After Joseph was sold by his brothers he was taken to Egypt where he became a slave in the house of Potiphar. His unique talents were immediately recognized and he was put in charge of running his estate. Due to Joseph’s physical beauty, the wife of Potiphar was drawn to him and sought to entice him to be sexually intimate with her. Joseph refused all of her advances and in her great frustration eventually came to accuse him of trying to rape her. Joseph was jailed for twelve years until he was brought out in order to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. Because of Joseph’s strength of conviction in not being tempted by the wife of Potiphar he is referred to throughout Jewish history as Joseph the tzaddik.
The account related here follows the literal reading of the text, yet, there is an alternative way of reading the text that complicates and broadens the simple understanding of what actually occurred. This alternative perspective is based on two anomalies in the text. When the wife of Potiphar first approaches Joseph with her request to be sexually intimate the Torah states that he refused and then explains to her how it would be wrong to be disloyal to her husband who entrusted him with all of his personal affairs and that it would be a sin in God’s eyes. On the word “refused,” the cantillation note of how it is chanted is called a shalshelet, whose root comes from the word shalosh, “three,” due to its three-part ascending and descending trill. It is a very distinctive note and only appears four times in the Chumash. In each case this cantillation note indicates various states of uncertainty, mental anguish and hesitation. Despite his great fortitude in repulsing her advances, there was a slight hesitation due to the great temptation he faced. We must remember that Joseph was a slave in the house of Potiphar, placing him in a very compromised position should he cause displeasure to his masters (Genesis 39:8).
It should be noted that there is an opinion that in this particular case the shalahelet does not indicate uncertainty or hesitation but just the opposite – a strong uncompromising determination. This is based on the Masoretic tradition that immediately following the word “refused” there is a mark indicating a pause or separation called a psik. The combination of the psik along with the special cantillation, according to this opinion, emphasizes Joseph’s absolute refusal to go along with the wife of Potiphar.
The second textual allusion is found in the following verse: “And it came about on a certain day, that he came to the house to do his work, and none of the people of the house were there in the house” (Genesis 39:11). The Talmud records two opinions by two great Sages – Rav and Shmuel – of what this means. One says he came to do his work, his daily chores, like any other day, while the other one interprets the verse to mean he came with the intent to do his work, meaning to be with the wife of Potiphar, as his physical and moral defenses had broken down. Rashi brings the Midrash that at the last moment the face of his father appeared to him and he was able to hold back and flee the scene. She was able to grab an article of his clothing and based on that made her claim that he tried to violate her.
Whether Joseph was steadfast from the outset and never wavered or at some point was overwhelmed by the temptation, in all cases he was able to escape her clutches and as a result spent twelve years in prison. Yet we see two different versions of the story and two perspectives of how Joseph became known as the tzaddik. If we adopt the simple, literal version, then it is clear how he deserved such a title. If though we adopt the second version of temporarily weakening in the face of temptation, the explanation is more complex and nuanced. Therefore, in order to understand the second version, we need to dig deeper. It should be mentioned that when combining, as we will now do, Rashi, the Talmud and various Midrashim it appears that most commentaries understand that Joseph had briefly been prepared to surrender to his physical desires but at the last minute held himself back.
We can already see this in the Midrash that we briefly mentioned above: that it was only when Joseph had a thought, vision or memory of his father’s face that he was able to stop himself. Joseph was very close to his father, and in fact, according to the Torah he was his father’s favorite. As the face of his father flashed across his mind his great respect and fear of disappointing him gave him the strength to desist. A different perspective of how seeing his father’s face fortified him in the midst of his test is based on the tradition that the angels that Jacob saw ascending and descending the ladder in his dream became jealous of Jacob. When the angels saw that Jacob’s “face” as it appears in the higher worlds was the same face they saw in Jacob as the lay sleeping, they became jealous of his unified spiritual stature. According to this Midrash, God appeared at the top of the ladder in order to protect Jacob from the angel’s jealousy. When Joseph saw Jacob’s face it reminded him that just like his father could fulfill his full potential in this world as was shining in its celestial source, so too could he manifest all of his potential. At that moment he realized he could not go through with succumbing to the fleeting enticements of the moment.
Another perspective is explained by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who explains that seeing his father’s face aroused within him the realization that he too would one day be a father and if so how would he be able to face his children having done something that would be wrong in God’s eyes.
