We all face temptations, big and small. But It's a story of desire, power, and ultimately, unwavering faith.
In Legends of the Jews, compiled by Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, Zuleika didn't just casually flirt. She was persistent. She tried everything – entreaties, tears, and finally, outright force. One day, seizing an opportunity when everyone was at the annual Nile festival, Zuleika feigned illness and plotted her move.
She transformed the house into a sensory overload. She adorned herself in princely garments, precious jewels, and fragrant perfumes – cassia, frankincense, myrrh, and aloes. She waited for Joseph in the vestibule, the path he had to take to do his daily work. Can you picture the scene? The air thick with perfume, Zuleika radiant, and Joseph walking in from the fields, completely unsuspecting.
When Joseph saw her, he turned back. But Zuleika called out, urging him to continue. He entered, trying to focus on his work, but Zuleika stood before him, repeating her desires. For a fleeting moment, Joseph wavered. This was the first and last time his steadfastness deserted him, even if it was just for an instant.
What snapped him out of it? According to Ginzberg's retelling, the images of his mother Rachel, his aunt Leah, and his father Jacob appeared before him. Jacob's image spoke, reminding Joseph that his brothers' names would be engraved on the breastplate of the High Priest. Did he want his name to be among them, or would he forfeit this honor through sinful conduct?
Wow. The weight of family, of legacy, pressing down on him in that moment.
This vision, especially the image of his father, brought Joseph back to his senses. Zuleika, startled by the sudden change in his face, asked what was wrong. Joseph exclaimed, "I see my father!" Zuleika scoffed, "Where is he? There is none in the house." Joseph replied, "Thou belongest to a people that is like unto the ass, it perceiveth nothing. But I belong to those who can see things." It's a powerful statement about spiritual awareness, about seeing beyond the immediate.
He fled, but the temptation returned. The text says that the Lord Himself appeared to Joseph, holding the Eben Shetiyah (אֶבֶן שְׁתִיָּה), the Foundation Stone, and warned him that if he touched her, He would cast away the stone upon which the world is founded, and the world would fall to ruin. The stakes couldn't be higher!
As Joseph tried to escape again, Zuleika grabbed his garment. She threatened him with a sword, demanding he submit to her desires. Joseph, with a quick, energetic motion, wrenched himself free, leaving a piece of his garment in her hand.
Imagine the turmoil. Zuleika, rejected, heartbroken, and now exposed. She kissed and caressed the fragment of cloth, but quickly realized the danger she was in. She feared Joseph would betray her. So, she concocted a story, accusing him of attempted assault.
Her friends, returning from the Nile festival, advised her to accuse Joseph before her husband, Potiphar. She even enlisted their help, having them falsely claim that Joseph had made improper advances toward them as well.
She further staged the scene, putting on ordinary clothes, lying in bed, and placing Joseph's torn garment beside her. She summoned the men of her house and told them a fabricated story of Joseph's alleged outrage. The men, enraged, reported the false accusation to Potiphar.
Potiphar, influenced by his wife's accusations and the complaints of other men, had Joseph flogged. While being beaten, Joseph cried out to God, proclaiming his innocence and questioning why he should die for a false accusation.
Then, in a twist worthy of a divine intervention, God opened the mouth of Zuleika's eleven-month-old child. The baby spoke, revealing Zuleika's lies and recounting the true events. The people were astonished, and Potiphar, abashed, stopped the beating.
The matter was brought to court, where priests served as judges. The torn garment was examined, and the location of the tear suggested that Zuleika had tried to hold Joseph fast. The judges concluded that Joseph was not deserving of the death penalty but sentenced him to incarceration for staining Zuleika's name.
Even Potiphar, convinced of Joseph's innocence, admitted that he had to imprison him to protect his children from any lingering suspicion.
So, what are we to make of this story? It's a reminder that temptation can come in many forms, that even the most righteous among us can waver. But it's also a evidence of the power of faith, family, and divine intervention in helping us overcome our weaknesses. And perhaps, most importantly, it is a reminder that even when falsely accused, as Joseph was, truth and justice will eventually prevail. The story of Joseph isn't just an ancient tale; it's a timeless lesson for us all.
