Netvort Vayeishev 5773:                       Hard To Believe

By Rabbi Joshua (Skeptically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

 

In memory of Chaya Gittel bas Eliyahu Sinai, whose yahrtzeit occurred this past Sunday. May her memory be a blessing, and in memory of Yitzchok Shlomo ben Leibel Halevi Bryskin, whose yohrzeit is on the twenty third of Kisleiv. May his memory be for a blessing.

 

Yosef flees from the enticement of Potiphar’s wife and leaves his clothing, which she had grasped, behind. She then accuses him of having violated her, and Potiphar has him thrown into prison. One may ask, if Potiphar really believed what his wife said, why didn’t he have Yosef killed? The Targum Yonasan ben Uziel says that Potiphar’s priests tested the stain on Yosef’s clothing and found that it came from the white of an egg, not Yosef. This kind of test is actually mentioned in the Talmud (Gittin, 57a), where it is traced back to a tradition from Shammai the Elder. Since the priests determined that the stain did not come from Yosef, he was not killed, but merely put into prison, perhaps to placate Potiphar’s wife.

Rabbi Henoch Moshe Levine, in his commentary to Targum Yonasan, entitled Sarasi BaMedinos, mentions, in connection with this passage, a comment of Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, zt”l, in his Emes L’Yaakov to Parshas Vayigash (Bereishis, 47:4), in which he explains several things that Yosef did as viceroy in Egypt to pave the way for his extended family of bnei Yisroel to maintain their identity during their sojourn there. One of the things he did was to exempt the priests from the twenty per cent land tax imposed on everyone else in the country. He did this, says Rav Yaakov, zt”l, because he wanted one tribe among his brothers to be free from the work imposed through the enslavement, which would later be referred to as a tax on the Jews (Shemos, 1:11). Thus, just as the priests of Egypt were exempt from taxes, so, too, was the tribe of Levi, the priestly class of the Jews, exempted from the tax of enslavement and free to guide the people in the proper path.

Rabbi Levine, while praising this explanation of Rav Yaakov, zt”l, offers a different one, based on the Targum Yonasan we have seen. Yosef, says Rabbi Levine, by exempting the priests from taxes, was showing them gratitude for having saved his life by testing his clothes and proving him innocent. Perhaps, we can suggest that Rav Yaakov’s explanation and Rabbi Levine’s are complementary of each other. Although Pharaoh had indeed shown gratitude to Yosef for having saved Egypt from famine, there was no assurance that the next Pharaoh would similarly express his gratitude to an entire class of people, the priests. However, with this there was a greater likelihood that the trait of gratitude would be inculcated into their psyches, and, in the coming generations, as well, they would treat the Jewish people with decency, just as Yosef had treated their predecessor. Perhaps we can further suggest that Pharaoh’s sorcerers came from the priestly class, and they, indeed, were the people who continually urged Pharaoh to release the Jews from slavery, thus reflecting the kindness that Yosef bestowed on the priestly class, in general.