As she was being brought out, she sent this message to her father-in-law: “It’s by the man to whom these belong that I’m pregnant.” And she added, “Examine these: whose seal and cord and staff are these?”
English: “She was being brought out” — Rav Zutra bar Toviyah said in the name of Rav: this teaches that it is better for a person to cast himself into a fiery furnace than to whiten his fellow’s face in public.
On the daf / in context: Tamar sent the pledge privately rather than naming Yehudah openly; the Gemara elevates that choice into a general rule against public humiliation.
Type of Learning
Derash on the verse (Bavli sugya) — not a formal named middah of the 13. Conduct in the story becomes a standing ethical rule.
What Is Learned
Public humiliation of another is so severe that one should prefer death by fire to causing it.