Seeing that she could not attain her object by entreaties or tears, Zuleika finally used force, when she judged that the favorable chance had come. She did not have long to wait. When the Nile overflowed its banks, and, according to the annual custom of the Egyptians, all repaired to the river, men and women, people and princes, accompanied by music, Zuleika remained at home under pretense of being sick. This was her long-looked-for opportunity, she thought. She rose up and ascended to the hall of state, and arrayed herself in princely garments. She placed precious stones upon her head, onyx stones set in silver and gold, she beautified her face and her body with all sorts of things for the purifying of women, she perfumed the hall and the whole house with cassia and frankincense, spread myrrh and aloes all over, and afterward sat herself down at the entrance to the hall, in the vestibule leading to the house, through which Joseph had to pass to his work. And, behold, Joseph came from the field, and he was on the point of entering the house to do his master's work, but when he reached the place where Zuleika sat, and saw all she had done, he turned back. His mistress, perceiving it, called out to him, "What aileth thee, Joseph? Go to thy work, I will make room for thee, that thou mayest pass by to thy seat." Joseph did as she bade him, he entered the house, took his seat, and set about his master's work as usual. Then Zuleika stood before him suddenly in all her beauty of person and magnificence of raiment, and repeated the desire of her heart. It was the first and the last time that Joseph's steadfastness deserted him, but only for an instant. When he was on the point of complying with the wish of his mistress, the image of his mother Rachel appeared before him, and that of his aunt Leah, and the image of his father Jacob. The last addressed him thus: "In time to come the names of thy brethren will be graven upon the breastplate of the high priest. Dost thou desire to have thy name appear with theirs? Or wilt thou forfeit this honor through sinful conduct? For know, he that keepeth company with harlots wasteth his substance." This vision of the dead, and especially the image of his father, brought Joseph to his senses, and his illicit passion departed from him. Astonished at the swift change in his countenance, Zuleika said, "My friend and true-love, why art thou so affrighted that thou art near to swooning? Joseph: "I see my father!" Zuleika: "Where is he? Why, there is none in the house." Joseph: "Thou belongest to a people that is like unto the ass, it perceiveth nothing. But I belong to those who can see things." Joseph fled forth, away from the house of his mistress, the same house in which aforetime wonders had been done for Sarah kept a captive there by Pharaoh. But hardly was he outside when the sinful passion again overwhelmed him, and he returned to Zuleika's chamber. Then the Lord appeared unto him, holding the Eben Shetiyah in His hand, and said to him: "If thou touchest her, I will cast away this stone upon which the earth is founded, and the world will fall to ruin." Sobered again, Joseph started to escape from his mistress, but Zuleika caught him by his garment, and she said: "As the king liveth, if thou wilt not fulfil my wish, thou must die," and while she spoke thus, she drew a sword with her free hand from under her dress, and, pressing it against Joseph's throat, she said, "Do as I bid thee, or thou diest." Joseph ran out, leaving a piece of his garment in the hands of Zuleika as he wrenched himself loose from the grasp of the woman with a quick, energetic motion. Zuleika's passion for Joseph was so violent that, in lieu of its owner, whom she could not succeed in subduing to her will, she kissed and caressed the fragment of cloth left in her hand. At the same time she was not slow to perceive the danger into which she had put herself, for, she feared, Joseph might possibly betray her conduct, and she considered ways and means of obviating the consequences of her folly. Meanwhile her friends returned from the Nile festival, and they came to visit her and inquire after her health. They found her looking wretchedly ill, on account of the excitement she had passed through and the anxiety she was in. She confessed to the women what had happened with Joseph, and they advised her to accuse him of immorality before her husband, and then he would be thrown into prison. Zuleika accepted their advice, and she begged her visitors to support her charges by also lodging complaints against Joseph, that he had been annoying them with improper proposals. But Zuleika did not depend entirely upon the assistance of her friends. She planned a ruse, besides, to be sure of convincing her husband of Joseph's guilt. She laid aside her rich robes of state, put on her ordinary clothes, and took to her sick-bed, in which she had been lying when the people left to go to the festival. Also she took Joseph's torn garment, and laid it out next to her. Then she sent a little boy to summon some of the men of her house, and to them she told the tale of Joseph's alleged outrage, saying: "See the Hebrew slave, whom your master hath brought in unto my house, and who attempted to do violence to me to-day! You had scarcely gone away to the festival when be entered the house, and making sure that no one was here he tried to force me to yield to his lustful desire. But I grasped his clothes, tore them, and cried with a loud voice. When he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, he was seized with fear, and be fled, and got him out, but he left his garment by me." The men of her house spake not a word, but, in a rage against Joseph, they went to their master, and reported to him what had come to pass. In the meantime the husbands of Zuleika's friends had also spoken to Potiphar, at the instigation of their wives, and complained of his slave, that he molested them. Potiphar hastened home, and he found his wife in low spirits, and though the cause of her dejection was chagrin at not having succeeded in winning Joseph's love, she pretended that it was anger at the immoral conduct of the slave. She accused him in the following words: "O husband, mayest thou not live a day longer, if thou dost not punish the wicked slave that hath desired to defile thy bed, that hath not kept in mind who he was when he came to our house, to demean himself with modesty, nor hath he been mindful of the favors he hath received from thy bounty. He did lay a privy design to abuse thy wife, and this at the time of observing a festival, when thou wouldst be absent." These words she spoke at the moment of conjugal intimacy with Potiphar, when she was certain of exerting an influence upon her husband. Potiphar gave credence to her words, and he had Joseph flogged unmercifully. While the cruel blows fell upon him, he cried to God, "O Lord, Thou knowest that I am innocent of these things, and why should I die to-day on account of a false accusation by the hands of these uncircumcised, impious men?" God opened the mouth of Zuleika's child, a babe of but eleven months, and he spoke to the men that were beating Joseph, saying: "What is your quarrel with this man? Why do you inflict such evil upon him? Lies my mother doth speak, and deceit is what her mouth uttereth. This is the true tale of that which did happen," and the child proceeded to tell all that had passed—how Zuleika had tried first to persuade Joseph to act wickedly, and then had tried to force him to do her will. The people listened in great amazement. But the report finished, the child spake no word, as before. Abashed by the speech of his own infant son, Potiphar commanded his bailiffs to leave off from chastising Joseph, and the matter was brought into court, where priests sat as judges. Joseph protested his innocence, and related all that had happened according to the truth, but Potiphar repeated the account his wife had given him. The judges ordered the garment of Joseph to be brought which Zuleika had in her possession, and they examined the tear therein. It turned out to be on the front part of the mantle, and they came to the conclusion that Zuleika had tried to hold him fast, and had been foiled in her attempt by Joseph, against whom she was now lodging a trumped up charge. They decided that Joseph had not incurred the death penalty, but they condemned him to incarceration, because he was the cause of a stain upon Zuleika's fair name." Potiphar himself was convinced of Joseph's innocence, and when he cast him into prison, he said to him, "I know that thou art not guilty of so vile a crime, but I must put thee in durance, lest a taint cling to my children."
