Commento su Genesi 38:5

והיה בכזיב AND HE WAS AT CHEZIB — the name of a place. I am of opinion that it was called Chezib because there she ceased bearing. This meaning of the word occurs in (Jeremiah 15:18) “wilt thou indeed be unto me as an (אכזב) a deceiver (one who ceases to keep faith)”, and (Isaiah 58:11) “whose waters do not (יכזבו) fail (cease)". For if this be not so (that it was called Chezib for the reason stated) what is it intended to tell us (what reason is there for telling us where he was at that time)? In Genesis Rabbah (Genesis Rabbah 55:4) I found the following ‘ותקרא את שמו שלה וגו AND SHE CALLED HIS NAME SHELAH [AND HE WAS AT CHEZIB] etc. — פסקת “ceasing”.

AND SHE CALLED HIS NAME SHELAH, AND HE [Judah] WAS AT CHEZIB, WHEN SHE BORE HIM. Rashi wrote: “I am of the opinion that because it was there that she ceased bearing children, the place was called Chezib (deceit). It is similar in expression to the verse, Wilt thou indeed be unto me as a deceitful (‘achzav’) brook.¹³⁹Jeremiah 15:18. If this be not so, what is the verse teaching us by mentioning that Judah was in Chezib?”
Now I do not know why a place should be named for that reason, [i.e., because there she ceased bearing children], there being nothing outstanding in such an event as three sons were sufficient for her.¹⁴⁰Had she been barren that would be a tragedy of some significance. Moreover, at the time she gave birth to the third son it was not yet known whether she had ceased bearing or would give birth afterwards. Only at the time of her demise did it become established [that she had ceased bearing with the third son].¹⁴¹Why then would the place have been called Chezib at the time she gave birth to the third son?
Now some scholars¹⁴²R’dak in his commentary. Also in Da’ath Z’keinim ba’alei Tosafoth. say that it was their custom for the father to name the firstborn, and the mother the second one. It is for this reason that Scripture states concerning the first son, And he called his name,¹⁴³Verse 3 here. and concerning the second one, And she called.¹⁴⁴Verse 4 here. Now concerning the third son, [the naming of whom was the father’s prerogative, Scripture nevertheless] says, And she called, explaining that this was because Judah was in Chezib when she gave birth to him, and he was not there to name him. This interpretation lacks rhyme or reason.
In the opinion of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra Scripture relates where they were born; the statement, when she bore ‘him,’ is as if it had said ‘them,’ as all three sons were born in one place.
In my opinion, the name Shelah is an expression meaning a thing which stops and deceives. Thus, do not ‘thashleh’ (deceive) me,¹⁴⁵II Kings 4:28. which the Targum there renders as, “Let not your word deceive your handmaid.” Perhaps it is related to the concept of error, for he who commits an error deceives his thinking. Thus Scripture is saying that she called him Shelah, [a word which is traceable to the root of the Hebrew word meaning ‘error,’] because of the name of the place, as he was in Chezib — [a word which means ‘deceive’] — when she bore him. And [the word v’hayah (and he was), although it should really be saying, v’haytha, (and she was), is identical with the expression ‘V’hayah hana’arah’ (And the damsel shall be).¹⁴⁶Above, 24:14. There, too, it should be saying, v’haytha hana’arah in the feminine, except that the word v’haya does not refer to na’arah but to the event itself and is therefore to be understood as: “And it shall come to pass that the damsel, etc.” Here, likewise, it is to be so understood. This is the intent of the saying of the Rabbis in Bereshith Rabbah:¹³⁷85:5. “Paskath was the name of the place.”¹⁴⁷This contradicts the opinion of Rashi, who maintains that it was the mother who named the place Chezib because she ceased bearing children.

והיה בכזיב, Yehudah was at that location and that is where the child was born.

והיה בכזיב, the reason why she called their third son Shelah, a word reminiscent of Kings II 4,28 (לא) תשלה, “(do not) deceive, disappoint, disillusion,” a name which is not exactly complimentary to the bearer of it, was due to Yehudah being in כזיב, i.e. a reference to his being absent, so that she did not have this moral support when she began the labour pains prior to giving birth to her third son. [I am not sure if the author understood the Torah as using to the word כזיב to describe Yehudah’s state of mind, and that there was no such place at all. Ed.] Had he been there, he would never have agreed to the name she gave his son.

