Bibbia Ebraica
Bibbia Ebraica

Chasidut su Genesi 39:19

וַיְהִי֩ כִשְׁמֹ֨עַ אֲדֹנָ֜יו אֶת־דִּבְרֵ֣י אִשְׁתּ֗וֹ אֲשֶׁ֨ר דִּבְּרָ֤ה אֵלָיו֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר כַּדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔לֶּה עָ֥שָׂהּ לִ֖י עַבְדֶּ֑ךָ וַיִּ֖חַר אַפּֽוֹ׃

Ora, quando il suo padrone ebbe udito il discorso che gli tenne sua moglie, con dire: Tali cose mi fece il tuo schiavo - si accese di sdegno.

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.‎
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Versetto precedenteCapitolo completoVersetto successivo