וַיְמָאֵ֓ן

So, before we end Parshas Vayeishev, just to go back to the story of Yosef HaTzaddik, the story of Aishes Potiphar, and just mention one more thought, and that is So, the Torah said that Yosef HaTzaddik, after he had been sold to Potiphar, the Sar HaTabachim in Mitzrayim, he climbed the corporate ladder. He got to the point where he was literally in charge of everything. So much so, Vayazeiv kol asher lo b'yad Yosef, v'lo yada ito meuma ki im alav hu ocheil asher hu ocheil. The pasuk says that during that time, the wife of Potiphar, the infamous Aishes Potiphar, saw Yosef. He was yefeh to'ar, he was yefeh mar'eh. At this point, he was already not just some lowly eved, but he was a person of importance, and she told Yosef, "Shichvi imi." And the pasuk says, "Vatimar." What does Rashi tell us? Yosef HaTzaddik refused. And Yosef said, "I can't do this. Why? V'chatasi l'Elokim." Because if I'm going to commit this sin with you, it will be an incredible abomination towards HaKadosh Baruch Hu. But the pasuk says that Aishes Potiphar persisted. "Vayehi k'dabrah el Yosef yom yom, v'lo shamah eileha lishkav etzla o again and again and again, but Yosef HaTzaddik didn't listen. And not only didn't he listen to her to do the aveirah, but even lishkav etzla, even to lie next to her, liyos imah. Even Rashi says, even to talk to her. Even that is something Yosef HaTzaddik refused to do. Until one fateful day, "Vayehi k'yom hazeh, vayavo habayisah la'asos m'lachto." Yosef HaTzaddik came to his house to do his work. "V'ein ish me'anshei habayis sham babayis." And there was nobody there other than Yosef and Aishes Potiphar. And that was Aishes Potiphar's opportunity. So she went and she grabbed his bag and lay more and she said again and so overwhelmed and he was so in a moment of how am I going to be able to be covered he left his bag and with her and he ran and of course she created this whole bill bill against which ended up with being in a which is where this by yourself ends. We mentioned and Rashi on the quotes it that the master brings the and small what it means when the Torah says that went to the house of to do his one said we don't know who said what but one said that had a job a 9-5 and he was going to do that job the other one said that on that day went to do another meaning as much as every single day was which and he was coming from a very deep spiritual place that but on that day on that day was already worn down to the point that that he went to the house knowing was there and he was going to to do the in fact the continues and the says that he said was literally about to do the the only reason he didn't do the is because he looked at the looked at the window and he saw the most and his father literally came to save him and he told him if you do this you realize for eternity it's going to affect you your legacy will never be the same your name won't be on the won't be on the kosher it was that that got him to not do the aveira. In fact, the Gemara goes even further. And the Gemara says, that really Yosef HaTzaddik would have deserved that 12 shvatim emerge from him the way 12 shvatim emerged from Yaakov Avinu. Rashi in the beginning of Parshas Vayeishev says that the fate of Yaakov and the fate of Yosef were very similar. Yaakov had 12 shvatim, so really Yosef also had 12 shvatim. But during this nisayon of Ishes Potiphar, on that fateful day, there was shichvas zera that emerged from between tzepornei yadov. And because of that, because of the 10 tipin of shichvas zera, he lost out on 10 shvatim and instead of having 12, he only had two, Efraim and Menashe, Kehuvim and Shimon and Levi. So the Gemara says that as much as when you learn the psukim, you see the incredible greatness of Yosef HaTzaddik, how he was able to be misgaber on the nisayon. But at the same time, at the same time, at the very very end, it was it was a little dicey. He actually went back to the house of Potiphar with the intentions, according to one mando amar, lasos tzrachav. He was going to do the aveira until he saw the most yuknaishal amar. And ad kedei kach, yotzei shichvas zera miboin tzepornei yadov. And we mentioned and we mentioned that really, if you think about it, Chazal's interpretation of the story at first glance is a pleiah nishkacha. You read the psukim, Yosef HaTzaddik doesn't look like he slipped for one second. The pasuk says that he's the afifah tohorah, he's the afifah temeiah. But he says, "Ishes adoni imi zeh na, Yosef at omi shichveiini." Vayima'ein, "What is this I shall do this?" I'm not budging. Vayehi ke'es hayom hazeh vayavo el habayis la'asos melachto v'ein ish me'anshei habayis shamah. And Chazal say every day with another strategy of how she's going to get him. "Velo shamah eileha." Lishkav etzlo leiosima. And then that one day there's nobody there and even then we mentioned the suicide mission. He runs out. He knows he's