This week’s parsha contains the incident of Yosef’s interaction with Potiphar’s wife. She had her eye on Yosef and wanted to commit adultery with him. She pestered him day after day trying to get him to agree. According to Chazal, her motive was more than just passion or lust. Her astrologers informed her that she and Yosef were destined to have common descendants. She felt that Yosef was destined to father a child from her and that it would be most appropriate for them to have this illicit liaison. (She did not realize that it would be with her daughter — Osnas – that Yosef would have his two sons).
Her “pestering” Yosef every day involved her repeating to Yosef her erroneous belief that they were destined to have children together: “It is a mitzvah”; “The future is dependent on this”; “This is G-d’s Will”. Nevertheless, Yosef’s response was constant: “How can I do this evil act and I will sin to G-d.” (Bereishis 39:9) In other words, he told her: “You tell me it is a ‘mitzvah’, I’m telling you it is an aveirah [sin].”
The Sefas Emes asks – how was Yosef so sure that it was a sin and that Potiphar’s wife was in error? The Sefas Emes answers with a sharp Yiddish comment: The Yetzer HaTov is not a noodnik. In other words, a person’s “good inclination” does not pester him.
This is not just a humorous comment. This thought contains a basic truth. There is a pattern to the activities of the Yetzer HaTov and the Yetzer HaRah. Things that come easily, things that a person wants to do, things that a person is excited about doing and has the energy to do – those are the things that we need to be careful about.
Things that are a “pain”, things that do not come easily and that are troublesome, and that we do not seem to always have the energy for – these are thing things the Yetzer HaTov would want us to do.
Rav Sholom Schwadron cites a teaching from Avos d’Rav Nassan: When a person is aroused by a passion and is contemplating doing an immoral act, all his limbs listen to him – he has energy and he moves forward with a bounce and with enthusiasm. This is because the Evil Inclination rules over the 248 limbs of a person. Therefore, when the Yetzer Harah orders a person to “do it”, there is always energy for the task. On the other hand, when someone is on the way to do a mitzvah, all of his limbs become lazy.
It is hard to get out of bed to go to minyan. But if someone has a business appointment where he knows that he stands to make a lot of money, there will be no problem jumping out of bed. This is not to say, chas vesholom, making a business deal is a sin — but it certainly can’t be equated with doing a mitzvah. And how much more so does this apply when a person is on his way to doing something that he should not be doing.
This was the insight of the Sefas Emes. Yosef knew that if this woman was pestering him, over and over and over: “Do it, do it, do it” — then it was obviously not a message from his “Good Inclination”. Yosef knew that the Yetzer HaTov is not a noodnik.
It is with this perspective that we need to judge so many things in life. When we are weighing an act — “Is this a mitzvah or an aveirah?” — let us always apply the principle that the Good Inclination does not pester us. (R’ Frand)
