Shabbat Miketz
More on Frailty
The themes of human frailty continue. Last week, we read about Tamar and the way she dealt with her personal crisis. Yehudah accepted that she was justified in her breach of law and custom. Even though offering oneself up as a prostitute was hardly the act of a God-fearing human being. But then neither was Yehudah’s. This week we hear about another woman, the wife of the Egyptian magnate Potifar, the Saris of Pharaoh, who wanted to seduce Yosef. Amazingly, he stood the test and did not capitulate to her.
The story of seductresses like Potifar’s wife is universal one. Throughout the ancient world, such stories were common. Slaves were regarded as the property of the owners who could do with them whatever they pleased. Anyone familiar with the social history of the ancient world would know full well what was expected of slaves, whatever their masters or mistresses required of them. What Potifar’s wife was doing to Yosef was what virtually every woman who had slaves would do in a Pagan world where there are no civil rights or employment rights whatsoever.
But slaves could be freed. Many freed slaves rose to the top jobs in the Roman world. The Ottoman Empire captured many strong young men, particularly from Europe, who were castrated, trained and educated, and became either elite military corps, top administrators or guardians of hareems. Known as Janissaries, they were the power behind the Ottoman Empire from the 14th century through 1826. Which explains why in Biblical Hebrew a Saris could mean either a top administrator or a eunuch!
As in Tamar’s case last week, women lacked the freedom men had and were subject to male justice. Tamar’s father-in-law, Judah, had complete control over her, who she would marry and whether she should stay in his household or go somewhere else. Tamar had no other option but to get justice by stratagem. The brilliant Rosh Yeshivah of Mir in my day, Rav Chayim Shmuelvitz, remarkably combined the roles of academic head and spiritual leader. He would lecture in both areas. In one of his Mussar lectures, he asked why Tamar did not come straight out and admit the circumstances to Judah and the other judges. But waited until after judgment had been passed and Tamar was sentenced to die. Rav Shmuelevitz said that Tamar was a highly ethical person and she bent over backwards not to humiliate Judah by coming out right away and publicly shaming him. Unlike Potifar’s nameless wife!
The moral of the story, said Rav Shmuelevitz, and the example we should take from it was that even when you are dealing with somebody who has wronged you, there are still moral standards of how to behave and how to set about achieving what one wants to accomplish without embarrassing the other person. Tamar wanted to allow Judah to confess of his own will first.
Now, if we switch back to Potifar and his wife, the Torah first introduces us to Potifar as a slave owner and the captain of Pharaoh’s guards. Sris HaTabachim. Sris, as we have said, has two meanings: a high officer or a eunuch. And commentators differ in their interpretations of what it means here. Potifar bought Yosef into his house and was so pleased with him that he appointed him to be his caretaker. Potifar comes across as a relatively good person who treated his slaves well but was either credulous or hen-pecked and took his wife’s false assertion at face value without giving Yosef a fair hearing. A contrast with Yehudah.
After Yosef became the second most powerful man in the Egyptian empire, he was given a new name, Tsafnat Paneach, which may translate as ‘the enlightened one’) But also, he was given a wife, Osnat, who was the daughter of a man called Potifera , the Priest of On. Was this the same person who had jailed Yosef? Just elevated and given an extra letter to his name? Commentators disagree. say yes, and some say no, which is not surprising. But one midrash says that because Potiphar was ashamed of blaming Yosef and throwing him into jail because he didn’t want to argue with his wife, he chose to be castrated and ended up doing penance as a high. And that was how he got the extra letter in his name. Another feature of the Bible was to add letters to the names of some characters who were elevated spiritually.
Does the end always justify the means? Tamar did not want to embarrass Judah by accusing him, but rather getting him to admit that he was wrong. Should one always come out with the truth right away? But if you do, ideally, you should still try to find a way that does as little damage as possible. By implication, both Yehudah and Potiphar/era are shown to have repented and acknowledge the truth themselves. Repentance is always an option and ideal. Another example of how it is important to look for a moral and ethical message in the Bible even in what might appear to be mundane issues.
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.
