D’Var Torah  (Words from the Torah)

D’Var Torah – December

Vayeshev

This week’s reading is from the Sedra Vayeshev.. I’ll be reading Chapter 39 of Bereshit which tells the story of Joseph’s appointment as Potiphar’s steward and then his imprisonment when Potiphar’s wife falsely accuses him of attacking her. The list of prescribed readings gives the option of the whole chapter or just the first eighteen of the twenty three verses and I’ve opted for the slightly longer version as the shorter one stops us in the middle of the story. I’ll read it in English first.

Last time I read Torah, you may remember that I drew your attention to the fact that one of the words in the reading was very stretched out, and the same will happen today. It is a cantillation note called Shalshelet and is very rare, only occurring four times. I’d never encountered it before last month, and now twice in successive readings! As I said a few weeks ago, Rabbinic tradition holds that it is always used to indicate that the subject of the verb is wrestling with inner demons and hesitating. In this case, the word is Va’yema’en: he refused, so the choice of Shalshelet tells us that although Joseph refuses to be seduced, he does not do so instantly. We have just been told how good-looking and well-built Joseph is and maybe he was flattered or just found his master’s wife’s advances very difficult to resist. Or perhaps he might have wondered whether it would be to his advantage to give in to her desires before recovering himself and rejecting a sin, not only against his master, but against God.

That’s one interpretation. Rabbi Eric Woodward, on myjewishlearning.com offers a more practical explanation. Joseph is a slave and he is being forced to choose between the sin of adultery with his master’s wife and the sin of refusing to do his mistress’s bidding. Either way he is in trouble. Perhaps it crosses his mind that if he gives in to her, she might protect him. However, there is a midrash that says that at the very moment that she grabbed his tunic, he saw a vision of his father and this strengthened his resolve. Rabbi Woodward adds that rather than being reminded of his father’s authority, Joseph gained strength from the thought of his father’s love for him, showing that authority can be exercised through love and compassion rather than surveillance. He suggests that this is how our relationship with God can be – not God as the Great Surveiller but as God who shares a covenant with us and inspires us through a loving relationship.

As a result of his refusal of Potiphar’s wife’s advances, Joseph ends up in prison. But just as God enabled him to prosper in Potiphar’s household by his competence, he wins the favour of the Chief Gaoler and is again given a position of trust. And it’s the wisdom he shows in interpreting the dreams of his fellow prisoners that brings him to Pharaoh’s attention and leads to his release from prison and elevation to great power as Pharaoh’s Chief Minister. So out of misfortune comes redemption. You may remember that later on, when Joseph is reunited with his brothers, he tells them that he bears them no ill will for selling him into slavery, because had they not done so, he would not have been able to rise to power in Egypt and be in a position to assist them when they were fleeing the famine in Canaan. Equally, though he doesn’t say it himself, had he not been framed by Potiphar’s wife, he would not have been imprisoned and thus would not have come to Pharoah’s attention. Joseph seems to attract misfortune, sometimes by his own failings, as with his arrogance towards his brothers, sometimes just by being himself, as with Potiphar’s wife. But somehow his misfortunes lead to him being in the right place at the right time.

There’s a temptation then to say that Joseph prospers because God is always with him, even when things are going wrong for him; everything happens for a purpose. He has to go through hardships in order to learn and mature. But I think this is trite. Yes, Joseph comes to Pharaoh’s attention because the people whose dreams he has interpreted in prison remember him and he is brought before Pharaoh.. But why couldn’t he simply be recommended to Pharaoh by Potiphar suggesting him as an efficient and trustworthy administrator? That would have saved him spending all those years in prison.

Modern scholarship of course sees the Torah as a collection of legends and folk tales rather than a historical account spoken by God and written down by Moses as orthodox Judaism believes. Instead of seeing a divine purpose in every word of the Torah, we can think about why the authors and editors of the text chose stories and told them in a particular way. Perhaps the point of the story of Potiphar’s wife and Joseph is to show us that we should resist temptation. Adam and Eve didn’t resist and suffered lasting punishment; Joseph did resist and despite all the bad things that happened to him, everything worked out very well in the end. Maybe that is a trite conclusion as well, but it’s the best explanation I can think of for the story of Potiphar’s wife.