창세기 39:2의 주석

ויהי ה' את יוסף, to save him from anyone who would take advantage of him.

ויהי בבית אדוניו, He stayed in the house of his master, etc. The Torah described how G'd arranged for a variety of promotions Joseph experienced while in the service of Potiphar. At the beginning Joseph performed menial labour outside the home of Potiphar. When he did so successfully he was promoted to work inside the home. He then became a guard in the home. Eventually, he performed all his duties only indoors, i,e. בבית אדוניו. Still later he became Potiphar's personal valet, i.e. וישרת אותו. This made Joseph's life comfortable. Still later Potiphar appointed Joseph as the general manager over his entire household, i.e. ויעזוב כל אשר לו ביד יוסף. Eventually, Potiphar left every initiative to Joseph, not even bothering to ask him to account for what he was doing.

ויהי ה' את יוסף ויהי איש מצליח, he was successful in all things he undertook on his own behalf and also was successful in the house of his Egyptian master. Every task that was assigned to him he managed to carry out successfully.

(2-4) Dreimal heißt es ויהי. Die Weisen bemerken: die Brüder, erwachsen, zu Hause, in väterlicher und Geschwistergemeinschaft, bedurften der besonderen Gottesnähe nicht; allein Josef, der isolierte, verstoßene, in eine solche Umgebung verstoßene Jüngling, er bedurfte des besonderen Goltesschutzes. Darum wanderte Gott mit ihm, und da ward er denn der treffliche Mensch, zu dem er schon immer die Anlage in sich trug, und der nur eben solcher Ereignisse bedurfte, um völlig geweckt und rein von all den kleinen irdischen Schwächen hervorzutreten, die ihm in glücklicher Umgebung noch anhaftend gewesen. Wenn Gott mit Josef war, so kann dies nur sein, weil Josef mit Gott war. Wenn die Ziele, die der Mensch anstrebt, mit Gottes Zielen zusammen fallen, so gestaltet Gott die Verhältnisse der Erreichung dieser Ziele günstig und förderlich.

ויהי ה' את יוסף , “and the Lord was with Joseph;” the Midrash sees in this line a lesson for us to compare G–d’s method of befriending us to how human beings befriend their masters or superiors. As long as their superiors are successful and amass glory the underlings surround the king and flatter him nonstop. As soon however, as the king or master falls on hard times, his former “friends,” and flatterers abandon him as they would a ship about to sink. The reverse is true of Hashem. As soon as Joseph fell on hard times, G–d went out of His way to show him that far from having abandoned him, on the contrary, He now went out of His way to make life easier for him. He supported him when he became viceroy of Egypt for 80 years, as well as when he was still a slave in the house of Potiphar, and even when jailed for supposedly having tried to rape his wife. It is remarkable that also Joseph’s way of responding to the way the brothers had treated him were quite different from the way ordinary people would have reacted to this given the chance. Normally, poor people display some fear of G–d, as He is the only one from whom they can expect help. Joseph, even when in a position of power, repeatedly refused to do something that G–d would not approve of (Compare Genesis 42,18 as well as 39,9) An alternate interpretation of the line: ויהי ה' את יוסף. Imagine someone blessed with ten children, each one of whom lives in a different country. Instead of visiting them all in rotation, he concentrated on spending time with the youngest, as he was less well endowed than his brothers, and depended more on advice and assistance from his father. Take another parable illustrating our subject. A wine merchant had loaded ten donkeys with barrels of wine and began to lead them on the public highway. Suddenly one donkey veered and entered the house of a pagan. Right away the owner abandoned all the other nine donkeys out of concern that a pagan might touch the wine on the back of the last mentioned animal and make it unfit for Jews to drink from. Similarly, as soon as G–d saw that Joseph had been brought to the house of an Egyptian who was now his master, He hurried to supervise his fate to protect him from harm. He was afraid that unless He did so, Joseph might learn to copy the lifestyle of his master.

And the Eternal was with Yosef that he didn't become sullied by the non-Jews with whom he travelled. A metaphor: it's like an animal-driver who brought twelve camels loaded with jugs of wine. One of them entered the shop of a non-Jew, and the animal-driver left the eleven and entered the non-Jew's house [to pursue the stray twelfth]. [Someone] said to the animal-driver, "Why did you leave the eleven and pursue the one?" The animal-driver responded, "Those that are on the path need no guarding at all, for no-one will libate the wine they carry [making it unsuitable for Jews to drink]. But this one needs guarding, so that no non-Jew will libate its wine." And so, the Eternal was with Yosef, who had entered amongst the non-Jews - [this is from] Rabbi Ovadiah, may the memory of the righteous be a blessing. And so too with "May the Eternal our God be with us" (Malachim Alef 8:57) - since we are exiled amongst the non-Jews. הגה"ה.

