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La Bible Hébreu

Chasidut sur La Genèse 41:45

וַיִּקְרָ֨א פַרְעֹ֣ה שֵׁם־יוֹסֵף֮ צָֽפְנַ֣ת פַּעְנֵחַ֒ וַיִּתֶּן־ל֣וֹ אֶת־אָֽסְנַ֗ת בַּת־פּ֥וֹטִי פֶ֛רַע כֹּהֵ֥ן אֹ֖ן לְאִשָּׁ֑ה וַיֵּצֵ֥א יוֹסֵ֖ף עַל־אֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃

Pharaon surnomma Joseph Çâfenath Panéah et il lui donna pour femme Asenath, fille de Pôti Féra, prêtre d’On. Joseph fit une excursion dans le pays d’Égypte.

Kedushat Levi

Exodus 1,6. “and Joseph had meanwhile been in Egypt ‎already.” We need to examine why the Torah had to repeat ‎the word ‎במצרים‎, “in Egypt,” when it would have sufficed to ‎simply write ‎ויוסף היה שם‎, “while Joseph had already been there.” ‎Perhaps the Torah wanted to stress that during all the years that ‎Joseph had been in Egypt without the moral support of his family ‎he had not changed his name (although Pharaoh had given him ‎an Egyptian title, i.e. ‎צפנת פענח‎). He himself used to refer to ‎himself by his Jewish name. Even Pharaoh realized this when ‎during the early days of the famine he had instructed the people ‎to turn to Joseph for help, i.e. ‎לכו אל יוסף אשר יאמר לכם תעשו‎, ‎‎“what Joseph will tell you, you are to do.” (Compare Bereshit ‎Rabbah 20 slightly differently wording.)‎
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Kedushat Levi

Genesis 39,17. “your servant has done to me unspeakable ‎things.” According to Rashi the conversation described ‎in the Torah here occurred while Potiphar and his wife were ‎having marital relations. At first glance, this appears somewhat ‎difficult to understand as in Genesis 41,45 when the Torah ‎reports that Pharaoh gave Joseph as a wife the daughter of ‎Potiphar, Rashi points out that Potiphar was impotent, as a ‎penalty for having desired to use Joseph for homosexual ‎practices, and that Ossnas was not his biological daughter. We ‎must therefore assume that the attempted seduction of Joseph ‎occurred earlier. If so, why did he become impotent only at a later ‎stage?‎
Actually, the Almighty Who performs wonderful deeds ‎completely unassisted, arranges events in such a way that the ‎wicked will commit fatal errors, as we know from Job 12,23 ‎משגיא ‏לגויים ויאבדם‎, “He leads (wicked) nations astray and causes their ‎destruction.” If G’d had made Potiphar impotent earlier, he could ‎not have believed his wife when she described that Joseph had ‎engaged in similar activities to the ones practiced by her husband ‎during marital intercourse. In addition to this, the Torah testified ‎that Potiphar was aware of and admired Joseph’s absolute loyalty ‎and sincerity, as we know from 39,3 and 4. The Torah sometimes ‎shows us how G’d, on occasion, lets a wicked person enjoy a ‎degree of success even when they are in the process harming the ‎righteous, so that the righteous has a chance to become stronger ‎in his faith in G’d. When this happens the wicked interprets it as ‎proof that G’d approves of what he has been doing, whereas in ‎fact G’d is only preparing the downfall of the wicked. Ultimately, ‎in retrospect, G’d will be seen as having misled the wicked, as per ‎Job 12,23.‎
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