Comentário sobre Gênesis 39:11

ויהי כהיום הזה AND IT CAME TO PASS ON A CERTAIN DAY — This means as much as “and it came to pass when a certain distinguished day arrived” — a day of merriment, a day of their sacred feast when they all went to the temple of their idols, — she said), “I shall find no day fitting to associate with Joseph as this day”. She therefore told her attendants I am sick and cannot go to the temple (Sotah 36b).

כהיום הזה, when she raised her eyes to him in lust.

ויהי כהיום הזה, a day, quite similar to this day, when she insistently urged him to sleep with her, occurred. Now a different day occurred when the house was empty of all its other occupants

ויהי כהיום, “A certain day arrived, etc.” It was as clear as day(light) that Joseph had only arrived to perform his regular work.

Rav and Shmuel: One says, literally, his work... Tosafos explain in Sotah 36b [that the second explanation is] because it says ויבא הביתה, which is the same word as ביאה (relations). The verse could have [omitted this phrase and] said: “It was on such a day, and no man of the household was there...”

Das כהיום הזה ist dunkel. היום הזה und כיום הזה bezieht sich gewöhnlich auf die Gegenwart des Erzählers oder Lesers und beides ist hier nicht möglich. Bezieht man es auf die Zeit der Geschichte, so heißt es vielleicht: an einem solchen Tage, und bezieht sich auf das vorhergehende יום יום. Sie hatte bereits an diesem Tage ihre Verführungskunst an Josef versucht und dennoch wagte sich Josef "an einem solchen Tage" in ihre Nähe, obgleich kein Mann sonst im Hause war. Es läge dann ein Vorwurf für Josef darin, den er schwer genug gebüßt hat. Es soll niemand zu sehr auf seine sittliche Standhaftigkeit bauen.

ויהי כהיום, “it was on a day no different from any other day;” this short phrase has been inserted here as in praise of Joseph, the righteous person, and as condemnation of the cursed person. In a cultured society, marital intercourse is an activity reserved for the night, to be performed in darkness; the wife of Potiphar demanded from Joseph that he engage not only in infidelity to his master and to G-d, but that he do so in broad daylight. Seeing that Joseph could not have foreseen such a demand by his mistress, he can certainly not be faulted to have gone about his daily routine on that day just as on any other day. Regardless of this, she tried to disrobe him. According to Rabbi Yishmael, (Pessikta zutrata) that day was the day on which the Nile used to flood its banks to irrigate the fields; that day was a kind of joyous festival, everyone participating in the festivities. Mrs Potiphar and Joseph chose not to participate in those activities.

לעשות מלאכתו TO DO HIS WORK — Rab and Samuel differ as to what this means. One holds that it means, his actual house-work; the other that it means to associate with her, but a vision of his father’s face appeared to him and he resisted temptation and did not sin as is stated in Treatise Sotah 36b.

ויבא הביתה, he entered a room, unaware that she was in that room at the time.

לעשות מלאכתו, to perform specific chores which were part of his regular routine assigned to him, as explained by Onkelos.

ואין איש מאנשי הבית בבית, ”and no one of the normally present people in the house was in the house on that occasion.” The unusual phrasing מאנשי הבית, meaning “of the men normally assigned to the house,” prompted the sages to say that another person was present, referring to the image of Yaakov, Joseph’s father, whose image reminded him not to fall victim to the lure of this woman.

But, his father’s image appeared to him... [Rashi knows this] because it is written, “No man of the household was there in the house,” implying another man was there. (Tosafos ibid, citing R. Moshe Hadarshan) Perforce it was Yaakov, as Rashi comments on 49:24.