This week in Parshat Vayeishev, we read the story of Joseph and his brothers. Eventually, he is sold to Egypt, works in the employ of a Mr. Potifar who likes his work and makes his a manager of his household. Joseph was handsome and his mistress, Mrs. Potifar was flirting with him and pressuring him. He was in an awkward position. Until one day she grabbed his coat – he refused her and ran out, leaving his coat with her. She framed him, pressed charges if you will, and he ended up in prison.
There’s a rare trope – musical cantillation – atop the word “and he refused”. It’s called a “Shalshelet” and physically it looks like a zigzag or lightning bolt, kind of what you’d see on Harry Potter’s head. The sound rises upward, winding and twisting, its very dramatic, going from one side to the other and back again, three times as it rises. This appears only four times in the Torah. In all the instances it is a story of personal struggle or drama, it tells of dramatic hesitation and wavering.
Indeed, as the Talmud tells us about Joseph, this was no easy test for him. He was very far from home, he was a servant in a foreign land, he was at this woman’s mercy, and who would know? The temptation was very real. According to (one opinion in) the Talmud, he came home that day to be with her, but then struggled with it, went back and forth like this trope does, until he saw a mirage or vision of his father’s face in the window and the subsequent inspiration that played out in his mind that caused him to rush out and away from her.
But that’s not what you’ll see in the Artscroll Chumash commentary. They translate this word refusal as “adamant refusal” and explain at great length that the dramatic trope signal on this word means that Joseph was firm, unwavering and unequivocal in his refusal of her advances. He never desired her for a moment.
Why does Artscroll say this? And not only in the commentary but in the interpretive translation as well? Even if the Talmud itself tells us that Joseph indeed struggled greatly at this very moment? Because Yosef was a Tzadik, he was a righteous person, and Artscroll feels he’s more righteous if he wasn’t tempted, if he had no struggle, if he entertained such thoughts. It’s better if our righteous are beyond reproach, incapable of sin.
But to those who’ve studied Tanya, especially the early teen chapters from 11-15 etc know, that there’s no shame in struggle. G-d desires the struggle! That’s what makes us human, and that’s what makes us Jewish. Tanya’s protagonist, the Benoni – is all about the struggle, and as Rabbi Alter Benzion Metzger categorizes it (and we’ve adopted that as a title of a Torah-Tuesday class on chapters 15, 27 and 30 of Tanya) “The Struggle is Significant!”
—–
Coming off Shabbat360 last night, I have to admit that I wavered and hesitated in the days leading up to it. As we worked hard to get the word out to more and more students, I wondered if maybe we should remove a row or two of tables, if we’d really be able to fill the room. I hesitated and wavered, even as we rose upwards towards this great goal. But last night, when the room filled, and nearly every seat was taken, my wavering turned into the Artscroll interpretation (as much as I feel it doesn’t do justice to the Joseph story here) of bold confidence and strength: Wow!!!! It really was 360, it was really amazing.