VAYEISHEV

How do we make significant decisions?  Do we get unexpected help?  In this week’s parsha, there is a strange interlude away from the story of Joseph to a story about his older brother Judah whose daughter-in-law Tamar, inspired by the vision that she would be the progenitor of King David and even the Moshiach, disguised herself as a prostitute to be intimate with Judah from whom she gets pregnant.  But it took an angel to push Judah in Tamar’s direction to encourage him to engage with her. We often don’t know what pushes us to actions that may seem questionable but can, if we do them, create amazingly positive results.