“It happened at that time that Judah descended from his brothers…” (38 :1)
Judah had been working with his brothers on the sheep before he ‘went down’ to become part of another story which eventually ends in him accusing his sister in law of being a prostitute after unknowingly sleeping with her himself. His ‘going down’ is both a spiritual descent and a literal one as the Mountains of Shechem where he was shepherding his sheep are in quite a high mountain range.
Correlation to Samson
This descent is similar to Samson’s descent to Timna (Judges 14:1), both in terms that it was a spiritual descent to marry a philistine woman and an actual descent (Timna is a valley). Also both descents are a necessary descent for some gain. Samson was a ‘thorn in the side’ of the Phillistines, even though he seemed to be involved in their activities, he did this to help the Israelites by causing chaos in the Philistine ranks. Judah’s actions also bore good fruit as the descendent of his actions with his daughter in law was King David, who is seen as a symbol of the Messiah.
Descent that creates an Ascent
This teaches us the concept of: “ירידה לצורך עליה” (Yeridah letsorech aliyah) or a descent that creates an ascent. In Hassidic thought, in particular in the works of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, eighteenth century Hassidic Master, this is when a person goes through a low spiritual time which ends in a rise and elevation in the person’s spiritual status. Sometimes a person feels far from their spiritual potential, but they must know that a change is coming soon.