going to end up being incarcerated because it's going to be his word against her word. And he's a lowly every day and she's the wife of the of one of the highest ranking officials in Egypt. But he didn't care because he's not going to do the yet came. And somehow interpreted in the story that is not as great as you think he was. Oh, you think was perfect? No, on that day he was going to do the thing. And really he was And oh, BY THE WAY AND THE CASH Where did I see this? And why would even entertain I don't know. It sounds like is the greatest thing. What he did was so amazing. Where is this impetus coming from? And then and others we mentioned and child and was very bothered with this. And he added a whole to it. He says you find throughout the Torah that whenever the Torah talks about a thing and says something in a derogatory way always down the thing. Right, it's always in the other thing. And when it comes to a Russia even when it looks like they're doing something good love on kissed because he's looking for money, right? It's always Here you have who's a thing. With a thing screams good. And we're going to go out of our way. We going to be to be down the thing. So the previous year we mentioned what the said. But maybe maybe you could say a double thing. And that is In the beginning of Parshas Noach, the possuk says "Eleh toldos Noach, Noach ish tzaddik tamim haya b'dorosav." "Es Ha-Elokim hishalech Noach." Everybody knows this is in the conversation of maybe the most famous Rashi al Ha-Torah. What does it mean that Noach was a tzaddik tamim b'dorosav? Yesh m'Rabbenu darshen oso l'shvach. There were some Rabbenu that darshen this possuk l'shvach. They said that Noach was a tzaddik even in his dor. And Koshkin certainly. She'ilu haya b'dor tzaddikim haya tzaddik yoser. If Noach would have lived in the dor of a tzaddik, he would have been even a greater uh tzaddik. Living in a degenerate generation, he was able to be a tzaddik. Koshkin if he lived in a a better generation. Yesh darshen oso l'ginai. But there were those that were darshen l'ginai. That b'fi dor haya tzaddik. He was a tzaddik b'dorosav. Aba v'ilu haya b'dor shel Avraham, had Noach lived in the dor of Avraham, lo haya nechesav l'chlum. He would have been considered to be a nothing. It was only relative on a scale. He was considered to be chashiv. But it was only b'dorosav. Had he lived in a different dor, he would have been considered nothing. The Vilna Gaon says a vart that Rashi, when he brings the "Yesh darshen oso l'shvach", says "Yesh m'Rabbenu darshen oso l'shvach." When he brings the "Yesh darshen l'ginai", Rashi says "V'yesh darshen oso l'ginai." So the Vilna Gaon says that the Rabbenu, the tzaddikim, the rabbonim, the good guys, they were darshen l'shvach. Because that's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to be darshen l'shvach. Aba v'yesh, there others, not Rabbenu. They're only yesh that are darshen l'ginai. The truth is this vart is a very very bad vart to say. And the reason is because the mekor to Rashi is a Gemara. It's a Gemara in Maseches Sanhedrin daf kuf ches amud alef. It's in the depths of perek chelek. And the Gemara over there puts names to the faces. The yesh m'Rabbenu and the yesh. The Gemara says "Eleh toldos Noach, Noach ish tzaddik tamim haya b'dorosav." Amru Rebbi Yochanan, Rebbi Yochanan said "B'dorosav v'lo b'dor shel acherim." It was דווקא in his dor that Noach was a tzaddik. But had he lived in a different generation, he wouldn't be considered a tzaddik. Reish Lakish said, "Reish Lakish said be the righteous fellow, he was a tzaddik and kosher came to the righteous fellow." This is an abbreviated version of what Rashi brings. But who is the righteous fellow in the night? It was the great Rabbi Yochanan. And the emphasis of the question then begs itself, why come with Rabbi Yochanan have been righteous fellow in the night if he could be righteous fellow in the night? Noah is a tzaddik. He also is a tzaddik in front of the righteous fellow. Why come with Rabbi Yochanan? Meaning the heritage of that word that you shouldn't say at your Shabbos table. What's kosher? Why would Rabbi Yochanan be righteous fellow in the night and not be like the righteous fellow in the night or like Reish Lakish that was righteous fellow in the night? When we learn the Halacha, we said over a wonderful that I saw in the safer Yama Rachma from a great and humble Rabbi Yitzchok Meir Morgenstern, who said over in the name of the Spola Zeide. What does Spola Zeide say? A wonderful man. He said that you find sometimes that there are tzaddikim that have people that are misnagdim towards them. He's a tzaddik and plenty will say that how could you say he's a tzaddik? He did this or he said that or he sees the world in that way or in this way. Sometimes tzaddikim have a misnagdis. And when you're an innocent bystander and you see a tzaddik with a