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.
R' Frand began tonight's vort by quoting the Gemara in Sotah which discusses Aishes Potiphar's attempts to seduce Yosef. The Gemara mentions a dispute between Rav and Shmuel on the pasuk in Bereishis 39:11 in which the Torah states וַיָּבֹ֥א הַבַּ֖יְתָה לַֽעֲשׂ֣וֹת מְלַאכְתּ֑וֹ. One opinion is that Yosef arrived to do his work, while the other opinion is that he went to attend to his needs. The Gemara then continues that at this juncture, the image of Ya'akov appeared before Yosef and he said to him - all the tribes will be on the breastplate of the Kohain Gadol, but not you if you engage in relations with her.
R' Frand then asked his first question - how is it that Yosef came to the house with the intention of being with Aishes Potiphar? And if this was his intent, the Torah would have written it explicitly!
R' Frand next quoted the Maharal Bach who expanded on the question. He noted the famous concept that Hashem does not judge us for thinking about a sin if we don't come to act upon our thoughts. So why is the Gemara publicly revealing what Yosef's intention was?
R' Frand followed this up with a question which he said has been bothering him for years. Why do we call him Yosef HaTzaddik based on his refraining from being with her? He had the image of his father in front of him and he was speaking to Yosef!
R' Frand quoted the Gra who in turn cited the Gemara in Sukkah 52 which states that every day, a person Yetzer Hara rises up against him and wants to bring him down. The Gemara quotes a pasuk to support this, and the pasuk ends with the statement that if Hashem does not help us, we would not be able to beat the Yetzer Hara. This statement is echoed in the Gemara, but why is it mentioned again? The Gra explains that the assistance comes when a person tries his hardest to beat the Yezter Hara but is about to fail...at that point Hashem steps in to help him.
This is why the Gemara records that Yosef went to attend to his needs. He had fought her day after day after day and she tried to seduce him so many times. When he finally could not fight anymore, that was when the image of his father appeared, because Hashem saw that he could not fight anymore.
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