The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.
The parsha contains a discussion of the story of the wife of Potiphar's attempts to seduce Yosef, his resistance to her advances and her attempt to frame him. R' Frand quoted a gemara in Yoma which discusses three people who came for judgment after 120 - a wealthy man, a poor man and a wicked man. They ask the poor man why he did not learn Torah and he said because he was poor and was trying to earn a living. To this they respond - you were not more poor than Hillel. They then ask the rich man who also says that he was too preoccupied with wealth and they respond to him - you were not more wealthy than R' Eliezer ben Charsom. They then ask the rasha and if he says that he was too beautiful to fight off his temptations, they tell him that he was not more handsome than Yosef. The gemara then proceeds to tell the story of Yosef and his resistance. After that, each of the paradigms demonstrates the fallacy of their answers.
R' Frand then asked on this gemara - if they ask the rasha and compare him to Yosef, the built in answer is - I'm not a tzaddik! There are very few people called tzaddik and I am not Yosef. To rebut this, R' Frand quotes from the gemara in Sotah which quotes a machlokes Rav and Shmuel about why Yosef was in the house. One says that he was there to do his work and the other says that he was there with bad intentions.
R' Frand asked a question from the Teshuva Maharlbach (sp?) - why do we need to bring an opinion that Yosef came back with bad intentions, since he didn't do it? He answers that we learn this to show that Yosef was human and normal. He reached the point that he could not resist anymore and he had the intent to act. But this is not a flaw, because it shows that he was just like everyone else and had a yetzer hara. So by mentioning this it is not a detraction. In fact, the greater the person, the greater the yetzer hara. But still he resisted ---and this is why he is an indictment of the rasha - he is like everyone else in that he had an evil inclination, but he held out and so should have you.
R' Frand said that this does not completely wrap this story. Because the gemara states that when Yosef was going to act he saw the image of his father. R' Frand asked - but if what saved him was the miracle of seeing his father (and not in a dream) then what was his great resistance? It came because of the miracle!
R' Frand said that he asked this question 50 years ago and he had not heard an answer which satisfied him until recently. He quoted R' Bukspan from Miami who quoted the Divrei Shaul who explains that it was not a miracle. Yosef did not actually see his father, he conjured up in his own head the image of his father to deter him from acting. R' Frand also quoted Mr Wolpert who when he first came to America when everyone was being forced to work on Shabbos, was able to resist working on Shabbos because he conjured up the image of R' Boruch Ber who he had learned under in Europe.
R' Frand also quoted the Dubner Maggid who explains that Yosef held out as long as he could...and when a person does all that he could until he finally breaks down, Hashem helps him to reach the finish line. Yosef fought all he could and when he could fight no more, Hashem gave him the image of his father. R' Frand said that the Dubner Maggid explained that Hashem helps everyone who gives their all, regardless of who they are. The problem is that people give up so quickly that they never reach that point.
R' Frand also quoted R Gifter who used a parable of how there was a pot of gold on top of the roof and if a person climbed the ladder they could reach it. But as the person climbed the ladder the rungs got further and further apart until the top rung which was physically impossible to reach. People would try and then give up. But one man kept going, even as the rungs got further. When he reached that top rung, he tried to reach higher, even though it was impossible...and then a magnet pulled him to the top. This is the lesson of Yosef, he tried and Hashem helped him when he could not do any more.
If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!
No comments:
Post a Comment