30
Chazal say her name was Zulaicha. Her husband
Potifar, who bought Yosef from the Ishamelites,
was a eunuch (perhaps castrated by the angel
Michael when he cast his eyes on the handsome
Yosef). Zulaicha lusted for Yosef & waited until
an Egyptian holiday took everyone out of the
house, so that the two of them were alone. Yosef
wavers (note the back-and-forth shalshelet trop
note on the word "va’y’maen, and he refused.").
At the last moment, Yosef has a vision of father
Yakov who warns Yosef that his name will be
missing from the stones of the breastplate if he
succumbs to Zulaicha’s advances. He flees,
leaving his "beged, clothes" behind (note "beged"
can also mean "ba-gad, betrayal"). Yosef is then
thrown into prison rather than executed (Potifar
suspects his wife’s claim of rape is false). By
tradition, Zulaicha was the adopted mother of
Osnat, who would later marry Yosef, & so she
sensed that she and Yosef had some connection, but misread the "fine print."
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