ויהי ה' את יוסף, “Hashem was with Joseph;” he required Divine assistance in order to insulate him against the temptation to adopt the corrupt ways of that country.

Now Joseph, despite being merely a slave to the ruling classes, constantly retained the fear of God before his eyes, and had the Almighty in mind throughout the course of his activities. It is regarding this that (the Torah) states: ‘And the Lord was with Joseph’, i.e. that the thought of Him was always in Joseph’s mind. Accordingly, as a reward for this, he became a person who succeeded in every venture he undertook.

ויהי איש מצליח, he achieved every venture that he set out to accomplish.

(צלח verwandt mit שלח, vielleicht auch שלח .סלח: schicken, zu einem Ziele hin bewegen. סלה vielleicht: fahren lassen; die unverziehene Sünde ist ein Hemmnis im Lebenslauf des Menschen, er wird angehalten, סליחה löst den Knoten und gestattet einen ungehinderten Fortgang. צלח ist: ein Hindernisse überwindendes Fortschreiten zum Ziele.) Josef ward ein Mann, der alles, was er unternimmt, glücklich zum Ziele führt. Da überwand der Mizri den Widerwillen gegen den Jwri und nahm ihn sogar in sein Haus, wies ihm in seiner Nähe Beschäftigung an. Und als nun, Raw Hirsch on Genesis 39: 3, auch dort sein Herr sah, dass auch dort "Gott mit ihm war" und alles, was er unternahm, Gott gelingen ließ — es war dies die erste Gottesoffenbarung in einem mizrischen Kreise; in einem Kreise, in welchem das Gute und Sittliche nichts galt, zeigt sich plötzlich ein Jüngling, der arm und in tiefster Erniedrigung war, und dem doch alles gelang, weil er es tat, zeigt sich mit einem Male die segnende Kraft eines reinen und sittlichen Wollens — da fand endlich Josef חן in seinen Augen, so dass er ihn zuerst zu seinem persönlichen Diener erhob und ihn dann zum Verwalter seines ganzen Hauses machte. מצא חן (siehe zu Kap.6, 8).

However, I personally consider the most accurate overall interpretation of these verses to be that Scripture here records three enormous acts of grace conferred by the Holy One, blessed be He, upon Joseph there (in the jail). The first was that, despite being but a slave, with a depressed spirit, he nonetheless enjoyed Divine influence to such a degree that when he heard a dream, he could interpret it in accordance with what would actually transpire in the future – and it was impossible for this to be on account of (his) inherent gift of discernment, simple knowledge (of current events), and well-developed analytical powers possessed by him, as such powers are variable in their results – they do indeed predict the truth on some occasions, whilst on others they fail to do so. (We are thus forced to conclude that) it was the spirit of the Almighty speaking through him, and that His word was upon his (Joseph’s) tongue; and accordingly, not a single one of his predictions failed to be fulfilled; he could also see dreams fulfilled in accordance with his predictions; and it is thus, in relation to all this, that Scripture states: ‘And the Almighty was with Joseph’. The second (act of Divine grace) was that he succeeded in all his affairs. Concerning this aspect, we are told, ‘And he was a successful person’ in that whatever he turned his hand to prospered. The third (act of Divine grace) was that, despite the general custom amongst high-ranking officials, on purchasing a slave, to leave him to labor in the fields, [indeed the Egyptians, in particular, would treat Hebrews in this fashion, as they were hated by them on account of their (i.e. the Hebrews) being meat-eaters], in this instance the Almighty favored him in his master’s house by allowing him to remain working inside the house, (even) in Egypt, where he could relax, rather than dispatching him to the fields to toil away there. In regard to this point, the verse emphasizes: ‘And he was in the house of his Egyptian master’. Moreover, since each of these three (acts of grace) were quite distinct, the narrative repeatedly utilizes the word ‘va’yehi’ (‘and he was’) in each particular instance. Thus, in the light of this interpretation, the first of the questions initially posed (by us) has been satisfactorily resolved.

ויהי בבית אדוניו המצרי, he would perform tasks in his master’s private room. The meaning of the word היה here is the same as the meaning of the word עמד elsewhere, i.e. stationed, remaining in a fixed position. Examples of the word היה occurring in this sense are found in Deuteronomy 31,26 והיה שם, “it would remain there.” Compare also Deuteronomy 10,5 ויהיו שם כאשר צוני ה', “they remained there as the Lord had commanded me.”