Ideas to Jump-Start Your own Creative Interpretations

Choose one of these verses and write, draw, dance or sing about it:

  • She saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him as wife (Verse 14).
  • When Judah saw her, he took her for a harlot; for she had covered her face.  (Verse 15)
  • "I am with child by the man to whom these belong." (Verse 25)
  • Judah recognized them, and said, "She is more in the right than I” (Verse 26)
  • What the Midrash learns from Tamar:  “Better for a person to throw himself into a fiery furnace rather than shame someone else in public.”

Or try one of these:

Visual

Costume design: draw Tamar might have worn for her seduction if it happened in ancient times, or today

Create a collage based on the theme of “willful un-seeing” and hiddenness

Music

Write a seduction song, with or without words, that Tamar might use to lure Judah in

Write a chant for Tamar using these words, which the Midrash puts in her mouth:  “May it be your will, Adonai my God, that I not go out empty from this house.”

Movement

Create a dance describing Tamar’s transformation over the course of the story

Using a veil (or scarf), create a dance that depicts Tamar’s feelings during the seduction scene

Writing

Write a journal entry by Tamar the morning after the encounter

One of the themes in this story is willful unseeing.  When have you felt willfully unseen?  Have you used it to your advantage?  Have you felt hurt by it?  When have you willfully not seen others?

Summarize Tamar’s story in six words

Donate

Help us elevate the voices of Jewish women.

donate now

Listen to Our Podcast

Get JWA in your inbox

Read the latest from JWA from your inbox.

sign up now

How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Ideas to Jump-Start Your own Creative Interpretations." (Viewed on November 30, 2024) <https://jwa.org/node/22788>.