The Crown of a Good Reputation | Rabbi Nachum Binder

We're all familiar with the Gemara in Sota, where the Gemara tells us that when Yosef Hatzaddik faced that ultimate Nisayon, the figure of his father appeared to him and told him that If you're going to fall to this Nisayon, then your name won't appear on the Ephod of the Kohen Gadol in the Beis Hamikdash. And we tend to understand the Gemara that the name appearing on the Ephod is a symbol of honor, which you won't be deserving of if you're going to fall to this Nisayon. But if one looks at the Gemara and Rashi, Rashi tells us a very interesting thing, that when Yaakov told that to Yosef and he told him that if you do this, יאבד הון, you will lose everything, Rashi says: You will lose your good name, and the good name is more important than anything else. And we have to understand what does it mean the good name that Yosef Hatzaddik is going to lose and what type of threat is that to Yosef Hatzaddik? I think that there's a lesson here that if we internalize, we can change our perspective on how we view challenges of self-control. R’ Chaim Volozhiner in Ruach Chaim tells us that when the Mishnah says there's a virtue of having a good name, that doesn't mean how other people view you, how other people perceive you. The virtue of having a good name is a virtue of the very essence of the human being. The good name describes who you are, not just what you do. One who merits a good name that means to say that the person, in his very essence, is somebody special, is someone unique. And Chazal are teaching us, In order to merit this virtue of having a good name, in order to shape our very identity of who we are, that is dependent on our ability of self-control. A person who can hold themselves back from temptation, a person who can look away when he has an urge to look, a person who can walk away when the Nisayon is so strong, that person is not just doing something very great. The person is, in his very essence, a greater person. That's the virtue of having a good name. And when Yaakov Avinu was telling Yosef Hatzaddik, This Nisayon, and so, too, every Nisayon that we face, is an opportunity to develop our very identity, to become special, to become unique. Yes, to merit that our good name is so great that it could appear on the Ephod of the Kohen Gadol. It's not just a symbol of honor, it's our very identity that takes on special meaning. And that's the opportunity that every Nisayon we face affords us. Let us grab the opportunity, let us utilize the opportunity, and we will merit that tremendous virtue of the crown of a good name.