Comentario citado sobre Génesis 38:11

the gates Heb. פִּתְחֵי. As though it would say, בְּפִתְחֵי, into the gates. Comp. (Gen. 38:11) “Stay as a widow in your father’s house (בֵּית אָבִיךְ),” interpreted as בְּבֵית אָבִיךְ. Menachem ben Seruk (Machbereth Menachem p. 147) interpreted it as swords. Comp. (Psalms 55:22) “And they are drawn swords (פְּתִיחוֹת).”

לא יטמא בעל בעמיו, “a husband (who is a priest) may not defile himself for his wife corpse (of a wife who has been forbidden to him and disqualified him for priestly duties);” if there are other people available who can do this without delay. According to the Targum, there is a letter ב missing here at the beginning of the word בעל which should be understood as if it had been written בבעל. The reference then would be to the High Priest not being allowed to bury his wife as he is the highest ranking priest. According to our author, this construction is not unique, and he cites Genesis 38,11 שבי אלמנה בית אביך, where Yehudah tells his daughter-in-law to spend the period of her widowhood in her father’s house pending his son Shelah becoming of age so that he could marry her. In other words, the word בית there should really have been: בבית, “in the house.” Our author claims that there are numerous such constructions to be found elsewhere. According to Ibn Ezra, the verse speaks of an ordinary priest not being allowed to defile himself on his wife’s body, as she is not a blood relative.

ויהי מתיו מספר, “and may its numbers never shrink into insignificance.” Seeing that all things that are subject to count are also subject to a decline in number, Moses prayed that Reuven should not experience such a reduction in numbers. Nachmanides writes that in his view a better explanation of the above words is that of Rashi, i.e. that Moses prayed that Reuven should live on as a tribe of Israel in this world and not disappear as an entity in the world to come, either. The sin of his founding father should not be visited upon him and his descendants even in the hereafter. When reflecting on Yaakov’s comments on Reuven on his deathbed, Moses realized that it contained a great deal of anger that had been suppressed for a long time. Moses prays to protect the tribe against any fallout from this also in the future, beyond life on earth. The word מתיו, “his population,” is used to include all members of the tribe against such fallout. The word מספר “number,” is to be understood as if the Torah had written: במספר, ”in number,” a construction similar to בית אביה, ”her father’s house,” where what is meant is בבית אביה, “in her father’s house.” (Compare Genesis 38,11) It is also possible that the words מתיו מספר refer to the people of Israel who are to always look upon the tribe of Reuven as one looks on a firstborn son. Some commentators understand this blessing as being directed at the days of the conquest of the land of Canaan, Moses blessing the soldiers of the tribe of Reuven who would be in the vanguard with the members of the tribe of Gad, as agreed when they received their allocation of land on the east bank. Moses included the soldiers of the tribe of Gad in his prayer, asking Hashem not to let either of these two tribes sustain casualties during that campaign. Whereas this interpretation has much to commend it, the first interpretation is most likely the correct one.

אל בית אל EL-BETH-EL — the Holy One, blessed be He, is in Beth-El; i.e. His Divine Presence has revealed itself in Bethel. Sometimes the prefix ב “in” is omitted from a word: e.g., (2 Samuel 9:4) “Behold, he is (בית) in the house of Muchir, the son of Ammiel”, which is the same as בבית in the house of Machir; (24:13) בית אביך is the same as בבית אביך ,‘in the house of thy father”.

of the one who had aged [in] adulteries like: [lit. to the one who had aged adulteries,] the one who had aged in adulteries, as you say (Gen. 38:11): “and she remained her father’s house,” is like “in her father’s house”; (Exod. 30:20), “they shall wash water,” is like “they shall wash with water.” [Likewise,] (ibid.): “And he shall go out freedom;” [and] (Num. 30:11): “But if she made a vow [in] her father’s house.” So did Dunash (p. 17) explain [this]. However, Menachem connected it (p. 45) to (Lev 20:12): “they committed a disgraceful act (תֶּבֶל),” but his words are impossible.