misnagdis, sometimes you're not sure what to make of it. Does that mean that he's canceled? Does that mean all of a sudden I can't treat him like a tzaddik? So said the Spola Zeide that the great Rabbi Yochanan wanted us to know that a person can be a tzaddik. And there could be his nagdis towards him and it's not going to diminish, it's not going to take away from the fact that really he's a tzaddik. The misnagdis does not undermine the assumption that he's really good. And you know what the raya is? Because the first tzaddik mentioned in the Torah is Noah. And we know that when the Torah uses a word the first time, you have to look at the definition, the depths and the richness of what it means during that first usage, and that's how you apply it throughout the Torah and throughout the Torah Sh'baal Peh. So, whatever it means with the whole oimek that first time, that's what it's always going to be. So, R' Yochanan wanted that the first time the Torah says tzaddik, and that's regarding Noach, it should be a situation where Yei'sh starts to look at Noach to teach us that you could be a person that people are doresh l'ganai and it doesn't necessarily mean that you're not a tzaddik. The reason that R' Yochanan went and he was doresh l'ganai was l'hoidia. L'hashmi'an that just because there's a hisnagdus, there's a kitchrik where people are saying something about a tzaddik, it doesn't mean he's not a tzaddik. Noach, the Torah refers to as good tzaddik. Noach is tzaddik. He oiso yosher tzaddik lifnei Hashem. Al pi the way Yei'sh doresh l'ganai, people say, "Yeah, he was a tzaddik because he was b'deirosav. But if he had lived in another dor, he wouldn't have been considered a tzaddik." But R' Yochanan went and he doubled down on the var a little bit. He said that Yei'sh lo amar that we know that R' Yochanan the Sifrei Makhtoshan said that R' Yisrael was m'galeh sodos. He was a gilgul of Yosef HaTzaddik. And that's what R' Yochanan said throughout Shas. In fact, the Ariza'l said that R' Yochanan lost 10 sons during his lifetime. And it was t'vi m'sakein the aseres tipim of zera that the Gemara mentions in Maseches Shabbos daf lamed vov amud beis. But R' Yochanan who came from Yosef HaTzaddik, he was the one that was doresh l'ganai. What's the oimek? So, he said the fi this var from the Shpoler Zeide. Because we know Yosef HaTzaddik is referred to in the Sifrei Makhtoshan as good tzaddik. He's the tzaddik yesod olam. R' Yochanan who's a gilgul of Yosef HaTzaddik, and the oimek was that R' Yochanan wanted to say that not only if a tzaddik has hisnagdus does it not mean that he's not a tzaddik, but even if the hisnagdus comes from a tzaddik, it comes from R' YOCHANAN. THE TZADDIK said he's not a tzaddik. It doesn't mean he's not half a tzaddik. He oiso yosher tzaddik It's not just it's the Sadducee alone that's being punished. You can have Sadducees that have disconnected the Sadducee doesn't mean that person is not a Sadducee. This is above our pay grade. But for us as innocent bystanders when we see his disconnected Sadducee for us to cancel the Sadducee in our mind and that's the lesson of the Sadducee. That's the lesson of the Sadducee. I know that he was coming to teach us in the beginning of the year. This is from the beginning of the year. Maybe maybe maybe you could say the story of goes down in history as the story of a year of a Sadducee that was on the of we think about the story of the Sadducee. He's 17 years old. He's he was hated cast away by his brothers. He's a slave now. Finally he has a little good thing going where he's rising in the house of the Sadducee and the and comes and says to him he is a Sadducee. He's so far removed from anything spiritual. He's so far removed from his loving comfortable home. For someone in that position to risk everything because he's home gone to his ears and they have to have to do this because they came is an incredible incredible Sadducee. To do it once people sometimes could be on the side. But every single day he could do it every single day. What the Sadducee did was absolutely incredible and this goes down as the paradigm of what it looks like for a person to be Omed Ben Assai. And that's why Yosef Assai the goes down as the Saddiq. That's why he's Saddiq Olam. He saw it as in Midas Assai K'ma Vur in the Zera Kodesh and all the S'farim Kodeshim. The Yosef Assai is the foundation. He is the Merkava to Midas Assai. He's the Spitz as it relates to being Omed on this Indian of this Indian on this Indian of Shich Faim. You would have thought that the only time a person can be considered the Saddiq in this Indian. The only way a person can emerge from a situation like this okay is if he's Omed Ben Assai everyday, every time perfectly You know what the Torah says? Yosef Assai Midas Assai So Yosef the Saddiq that Saddiq at some point he couldn't even do it anymore. At some point it was At some point at