ותוסף עוד ותלד בן ותקרא שמו שלה, “She continued to give birth to another child whom she named Shelah.” I find it peculiar that on this occasion the Torah does not mention Bat Shua’s pregnancy before mentioning that she gave birth. Perhaps we may explain this as her having become pregnant with two children at the time she conceived Onan, and that there was an interval between Onan’s birth and Shelah’s birth. This could be borne out by the wording of the verse that refers to the birth of Shelah as an “additional” birth. This would also explain the Torah speaking about Yehudah being in כזיב, The word is understood as describing “interval, interruption,” as in Isaiah 58,11 אשר לא יכזבו מימיו ‘whose waters will flow without interruption.” [how does the author explain Yehudah asking Tamar to wait until Shelah grows up before giving her to him as a wife? Ed.] In other words, Yehudah separated from Bat Shua for some time after the birth of Onan. The Torah would then be telling us that in spite of Yehudah having separated from Bat Shua after the birth of Onan, she bore him another son, something that he had not expected. According to the author, Yehudah’s stalling Tamar was only that, an excuse not to have a third son marry the same woman whose two husbands had already died.

ותקרא את שמו שלה והיה בכזיב בלדתה אותו, “she called his name Shelah, as he (her husband) was in a place called Keziv at the time when she gave birth to him.” (standard explanation) The expression “shelah” and “keziv,” are identical in meaning. They appear in connection with inability to give birth, such as in Kings II 4,16 when the woman from Shunem being promised by the prophet Elisha that she would give birth to a son tells him not raise false hopes as she knew she was past the age when this was possible. The words she used were אל תכזב. When she upbraided the prophet after the son she did bear had died before growing up, she reminded him of what she had said then and used the verb שלה. (verse 28 in the same chapter) The word כזב meaning interruption in the sense of termination, also occurs in Isaiah 58,11: וכמוצא מים אשר לא יכזבו, “like a spring whose waters do not fail.” According to this, the name shelah indicated that his mother knew she would not bear any more children. [This leaves the question of why the masculine והיה, “he was,” is used in our verse Ed.] My teacher told me that כזיב is the place of a town or village. It was customary in those days that mother and father named their children alternately. The father would name the firstborn, so that it would have been Yehudah’s turn to name the son born third. Seeing that he was not at home when this son was born, the mother decided to name him instead. This is why the Torah explains why Yehudah had not named Shelah.

והיה יהודה בכזיב בלדתו אותו, “and Yehudah had been in Keziv (Achziv, according to Atlas Carta) when she gave birth to him.” (about 20 km north of Akko). This was the reason she named this son Sheylah; had Yehudah, the father been present at his birth, he would have named him. Rashi, commenting on this verse states that he has seen a comment in B’reshit Rabbah, according to which the name Sheylah means that Bat Shua announced that her pregnancy had come to an end. The word could be a reference to her being disappointed about her husband’s absence while she gave birth. Compare what the woman from Shunem had said (אל תשלה אותי) to Elisha when promised she would have a son, i.e. and the son had died (Kings II 4,28).

והיה בכגזיב בלדתה אותו, “while he was in Keziv when she gave birth to him.” According to Rashi the location was called Keziv because this was where Bat Shua stopped bearing children. Nachmanides queries this, wanting to know why a place would be named to mark such a non-event. Furthermore, who knew at the time when Onan was born that his mother would not have any more children? No one knew this until after Bat Shua died. Some commentators say that seeing Yehudah had named his first son, his wife had named his second son. This was an accepted custom in those days. It would have been Yehudah’s turn to name the third child. The Torah explains the fact that he did not do so, by mentioning that he was in a different place at the time Bat Shua gave birth Nachmanides writes also that the meaning of the word כזיב indicates some disruption. The translation of לא תשלה by the Targum is also לא תכזב, “do not err in your prediction, i.e. do not deceive by being wrong.” (compare Kings II 4,28) Bat Shua giving birth in the absence of her husband was a mistake on Yehudah’s part, he should have been at her side.