In this week’s Parsha, Vayeshev, Yosef finds himself in a
difficult position. He’s the head of his master, Potifar’s, house, and he
catches the eye of Potifar’s wife. She persistently tries to seduce Yosef, but
Yosef maintains his resolve. On their final exchange, she grabs onto his
clothing, but he denies her yet again. There’s an interesting Midrash (story
brought down by the Rabbis that may or may not have happened) that says that
when Yosef was fighting with his urge to give in to her, he saw a reflection of
his father’s face, and then told Potifar’s wife no. This story is a bit
troubling. Yosef seems to be doing just fine on his own. The simple text
depicts Yosef as single handedly defeating his inclination to act immorally,
and the Midrash almost diminishes his righteousness by suggesting that he
needed this miraculous push of seeing a reflection of his father.
A good place to look for an insight
into Yosef’s situation is when Harry sees a reflection of his father in the
Mirror of Erised. For those who don’t know, the inscription on the mirror, when
read backwards and parsed correctly, reads I
show not your face but your heart’s desire. Dumbledore describes the mirror
in a similar vain. He says, “It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest,
most desperate desire of our hearts.” This is why you don’t need to know how it
works or even what it is to use it properly. The mirror reflects an existing
reality within you whether you acknowledge it or not. Ron looked into the
mirror wanting and expecting to see Harry’s family, but instead he saw what he
desired most. Quirrel wants to see how to find the stone, but because more than
anything he wants to give it to Voldemort, he can’t see himself finding it.
Finding it is just a means to his desire. The question is, if Harry’s desire is
to see his parents, why does he get to choose to see something else? He focuses
on the mirror, thinks that he wants to find the Philosopher’s Stone, and he
sees himself finding it. If it were as easy as thinking something and seeing it
on the mirror Quirrel could have done it too. Why is it that the mirror shows
Harry whatever he wants to see as opposed to reflecting his actual deepest
desire as it does for everyone else?
I’d like to suggest that it took
Harry seeing Voldemort to realize that the only thing more important to him
than seeing his parents was making sure Voldemort couldn’t cause anyone the
same pain that he caused Harry. Voldemort told Harry that with the stone he
could bring his parents back to life. More so than Harry realizing that
Voldemort was lying, he realized that getting his parents back wasn’t worth
bringing Voldemort back to full power. In
one of the biggest challenges of Harry’s life he realized what was most
important to him. His deepest desire changed, and I don’t think he would
have seen his parents in the mirror had he tried again afterward. I believe
there’s a similar understanding by Yosef. Seeing his father didn’t make him
decide not to act; deciding not to act made him see his father. Yosef was in a difficult
position. He could have been thinking about Potifar’s wife and the desire he
had for her, or he could be thinking about his father, Yaakov, and the legacy
he stood for. It took Yosef seeing Potifar’s wife to realize that there were
things more important than physical desire.
In one of the biggest challenges in Yosef’s life he, like Harry, realized what
was most important to him. I think the Midrash is trying to praise Yosef.
Despite his situation he chose to see his father, and the values that lead to this
decision were the values that enabled him to say no.
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