some point he needed to come and bail him out. At some point it was it was Zera At that he got to the point where he was holding by doing the but it didn't diminish the fact and it doesn't diminish the fact that Yosef Assai still goes down as being the Saddiq. Yosef Assai fought every single day. He was in the ring every single day. He won and he won and he won and he won and he won and then one day and one day he lost a little bit. One day he lost a little bit. A little bit. A little bit. So this is what the S'farim say that there was a little bit of a in the that Yosef Assai was holding by doing the It's not completely out of left field because Yosef knew that that day that he went home was a day that nobody was going to be around and he knew he was going to be in a state of together with So why did he go? Some S'farim already said that you see from there that Yosef was already walking into a trap. He hopped a little bit at this verse he was holding by doing an aveira. And that's part of his mahalacha of as I'll assume by that maybe he was going he was going to do the aveira. But the bottom line is is that Yosef HaTzaddik fought every single day. He fought and he fought and he fought and at some point so good that you would think well if at some point he had a feels it's over. He's cancelled. He can't be YOSEF HATZADDIK. YOSEF HATZADDIK never loses. Yosef HaTzaddik has to get a hundred on every single test. Come on no. If you're in the ring and you win and you win and you win and you win and it's every single day and you have this where you're being and one day in a moment of losses today one day you can't anymore. That means everything you did up until that point is nothing. That means that all of that being in the has no value. The only one of them all of that has no value. What the Torah is coming to show us is that Yosef HaTzaddik is good tzaddik despite the fact that this it doesn't take away from the fact that he was a tzaddik. The fact that it was does not negate the FACT THAT HE WENT so many rounds with his and he won when a regular person couldn't win. He's a tzaddik because he was every single day on the up until that day. And even that day at was he perfect? No. You don't have to get a hundred on your test to be a tzaddik. You don't have to get a hundred on your test. The fact that you're living with even though there are days that maybe it can't translate. There moments that it's not translating into to be able to to that knockout punch. But Yosef Tzadik, who's managing a world where only has to answer to his and he's feeling that the way he has that and he's fighting and he's fighting and he's fighting. That's what makes Yosef the Tzadik. He's not a Tzadik because he got a 100 on his test. He didn't. He didn't get a 100 on the test. That I'm not saying. That I'm saying. It's a I would say maybe it's not such a You don't have works with a that you have to be perfect. Nobody's perfect. Okay, it's but you goes down as the Tzadik because he lived in that he felt the and you're right. He went all these rounds without losing and then that's a moment. That's a moment. It is what it is and it's bad. That doesn't diminish and it doesn't take away from the fact that you is a Tzadik. The portion with regard to the story of maybe I'll be is like the of the is to show that the Tzadik could have a it doesn't mean he's not a Tzadik. The in the story of is to show that the a Tzadik could have an and a Tzadik could be holding by doing an a Tzadik could need to come bail him out. It could even be and it doesn't mean that this person is not a Tzadik. And I don't know but who's the that is quoting in the beginning of we said it's the great this right here in right before the the says it says by by the great said Yosef and will in this said HaTzaddik. And could be it's the same lesson. That just because there's darash l'ganai on Noach, it doesn't mean he's not a tzaddik. And just because there's darash l'ganai when it comes to Yosef HaTzaddik, it doesn't mean he's not a tzaddik. The story of Yosef HaTzaddik is not that you have to be perfect in order to be considered a tzaddik. The story of Yosef HaTzaddik is that you have to fight, fight, fight. That's the story of Yosef HaTzaddik. They hasaru d'var avon v'chatas l'Elokim. V'lo sham'u elav lish'komo l'his'amel immo. A yeed that lives with that, a yeed that with that middah he's omed nisayon day after day after day, even if he has yeridos along the way, but that doesn't diminish the fact that he's a tzaddik. In fact, the the exhibit of the greatest act of tzidkus of all time was a story with Yosef HaTzaddik who did not get a 100 on his test. And that's an incredible lesson, it's incredible chizuk, and I could be, could be that's why Chazal made such a big deal about not making the story of Yosef HaTzaddik perfect, to show that you don't have to be perfect in order to be considered a tzaddik.