It is explained in Chassidut that when a person undergoes a test all their previous spiritual levels of attainment temporarily are hidden. If not, what would the test be? According to this explanation, by definition a test entails a new challenge that needs an entirely new level of strength, understanding and conviction. The Slonimer Rebbe in his classic work Netivot Shalom brings a tradition that the temptation that Joseph faced was not just of a beautiful woman trying to seduce him – and the fact that she was threatening him if he did not acquiesce to her demands – but that in a sense the universal collective force of the evil inclination was pitted against him at that moment.
Interestingly enough it appears that Joseph unwittingly set himself up for this test when he claimed to God: ‘You tested my father and you tested my grandfather and great-grandfather, when are you going to test me?’ This is very similar to an incident in the life of King David, who as the Talmud relates, longed to reach the level of the Patriarchs in God’s eyes. He too sought that intimate, covenantal relationship with God. God explains to David that the Patriarchs only attained such a spiritual level by undergoing tests. David then asks God to test him as well to establish his worth (Sanhedrin 107a-b). The Talmud records that God subsequently tested David with Bathsheba, and David finally admitted that he failed the test.
In both the case of Joseph and David the test was in the area of sexuality. Long before modern psychology the Torah recognized the sex drive as one of the most powerful and primal forces infusing all levels of human consciousness. From the snake in the Garden of Eden to the story of Joseph, from the tale of David and Bathsheba to Samson and Delilah, there exist in Jewish tradition scores of passages and narratives in the Tanach, Midrash, Talmud, Kabbalah, and Chassidut, addressing this formidable energy inhabiting the human body and psyche. Due to the powerful nature of sexuality in general, along with the idea that Joseph faced the all-inclusive evil inclination on that day, it is not surprising that the Sages teach that Joseph’s test was greater than all the other Patriarchs (Bereishit Rabbah 87:4). Further, the Talmud in order to emphasize how great a test it was for Joseph asserts that when Joseph held back at the last second, he was so aroused that he planted his fingers in the earth in order to, as it were, “ground” himself but ten drops of semen escaped through his fingers.
There is another opinion as to where Joseph received strength to hold himself back. The verse states that “he fled and went out” (Genesis 39:12). The word “and went out” [vayetzei] is seemingly extraneous, prompting a comparison to a word with same root [vayotzei] when God took Abraham outside and declared that if he could count the stars, that would be how many his progeny would be (Genesis 15:8). Rashi explains the word “He took him outside” as God instructing Abraham to go beyond his preconceived notions, “to go outside” of the framework of his own astrological predictions that he was not destined to have any children. God, by taking Abraham outside, was teaching him that he would need to go outside what he thought was possible and embrace a new level of consciousness. At the critical moment Joseph was also able to go beyond his physical desires and gain control, freeing himself from what seemed like a “done deal.”
Returning to the idea of Joseph being called a tzaddik, we can now understand that our more complicated version of the incident with the wife of Potiphar is in a sense a more compelling reason to have earned this title for all generations. For sure, the version that Joseph was easily able to refuse her every advance deserves great acknowledgment and merit, a classic description of a tzaddik. Yet, having hesitated in his refusal and then ready to succumb but then gathering the inner strength to escape her clutches in a sense was a far greater accomplishment. For if there was no temptation what was the great attainment?
Paradoxically, there is good reason to actually call Joseph a ba’al teshuvah, one who returns, as he had momentarily fallen yet was able to pick himself up against all odds and return to his moral standing. Thus, Joseph unites both states of being a tzaddik and a ba’al teshuvah at the very same moment. This phenomenon can be seen in the verse: “Seven times a tzaddik will fall – and rise” (Proverbs 24:16). Joseph with almost superhuman effort was able to forge a path for both those who never sin or are even tempted to sin, along with those who fall but who through great determination are able to rise again and again no matter how many times they fall.
The idea that Joseph combined the aspects of being a tzaddik and a ba’al teshuvah simultaneously is repeated in the Torah portion of Vayigash when Judah comes to plead before Joseph for Benjamin’s release from jail. At that point Judah did not realize that he was actually pleading before his brother Joseph. In that emotionally charged moment it is revealed within Judah, the archetype of a ba’al teshuvah, his hidden spark of being a tzaddik, while Joseph, the archetype of the tzaddik realizes his own need for doing teshuvah (see Orchard of Delights for a more in-depth analysis of this incident).
In summary we can see that both versions of the incident between Joseph and the wife of Potiphar are true in their own context. Joseph is truly a tzaddik and ba’al teshuvah at one and the same time. In fact, we all contain both potentials. It is taught in the Zohar that when Mashiach comes he will return all the tzaddikim in teshuvah. He will reveal within a tzaddik their level of being a ba’al teshuvah and within the ba’al teshuvah their latent potential to be a tzaddik.
