Chazal say that Tamar did not want to humiliate Yehudah by saying, “I am pregnant by you.” Rather, she sent him the three items which he had left with her, saying to herself, “If he will admit on his own – let him admit. If not, let them burn me. I will not be the one to embarrass him.” Chazal derive from here that it is preferable for a person to throw himself into a fiery furnace in order to prevent shaming his friend in public. This is a powerful statement – one that is not understood outside its context in…
