Parshas Vayeishev
December 11th-12th, 1998
23 Kislev, 5759

This week's issue is in honor of the upcoming yahrzeit of  Mrs. Esther Berger Rabhan, Esther Rayzel bas Yechiel Yitzhak.

I read somewhere once that Mahatmah Gandhi, in his later years, would demonstrate that he had conquered his sexual desire by sleeping in the same bed with young girls...and not laying a hand on them.  

I can't remember now what this act of self-transcendence was termed in Hindi; the article I read used some specific word.   There's a Jewish expression that comes to mind, however: Asking For Trouble. 

To work on oneself spiritually and develop one's yir'as chet--fear of sin--is extremely laudable; to strive for greater and greater levels of self-control is exemplary, and a necessary part of the spiritual career path of every upwardly mobile Jew (in the spiritual sense).  But to court temptation, to put yourself knowingly in a precarious situation, even to demonstrate your prowess, is another matter altogether.  "Do not bring us into the hands of error, nor into the hands of transgression and sin, nor into the hands of a test (nisayon)," we beseech Hashem in one of the morning blessings, authored by our wise Sages a couple thousand years ago.  They understood the power of the yetzer ha'ra.

In short, we don't look for temptation; we positively try to avoid it. The (hardheaded) Jewish view is: Better safe than sorry.  With due respect to Gandhi, let the young girls sleep somewhere else! 

Now, should a test come our way, of course, we are expected to stand strong and not yield. The most famous model we have in the Chumash of such self-control is Yosef, and it is in this very parsha that we see his triumph over the promptings of the flesh.  

Sold into slavery by his brothers, who were deeply suspicious of his motives after hearing him recount a couple of dreams (both of which symbolically suggested that he would rule over them), Yosef ends up in Egypt.  He is purchased by an employee of Pharaoh--Potiphar, the Chamberlain of the Butchers.  He quickly finds favor in Potiphar's eyes, and is appointed the head of his household.   "And it happened, that from the time he appointed him in his house and over whatever he had, Hashem blessed the Egyptian's house on Joseph's account..." (39, 5; Artscroll translation.)  Soon, Yosef is managing all of Potiphar's affairs.

Enter Temptation: 

"After these things, his master's wife cast her eyes upon Yosef and she said, 'Lie with me.'  But he adamantly refused; he said to his master's wife, 'Look-- with me here, my master concerns himself about nothing in the house, and whatever he has he placed in my custody.  There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has denied me nothing but you...how then can I perpetrate this great evil; it would be a sin before G-d!'  And so it was, just as she coaxed Yosef day after day, so he would not listen to her to lie beside her, to be with her."    (39, 7-10; Artscroll and Living Torah translation.)

Remember: he is 17 years old at this time.   (Younger than a White House intern.)  Far away from home and family, in a country famous for debauchery.  With an attractive woman making daily advances on him...for 12 months, the Midrash states!  In fact, both The Talmud and Midrash speak at some length about these verses, detailing for us just how great a test Yosef endured:  

"When she would come to speak with him, he would bend his head down to avoid looking at her.  She [therefore set] an iron spit beneath his chin, so that if he would bend his head down, the spit would strike him." (Midrash Tanchumah 8; quoted in Encyclopedia of Biblical Personalities.)

"Every day Potiphar's wife tired to entice him with words.  The garments she put on for him in the morning, she did not wear in the evening, and the garments that she put on for him in the evening, she did not wear in the morning.  She said to him: 'Listen to me!'  He said, 'No.' She said: 'I shall have you imprisoned.'  He said, 'Hashem releases the bound.' She said: 'I will bend your stature.'  He said, 'Hashem straightens the bent.'  She said: 'I will blind your eyes.'  He said, 'Hashem gives sight to the blind.'  She gave him a thousand talents of silver to yield to her, to lie with her and to be with her, but he would not listen to her..."   (Babylonian Talmud: Yoma 35b) 

And there is much more.  Honestly, we can't imagine what such a temptation would be, and we should hope never to have to undergo its like.  The Zohar, quoted in Rabbi Eli Munk's Call of the Torah, is unstinting in its praise of Yosef's righteousness: "Is there among the virtuous a greater hero than a young seventeen-year-old surrounded by libertine women who nevertheless maintains his purity?"  (Munk, Volume I, p. 527)  Both of his stated motives in refusing Potiphar's wife are worthy of our emulation: his considerations of loyalty to his master, and his repugnance for adultery itself--an act forbidden to all mankind in the moral code given to the sons of Noah, no less than to the descendants of Avraham (Munk, ibid.).  

Yet, as the story continues, we find that he only just squeaked by in the end...perhaps. 

"Then there was an opportune day when he entered the house to do his work--no man of the household staff being there in the house-- that she caught hold of him by his garment, saying, 'Lie with me!'  But he left his garment in her hand, and he fled, and went outside."  (39, 11-12)

What the phrase,"to do his work," means is the subject of a disagreement in the Talmud, quoted by Rashi.  One sage said it means his actual work; one said that he intended to sleep with her.  We can well believe that after months of resisting, Yosef might have been ready to give up the battle.   If so, what, in the final analysis, gave him the strength--and the good sense-- to run away?  (Note that to flee is often the courageous thing to do!)  The Talmud states:

At that moment his father's image came and appeared to him through the window and said: ‘Joseph, your brothers will have their names inscribed upon the stones of the ephod [a garment to be worn by the Kohen Gadol in the Temple, which had precious stones bearing the names of the 12 tribes] and yours amongst theirs; is it your wish to have your name expunged from amongst theirs, and be called an associate of harlots?’ (Babylonian Talmud: Sotah 36b)

The image of his father, Ya'akov, kept him from sinning.  We might put it this way: at the last moment, Yosef remembered who he was-- a son of Ya'akov. 

May Hashem help us to always remember who WE are--descendants of Avraham, Yitzhak and Ya'akov...and Yosef, who was called by our Sages, "The Righteous One."  If we can learn what this actually means, and always keep it on our hearts, we just might have the strength to stand up to the temptations of all sorts that come our way.

GOOD SHABBOS!!!

LOOK NEXT WEEK FOR WORDS ABOUT CHANUKAH,
AND PART 2 OF "GRATITUDE."

Insights Into Genesis
Insights Into Exodus

Rabbi Yosef Edelstein is Director of the Savannah Torah Education Project (STEP). Phone: 912-355-0157;
fax: 912-354-9923; e-mail: Yosef18@aol.com

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