From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005
2:32 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas
Vayeishev, 5766
The
Stranger
By Rabbi Joshua (strangely known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
Ya'akov sends Yosef on a mission to seek the welfare of his brothers, who are
tending their father's sheep in Shechem. Yosef goes there, but does not find his
brothers. An unidentified man finds him straying in the way, and tells him that
his brothers left Shechem and went to Dosan. Who was this man? Rashi, citing a
midrash, tells us that the man was actually the angel Gavriel. Ostensibly, the
midrash tells us that he was an angel in order for us to realize that there was
a divine hand behind the events that were unfolding. Why, then, was it necessary
to inform us of the angel's name? What difference does it make which angel it
was? Obviously, there must be an element in the nature of Gavriel that is
important for us to know in understanding the unfolding of the events in the
saga of Yosef and his brothers. I believe that the key element here is that of
gevurah, or perseverance, which is reflected in the name Gavriel which means,
literally, 'gevuros kel,' or the gevurah of God. The meaning and importance of
this element will become clear as we examine the events of the parsha.
After receiving the man's reply, Yosef heads for Dosan, and when
he arrives, his brothers tear off his shirt and throw him into a pit, from which
he is sold to passing merchants and taken down to Egypt. Interestingly, there is
a midrash which says that the pit they threw Yosef into was one of the pits that
Yitzchok dug without finding water in it. After Yosef is sold, the brothers
slaughter a goat, dip Yosef's shirt in its blood, and show it to Ya'akov, who
recognizes it as the shirt that he gave to his son. Ya'akov cries over his son,
and his family tries to comfort him, but he refuses to accept their words of
consolation. Rashi says that Ya'akov could not be consoled because one cannot be
consoled for a person who is still alive. Rabbi Menachem Kasher, in his Torah
Shleimah, cites a midrash which says that Ya'akov knew through ruach hakodesh,
or a spirit of divine inspiration, that Yosef was still alive, and goes on to
explain the verses in the Torah in a way that conforms with this midrash.
In Egypt, Yosef is sold to Potiphar, who is chamberlain of
the butchers of Pharaoh. God is with Yosef and he is successful in his work.
Potiphar, seeing this, places him in charge of all the affairs of his house.
Eventually, Potiphar's wife becomes enamored of Yosef, who is described by the
Torah as being very good-looking, and continually tries to seduce him. One day,
when everyone else is gone, Potiphar's wife pursues Yosef in a particularly
aggressive way, and Yosef refuses her. The word that the Torah uses to describe
Yosef's refusal,' vayemaein,' is, interestingly the same word that is used in
describing Yaakov's refusal to be consoled over the disappearance of Yosef. The
one difference, however, is that, unlike the use of the word in regard to
Ya'akov, when it is used in regard to Yosef, the long musical note of
shalsheles, consisting of a three-fold repetition of the pazer note, is placed
above it. This note is used only four times in the Torah, and each time it is
used, it is assumed by Biblical commentators to carry a special message.
Although we mentioned in the past (in Netvort to parshas Vayeishev, 5759) a
number of explanations of the use of the shalsheles in our verse, I would like
to focus on an additional one, mentioned in the work Kedushas Levi. Although
that work was written by R. Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, the paragraphs dealing
with the various possible meanings of the shalsheles were written by his son,
Yisrael. Among the explanations he gives, one is that the shalsheles is an
allusion to the three forefathers of the Jewish people, Avrohom, Yitzchok and
Ya'akov. Actually, the rabbis tell us that Yosef was able to overcome the
temptations of Potiphar's wife by conjuring up the image of his father, Ya'akov.
However, I believe that the allusion to all three forefathers points to an
element in Yosef's role in the development of the Jewish people, as exemplified
by his encounter with Potiphar's wife.
Rabbi Yitzchok
Hutner,zt"l, points out that Yosef's death is mentioned both at the very end of
the book of Bereishis, which Ramban refers to as the book of the fathers, or
patriarchs, as well as at the very beginning of the book of Shemos, which Ramban
refers to as the book of the sons, in contrast to the rest of his brothers,
whose deaths are recorded only in the beginning of the book of Shemos. This
indicates, he says, that Yosef, although he was a son of Ya'akov, and is
therefore mentioned in the book of Shemos, together with his brothers, also had
a role to play in the formation of the Jewish people, as a sort of appendage to
the three patriarchs, and was therefore also included in the book of Bereishis.
Avrohom was the first person to become a Jew, thus serving as the ‘av hamon
goyim’, or the father of many nations, implanting within the nation the ability
to receive other converts. Yitzchok was the first person to be born a Jew,
implanting the principle that someone born of Jewish parents is a Jew. Ya'akov
was the first person who did not have any children who were excluded from the
Jewish people, thus establishing the principle that once a person is a Jew, he
remains a Jew, no matter how far he has strayed from Jewish practice. However,
there still remained the possibility for someone who is born as a Jew to marry a
woman who is not a Jew, and, as a result, have children who are not Jewish. It
was his role to build up a resistance to this possibility, and instill it within
the collective psyche of the Jewish people. This was especially necessary for
the impending exile in Egypt, which was a land that was rooted in sexual
immorality. Yosef, by resisting the advances of Potiphar's wife, steeled the
Jewish people against the influence of Egyptian culture in this regard, to the
extent that not a single Jewish man consorted with an Egyptian woman in the
course of that exile. Where did Yosef draw that strength from ? I believe it was
from the trait of gevurah, that was developed by Yitzchok.
My
teacher, Rav Aharon Soloveichik, zt"l, said that Yitzchok's persistence in
digging wells in the land of the Pelishtim reflected the trait of gevurah, which
he explained to mean perseverance in the face of adversity. Ya'akov, described
by the rabbis as the choicest of the patriarchs, fused within himself the trait
of Avrohom, which was chesed, or kindness, and the trait of Yitzchok, which was
gevurah. Yosef would need to employ this element of gevurah within his father's
spiritual makeup when he went down to Egypt. Perhaps, then, it was into one of
these pits that Yosef was thrown by his brothers, as an allusion to the
challenge that Yosef would face in Egypt. When Ya'akov refused to be consoled
over Yosef's loss, the Torah uses the word 'vayemaein' to describe that refusal.
That very word is also used to describe Yosef's refusal to succumb to the
advances of Potiphar's wife, with the additional element of the musical note of
the shalsheles, alluding to the three patriarchs. Yosef, in using the element of
gevurah that Ya'akov adapted from Yitzchok and combined with the element of
chesed developed by Avrohom, was thereby adding himself to that chain of
tradition, and implanting within his people the ability to persevere against the
challenges of immorality they would face in Egypt, as well as in its future
exiles. Although resistance to this temptation, and the maintenance of purity in
this regard, is referred to in kabbalah as the trait of yesod, or foundation, I
would like to suggest that it was the element of gevurah adapted from Ya'akov
that enabled Yosef to develop this resistance.For this reason, it was the angel
Gavriel, whose name denotes this trait of gevurah, who guided the process of
Yosef's descent into Egypt.
Please address all
correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address -
JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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