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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