Joseph was destined for greatness
The greatest gift one can give to a friend, lover or child is memory
This is the story of the Biblical archetype Yosef. More then any other biblical figure Joseph –wrote Avraham Kuk – is us."
Let’s learn.
Joseph is in Egypt. His own brothers have first thrown him into a pit, and then sold him into slavery. He finds himself far away from home, the servant to Potiphar in Egypt. His master’s wife takes a fancy to Joseph and attempts to seduce him on a regular basis.
Usually the story is taken to be that of a righteous man who is almost overcome by unredeemed sexual passion. A close reading of the text however reveals that Potiphar’s wife is no casual woman of the night. In fact, Joseph in the end marries a woman who is called the daughter of Potiphar, a clear allusion to this story. The Midrash goes so far as to identify her as the daughter of the woman in our story. She is somehow part of Joseph’s destiny.
Joseph understands that he is destined for greatness. Joseph is the one who, earlier in his life, dreamt of kingship and power. Potiphar’s wife offers him the opportunity for Sippuk-fulfillment; he knows that an alliance with her is crucial for his advancement- for the realization of his destiny. But somehow it doesn’t feel true to Joseph. He is tempted and she is beautiful. The combination is explosive; the call of destiny and the powerful sensuality of an older woman.
What will happen?
The inevitable day comes when it seems that she is about to succeed. She is alone in the house – Potiphar is away. Joseph knowing of her presence in the house comes to fulfill his passion for her. They are alone…the air is electric, and at the proverbial last moment: vayima’en - he refused.
Too often we analyze biblical text without taking into account that we are in fact reading not a script, but a libretto. The Bible is meant to be sung, and the music can often tell us more than the words themselves. The musical cantillation sign above the word vayima’en is a small squiggly symbol, which is called in Biblical musical notes a shalshelet - a waverer - a sustained wavering note that travels up and down the scale, back and forth.
Thus when we hear that Joseph “refused”, we understand it was not a swift and easy decision. Back and forth the note sounds - will Joseph fall, will he not fall? Will he find the inner strength to hold on to his sense of self? Will this slave maintain his freedom?
The Talmud in Sotah takes us inside the scene. The Talmudic text suggests that the reason Joseph does not fall is because at the very moment when he is ready to give in to the overtures of Potiphar’s wife, at the moment when false sippuk beckons with its seductive hand, a vision appears to him.
'I will love you no matter what'
This vision, drawn up from the depths of his memory, is an image of his father saying: “Joseph, in the future the names of your brothers will be written on the stones of the high priest's breastplate, and your name will be included. Do you want your name erased, and you remembered as a pursuer of woman who is not of your story?” At this moment Joseph’s resolve solidifies, and “he refused”.
At this key moment in his life - a moment when false sippuk seeks to overwhelm him, when pathological fulfillment outside of his inner center of gravity moves to engulf him - Joseph is able to fall back almost instinctively on the memory of his father in early childhood telling him, ‘Joseph you are Joseph. Joseph you are a prince.
Joseph you have greatness and you are destined for greatness. Joseph you are valuable. Joseph you have dignity. Joseph you are my son and I will love you no matter what.’ It is this crucial reminder of Joseph’s core certainty from its very source - his father - that allows Joseph to emerge as the most powerful man in his generation and eventually to reunite his entire family.
All this happens because at the pivoting point in his story Joseph is able to hold the image of his father’s belief in him. This Talmudic understanding is actually rooted in the deep structure of the text. The word vayima’en - he refused - appears only three times in the book of Genesis, all in relation to Joseph.
The first time - When Potiphar’s wife tempts Joseph, he refuses - vayima’en. The second time - after Joseph’s father, Jacob, hears the news of Joseph’s death, Vayima’en - he refuses. He refuses to be comforted. (Genesis 37:3) The use of the same word is no coincidence. The text is suggesting that the two events are taking place simultaneously.
'The brothers said Joseph was dead'
At the very same time that Jacob’s children are trying to comfort him ‘and he refused to be comforted’- Joseph is being tempted by Potiphar’s wife, ‘and he refused to be seduced’.
The fact that these two ‘refusal stories’ happen in different places at the same time points to an essential interlocking of the two stories. It is almost as if Jacob’s refusal to forget Joseph gives Joseph the strength to refuse the overtures of Potiphar’s wife.
To understand the inner psychological mechanism which interlocks these moments we need to fast forward in the story. When Joseph, much later in the narrative after he is already the viceroy of Pharaoh, sees his brothers in Egypt, “he remembered the dreams that he dreamed about them”. (Genesis 42:9) The implication is that until this point in the story he had forgotten those dreams.
But was there anybody who remembered them, who did not forget his dreams? You can only forget what other people remember. If everyone forgets there is no memory and no forgetting. To say then that Joseph forgot is to imply memory. Who then is the one who remembers? The answer - his father.
Jacob remembered his son’s dreams.
Jacob scolded Joseph for his dreams of familial supremacy, but he also guarded the matter. (Genesis 37:11) The Hebrew word shamar - he guarded - can be understood as ‘he served as a guardian.’- a guardian for the dreams of his son.
Even when Joseph had forgotten his dreams, his father held them for him. The brothers said Joseph was dead. For the brothers this meant that the dreams of Joseph, which the brothers so feared, had died with him.
This was the reason that Jacob could not be comforted. So strongly did Jacob believe in his son and his dreams of the future, he could not accept that Joseph was dead. Jacob continued to hold the dream even in face of the overwhelming ‘facts’ to the contrary.
It is this complete belief in ones child that imparts core certainty. When false sippuk threatens to overcome Joseph, the image of his father, who believes in him so completely, comes to him and reminds him of who he is.
'Not yet strong enough to reclaim his dreams'
Joseph’s “vayima’en - and he refused” is rooted in his father’s simultaneous “vayima’en”. Joseph is able to hold firm to himself because his father held firm to his belief in the son he so loved. Joseph is not destroyed by the allure of false sippuk because he is able to resolve the primal safek of his value and identity through the memory of his father’s unconditional love.
Memory is a path to core certainty. In answering the question of ‘Who am I?’ one medieval philosopher teaches, 'the past has been, the future is not yet, and the present is the blink of the eye.' Where then does the individual find himself? How, in the transient present, can a human being find an anchor in certainty of identity and value?
Our first story is of Joseph. How did Joseph the slave maintain a sense of self? Joseph is lost in Egypt, threatened by the seductions of non-self. His core integrity is assaulted. Our rereading reveals a stunning intersection of two moments of memory which together allow Joseph to retain the integrity of his identity. One is Joseph, in the grip of unredeemed sexual temptation, conjuring up the image of his long lost father. Joseph in the biblical text, "refuses" to be seduced. At that very same time, in what we pointed as an intentionally parallel usage, his father Jacob "refuses" to accept that Joseph has died.
In Jacob's refusal, he holds on to the dreams of self that Joseph himself has forgotten. Joseph’s memory of Jacob is rooted in Jacob’s memory of Joseph. The strength of Joseph’s ‘refusal’ is rooted in the’ refusal’ of Jacob to give up. He is not yet strong enough to reclaim his dreams, himself, but that to will come.
