A Prayer at the Crossroads
Waiting at a fork in the road, Tamar turned her eyes to the One to whom all eyes look and asked not to go away empty-handed.
Years had passed since Tamar was sent home as a widow. Shelah, the son she had been promised, was grown, and no one had come for her. She was bound to the house of Yehudah and could marry no one else, yet she had no child and no future. When she heard that Yehudah was going up to Timnah, she set out to the place where the road divides.
The verse says that she sat at Petach Einayim, the opening of the eyes. Rebbi Ami said that he searched the whole of Tanach and found no place by that name. So what does it mean? The Midrash teaches that she lifted her eyes to the gate toward which all eyes look, the gate of tefillah. There she prayed: may it be Your will, Hashem my God, that I not leave this house empty-handed.
The Gemara gives another reading. Rav Alexandri said that she sat at the doorway of Avraham Avinu, the place all eyes long to see, for she knew that Yehudah would pass there. Her hope rested on the house of Avraham.
Rashi explains what she was seeking: she longed to bring children into the world from Yehudah. Chazal teach that she acted for the sake of Heaven, and that kings and prophets came from her. Hashem answered her prayer. From that day at the crossroads came Peretz, and from Peretz came Dovid and, in time, Moshiach.
Source: Bereishis 38:11–14; Midrash Bereishis Rabbah 85:7; Gemara, Sotah 10a (Talmud Bavli); Gemara, Nazir 23b; Rashi on Bereishis 38:14–15. English: The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah (2022); The William Davidson Talmud (Koren–Steinsaltz).
Tamar had waited for years, and before she acted she turned her eyes to Hashem and asked not to go away empty. Think of something you have been waiting for a long time: a shidduch, a child, a job, a healing, a change in someone you love. Today, in the Shema Koleinu blessing of Shemoneh Esrei or in your own words afterward, ask for it simply and by name: may it be Your will that I not go away empty-handed. Then take one small, proper step toward it this week.