Truth to Others and Ourselves

Vayeshev
Genesis 37:1 - 40:23


Précis: The story of Joseph begins with the words, “And Jacob dwelt (vayeshev) in the land of his father’s travels.” We learn that Joseph is Jacob’s favorite son. Joseph receives the famous coat of many colors, and dreams strange dreams and relates them to his brothers and father, creating additional concern on their part. The sons conspire to do away with Joseph, but before he dies, they sell him into slavery. Jacob is devastated when the sons present evidence of Joseph’s “death.”
     We then have an intervening story about Judah. He marries off his first son to Tamar. The son soon dies, and, the next son is married to the widow (“levirate marriage.”) The second son (Onan) dies, and Judah is loath to offer the third son. The widow dresses as a harlot, seduces Judah, becomes pregnant, and reveals herself to Judah as a woman wronged. He acknowledges her as a rightful daughter.
     The scene shifts back to Joseph, who is now a servant in the household of Potiphar, an Egyptian official. Potiphar’s wife attempts to seduce Joseph but he refuses her advances. She accuses him nonetheless of attempted rape, and Joseph is tossed into prison. There, he meets jailed servants of Pharaoh, for whom he interprets dreams successfully. When the chief butler is restored to his post, he promises to “remember” Joseph, but the parasha ends with the words, “but he forgot him.”


Genesis 39:7-8 “After a time, his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” But he refused…..”


Rabbi Evan Moffic, writing in 10 Minutes of Torah (12/12/09) describes how we can learn important lessons from a single repeated word in this week’s reading. The story of Potiphar’s wife and Joseph provides the background for this analysis.

When Joseph refuses the advances of Potiphar’s wife, she grabs an article of his clothing, which is used as evidence of rape, and Joseph goes to prison. The Hebrew word for the clothing is “beged” and it appears six times during the 10 verses which set forth the story. As we know, Torah does not waste words, and repetition of words or phrases have much to teach us.


The word “beged” has the Hebrew root of bet-gimel-dalet. Another word with this root is “begidah”, usually translated as “treachery" or "deception." What is the connection between clothing and deception?


In this story, the clothing is used as false evidence by Potiphar’s wife. It reminds us of a previous episode in Joseph’s life, when his brothers brought Jacob the famous coat of colors stained with blood as false evidence of Joseph’s death. Twice in Joseph’s life, clothing provides the vehicle for treachery. (And perhaps a third time, later on, when Joseph, dressed in Egyptian royal garb, hides his identity from his brothers when they reunite.)


Taking this a step further, we can see that the truth may often be concealed by layers of deception. While in these cases clothing was the vehicle of deception, we know that there are many of ways of concealing the truth.


In public discourse, we are often deceived by elaborate deception based on a narrow explanation or point of view (Fox News or MSNBC), by outright falsehoods given provenance because of email circulation (University of Kentucky (or maybe the United Kingdom) dropping Holocaust studies because of Muslim pressure), or based on political motivation (Obama is a Muslim!). This parasha reminds us of the need to cut through the pretense and volume of “facts” we are bombarded with and touch base with truth.


The concealment of truth reaches its nadir when we engage in self-deception, deliberately (or unthinkingly) telling ourselves that what is black is white and what is white is black. Just as deception is a leitmotif of Joseph’s life (from the bloody cloak to Potiphar’s wife, to Joseph’s own identity concealment), self-deception is an all-too-common trait in our modern lives. Facing the truth as it is - rather than as we’d like it to be - is a challenge for us to overcome.