page_title: Vayeshev
section_title: Genesis chapter 39
hierarchical_section_title: Vayeshev / In classical rabbinic interpretation / Genesis chapter 39
caption_attribution_description: English: Joseph and Potiphar's WifeFrançais&#160;: Joseph et la femme de Putiphar
context_page_description: Vayeshev, Vayeishev, or Vayesheb is the ninth weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading. The parashah constitutes Genesis 37:1–40:23. The parashah tells the stories of how Jacob's other sons sold Joseph into captivity in Egypt, how Judah wronged his daughter-in-law Tamar who then tricked him into fulfilling his oath, and how Joseph served Potiphar and was imprisoned when falsely accused of assaulting Potiphar's wife.
  The parashah is made up of 5,972 Hebrew letters, 1,558 Hebrew words, 112 verses, and 190 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews read it the ninth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, in late November or December.
context_section_description: Reading the words of Genesis 39:1, “And Potiphar, an officer (סְרִיס, seris) of Pharaoh's, bought him,” Rav taught that Potiphar bought Joseph for himself (to make Joseph his lover), but the archangel Gabriel castrated Potiphar (as the Hebrew word for “officer,” סְרִיס, seris, also means “eunuch”) and then mutilated Potiphar, for originally Genesis 39:1 records his name as “Potiphar,” but afterwards Genesis 41:45 records his name as “Potiphera” (and the ending of his name, פֶרַע, fera, alludes to the word feirio, indicating his mutilation).
  A Midrash taught that from the moment Joseph arrived in Potiphar's house (in the words of Genesis 39:2–3), "The Lord was with Joseph, and he was successful . . . and his master saw that the Lord was with him." But the Midrash questioned whether the wicked Potiphar could see that God was with Joseph. So the Midrash interpreted the words "the Lord was with Joseph" in Genesis 39:2 to mean that God's Name never left Joseph's lips. When Joseph came to minister to Potiphar, he would whisper a prayer that God grant him favor in God's eyes and in the eyes of all who saw him. Potiphar asked Joseph what he was whispering and whether Joseph was employing sorcery against him. Joseph replied that he was praying that he should find favor with Potiphar. Thus Genesis 39:3 reports, "His master saw that the Lord was with him."
  Rabbi Phinehas taught in Rabbi Simon's name that the words, "And the Lord was with Joseph," in Genesis 39:2 demonstrated that Joseph brought the Divine Presence (שכינה, Shechinah) down to Egypt with him.
  A Midrash asked whether the words of Genesis 39:2, "And the Lord was with Joseph," implied that God was not with the other tribal ancestors. Rabbi Judan compared this to a drover who had twelve cows before him laden with wine. When one of the cows entered a shop belonging to a nonbeliever, the drover left the eleven and followed the one into the nonbeliever's shop. When asked why he left the eleven to follow the one, he replied that he was not concerned that wine carried by the eleven in the street would be rendered impure because it was used for idolatry, but he was concerned that the wine carried into the nonbeliever's shop might be. Similarly, Jacob's other sons were grown up and under their father's control, but Joseph was young and away from his father's supervision. Therefore, in the words of Genesis 39:2, "the Lord was with Joseph."
  The Tosefta deduced from Genesis 39:5 that before Joseph arrived, Potiphar's house had not received a blessing, and that it was because of Joseph's arrival that Potiphar's house was blessed thereafter.
  The Pesikta Rabbati taught that Joseph guarded himself against lechery and murder. That he guarded himself against lechery is demonstrated by the report of him in Genesis 39:8–9, “But he refused, and said to his master's wife: 'Behold, my master, having me, knows not what is in the house, and he has put all that he has into my hand; he is not greater in this house than I; neither has he kept back any thing from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” That he guarded himself against murder is demonstrated by his words in Genesis 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.”
  A Midrash applied the words of Ecclesiastes 8:4, "the king's word has power (שִׁלְטוֹן, shilton)" to Joseph's story. The Midrash taught that God rewarded Joseph for resisting Potiphar's wife (as reported in Genesis 39:8) by making him ruler (הַשַּׁלִּיט, hashalit) over the land of Egypt (as reported in Genesis 42:6). "The king's word" of Ecclesiastes 8:4 were manifest when, as Genesis 41:17 reports, "Pharaoh spoke to Joseph: In my dream . . . ." And the word "power (שִׁלְטוֹן, shilton)" of Ecclesiastes 8:4 corresponds to the report of Genesis 42:6, "And Joseph was the governor (הַשַּׁלִּיט, hashalit) over the land." The words of Ecclesiastes 8:4, "And who may say to him: ‘What are you doing?'" are thus reflected in Pharaoh's words of Genesis 41:55, "Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do." 
caption: Joseph and Potiphar's Wife (1649 painting by Guercino at the National Gallery of Art)
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