I Am Great | Rabbi Gavriel Friedman

How many people in the Torah have a name ‘HaTzaddik’ that are added to it? Yosef HaTzaddik is put through what an incredible challenge. And he overcomes. He overcomes and therefore he gets his title, Yosef HaTzaddik, Yosef the Righteous One. The question is, though, how did he overcome the challenge? There he is in Mitzrayim, all alone, and there's this woman, Eishes Potifar, who's trying to go ahead and get him to be involved with her, but he refuses. And he refuses. So how did he do it? And not only how did he do it, how can we do it? Because I was thinking about it the other day, Yosef, the Torah tells us, went through this one time, we go through this struggle sometimes daily, just walking in the streets, going to work, going to the grocery store, even going to Shul, going to learn. Let alone in the home, with technology, the challenges that are there are incredible. So how does one overcome it? So if you take a look in the Torah itself, the pasuk tells us that when Eishes Potifar was trying to go ahead and have a relationship with Yosef and he refused. And he says: This is not happening. There's no one greater in this house than me. I'm the butler. I have everything, I have free reign over here. And nothing was held back from me except for you, because you are his wife. My master said you're off limits. How could I do such a terrible thing and to sin against God? I heard a beautiful Pshat from a Chaver of mine, Rav Yona Neiman. What was Yosef's tactic to overcome the challenge of the Yetzer Hara? To overcome the Satan, to overcome these challenges that were right in front of him? He recognized who he was. There's no one greater than me. I am great. How could I behave like this? I'm a child of, literally, Yaakov. Avraham, Yitzchak and, literally, Yaakov Avinu. בנים אתם לה’ אלוקיכם. I'm a child of Hashem, I'm a prince. How could I behave in such a way? What was it that gave Yosef HaTzaddik the ability to overcome the challenge? The fact that he says: No one's as great as me. I'm so great, that's beneath me. How could I behave like that? We have challenges all the time. A person’s just on the way to school, a person’s on the way to work, a person’s on the way to shul, a person’s on the way to learn, a person’s on the way to the grocery, a person’s on the way... it doesn't matter, sitting in your house. So how can we overcome the challenge? We need to stop and remind ourselves. Wait a minute! There's no one greater than me. I am great and a great person doesn't behave like that. B’siyata Dishmaya, with Hashem’s help, if we recognize who we are and we say it out loud, the next time we feel a challenge coming, say: I am great and I can't behave like that. Hopefully we’ll be able to, B’ezer Hashem, with Hashem’s help, overcome those challenges, just like Yosef HaTzaddik.