Total Separation | Rabbi YY Jacobson

When Yosef HaTzaddik refuses the promiscuous temptations and seductions from the wife of Potiphar, and he explains it to her and he says to her, How can you expect from me to do such an immoral, evil act? I will be sinning to God, I will be betraying Hashem. You're a married woman. How can you expect this from me? So the Mefarshim say he should have said something stronger. He should have told her, It's not only my sin, it’s also your sin. שבע מצוות בני נח it's one of the sins of the non-Jews, too. וחטאנו, you're also not allowed to do it. Not just me. You're also betraying God. The heiliger Kotzker Rebbe says in שיח שרפי קודש, he says: Yosef HaTzaddik did not want to put himself together with her, even in the context of not sinning to God. The moment he would say: וחטאנו לאלוקים, oooh, there’s epes a Shidduch between us, ha-ha. We both can't sin to God. He knew that is ceding territory to the Yetzer Hara. It's dangerous. Sometimes we put ourselves in very challenging situations, and it looks like there is a moral, holy context. It's for holy purposes, וחטאנו לאלוקים. Yosef created an absolute holy, moral boundary, which is וחטאתי לאלוקים. That's how he protected his integrity.