Commentaire sur La Genèse 38:12

ויעל על גזזי צאנו AND HE WENT UP UNTO HIS SHEEP-SHEARERS — it means: and he went up to Timnah to stand by his sheep-shearers.

AND JUDAH, WENT UP UNTO HIS SHEEP-SHEARERS. He would go there continually to console himself after his wife’s death so that he may turn his attention to the sheep and forget his poverty.¹⁷⁰Proverbs 31:7. [and remember his trouble no more.] Now when it was told to Tamar that he goes up there daily without fail, she waited for him on one of those days. It may be that since Judah was prominent in the land, people would assemble there to make a feast at the time of the shearing, similar to a royal feast, and the poor would go there, and it was told to her before he went up there.

ותמת בת שוע, so that Yehudah should have brought his daughter-in-law into his house as a replacement for his wife. This is what Avraham had done when Yitzchok’s wife Rivkah moved into Sarah’s tent after the latter had died. (24,67) Yehudah’s failure to give Tamar his wife’s quarters to live in may have caused her to despair of having any kind of future in his family.

וירבו, according to Bereshit Rabbah 85,6 the time frame discussed was 12 months.

ויעל על גוזזי צאנו, “he went up to supervise the shearing of his flocks.” The Torah describes a normal occupation of Yehudah, who frequently supervised his shearers. On one of these occasions, which Tamar was quite familiar with, she waylaid him. Alternately, the Torah describes a feast on the occasion of the completion of the shearing, and Tamar knew that Yehudah would participate. Therefore she positioned herself where he would have to pass her.

For she saw … she had not been given. She also saw that Yehudah’s wife had died, leaving him free to perform the rite. And from the fact that he attended the shearing — a festive occasion — she knew that he had finished mourning.

על גוזזי צאנו, “with the shearers of his flocks.” The word על here is used as meaning the same as עם, “with.”

ויעל, here the trip to Timnatah is described as an ascent, whereas in Judges 14,5 Shimshon is described as descending to that town. It all depends on the location from which one sets out.

To shear his flock. At the time that they sheared their flocks, they would rejoice and hold feasts, as is written of Avshalom and Naval. And when a person is joyous, their sexual urges overcome them, and so she chose shearing-time. And she did this licitly, because before the giving of the Torah all relatives could perform yibum, even the father of the deceased. And since Shelah hadn't performed yibum, it fell to Yehuda. And when the Torah was given and the law renewed [תתנה תורה ונתחדשה הלכה], that only the paternal brothers of the deceased perform yibum. Even so, after the giving of the Torah, it was customary [to perform yibbum] even for other relatives who are permitted to her, in addition to brothers, just as Bo'az did to Rut.

על גוזזי, as if the Torah had written אל גוזזי, “to the shearers.” We find a similar construction involving the preposition על instead of אל in Samuel I 1,11 ותתפלל על ה' instead of ותתפלל אל ה', “she prayed to G’d.” There are numerous similar examples of such constructions in Scripture.