Parshas Vayeishev tells the story of Yosef in the home of Potifar. The Torah tells us that Yosef was a very beautiful person and would even tend to his appearance & style his hair. For this reason, Potifar’s wife desired to do an Aveirah with him and after he successfully escaped her, she had him thrown into jail, claiming that he had tried to do an Aveira with her. The Parsha continues by telling us that even while he was sitting in jail, Hashem made Yosef successful in everything he did. There are two factors that this story is comprised of; firstly, the fact that Yosef was beautiful and secondly, the desire Potifar’s wife had to be with Yosef. Each of these aspects, like every part of Torah, contains a valuable lesson that can be applied to our daily life.
Yosef’s Name and Its Deeper Meaning
Regarding Yosef’s name it is written "יוסף - הוי' לי בן אחר"—Hashem should add to me another son. This was Rochel’s plea to Hashem that she should be blessed with yet another child. The Tzemach Tzedek offers a Chassidic interpretation of this Possuk and explains it to be referring to the Avoda of turning an אחר—someone who is removed and distant—into a בן—a son, i.e. the Avoda of bringing people closer to Hashem. This was the Avoda of Yosef.
Yosef’s Spiritual Beauty and Influence
The reason that Yosef was able to transform people who were in the category of אחר into a בן, is because he himself was beautiful in all spiritual areas. Chassidus explains that when the Torah tells us of Yosef’s physical beauty, it is also an allusion to his spiritual refinement. Being that Yosef himself was at a place of spiritual perfection, he was therefore able to influence others to strive towards greater spiritual heights. There is an obligation for every person to not only worry about himself, but rather to try to influence others as well—this is a very important lesson to be aware of. In order to successfully encourage others to come closer to Hashem, the ‘influencer’ himself must be “beautiful” just like Yosef, i.e. spiritually refined.
This does not mean to say that a person should wait to reach spiritual perfection before attempting to influence others. Regardless of where a person is holding, he must always do his very best to affect others positively. On the other hand, he should bear in mind that his own spiritual growth will directly affect the way he is able to influence others. This is due to the fact that the person he is trying to effect will be able to sense the lack of “beauty” in the person giving to him and will therefore not be so eager to “receive” that which is being given.
The Responsibility of Spiritual Refinement
A person must be aware of the tremendous responsibility he has to refine and perfect his own spiritual state, because failure to do so not only negatively affects himself but also any person that he may try to impact. A person must invest every effort in becoming spiritually “beautiful,” for the sake of all those he may encounter & inspire. This is the lesson that can be learned from Yosef’s beauty.
Potifar’s Wife: Good Intentions in Disguise
Regarding the wife of Potifar, Rashi informs us that she actually had good intentions in her attempt to be with Yosef. She was aware that she was destined to have offspring that would come from Yosef, but she was unaware that it was her daughter who was meant to marry him and not herself. We see from here, that there can be instances when something appears to be the total opposite of holiness, but in essence, it is really an attempt to add in holiness, as will be explained further.
Obstacles as Opportunities: The Alter Rebbe’s Teaching
The Alter Rebbe writes in Tanya that if a Jew is standing and Davening with concentration and a non-Jew comes and attempts to disturb him, not only should it not distract him, but rather it should arouse him to intensify his concentration. Seemingly this statement requires explanation. If the purpose of this experience is that a Jew should concentrate harder on his Davening, why should this arousal come from such a negative place? This seems to totally oppose that which is being accomplished. The explanation is as follows: the non-Jew, deep down in his essence (the essence of every single thing is holiness) desires and feels the need to add in holiness. Being that this holiness is coming through the channel of a non-Jew, which externally is the opposite of holiness, it therefore expresses itself in an opposite manner. So, it appears that he is trying to disrupt and disturb that which is holy, i.e. a Jew’s Davening.
The Maggid of Mezritch and Lavan’s Pursuit
The Maggid of Mezritch uses this concept to explain the story of when Lavan chased after Yaakov claiming that everything belonged to him. The real reason why the whole episode transpired is because there was meant to be an added Parsha in the Torah. For this reason, Lavan chased Yaakov, which appears to be a negative experience. But, in reality, the purpose of this episode was that this story added to the Torah, which brought about an increase of holiness in this world.
Two Ways to View Obstacles
This is the lesson that every person must learn from the story of Potifar’s wife. Whenever there is something that appears to be an obstacle in the way of serving Hashem, there are two ways to approach it. The first way is to view it as an obstacle and fight it, in which a person will use up all of his energy struggling to overcome it. The second way is to view it for what it really is, an opportunity to assist the person to climb to greater spiritual heights. It is merely externally that it appears negative, and therefore once a person is able to recognize that, he will not feel the need to struggle with it, but rather he will automatically seize the opportunity to grow from it. Through this attitude towards challenges, he will expose the holiness that lies inside. And, he will reveal added spirituality into the world through something that originally seemed to be a concealment of G-dliness.
Obstacles as Hidden Assistance
This teaches us a valuable lesson regarding anything that appears to be an obstacle in our service of Hashem. In its essence, even obstacles are there to assist us to come closer to Hashem. It is merely that externally they appear to disturb us. A person must be able to recognize that everything that happens is really positive, for there is no such thing as negativity coming from Hashem. Then, not only will he remain unperturbed by the various obstacles that he’ll encounter, but he will actually be able to use them to strengthen his connection to Hashem. When he will come to this awareness with a feeling of truth, he will actually cause the inner good in the obstacles to be revealed openly. And, he will be able to see how it is there to assist him in his service of Hashem.
