly Shtikle - Vayeishev

            When the brothers come to tell Yaakov that a tragedy has befallen Yosef, they present the bloody coat to him and Yehuda asks (37:32) "Haker na...", do you recognize if this is your son's coat? The gemara in Sotah 10b says that just as Yehudah used this method of informing his father, the same method was used by Tamar to inform him that she was pregnant with his child(ren), (38:25) "Haker na...", do you know to whom these belong? The Ba'al HaTurim quotes this gemara here and he interprets it as a criticism of Yehudah. Just as he informed his father in this 'sneaky' way, instead of telling him outright, Tamar informed him in the same way.

            R' Chaim Kunyevsky, however, interprets it as a praise of Yehudah. Yehudah was careful not to startle his father by simply telling him "Yosef's dead!" but rather broke the news to him gently and lightly, allowing him to come to the discovery on his own. Tamar therefore employed this roundabout manner as  well to inform him that he was the father of her children so as not to shock him and allowing him to discover it on his own.

Have a good Shabbos and a Happy Chanukah!

Eliezer Bulka
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