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Satan, the snake, and the evil inclination play throughout history Joseph may not have known what was meant to be, but in retrospect
is not one of their own making but a role God, Himself, has ordered he realized his role in fulfilling God’s plans.
them to play. God has decided that in order for human beings to have As we saw in the previous section, Tamar actually had a prophetic
free will and truly fulfill their destiny of having been created in His sense of her role in Jewish history. She sensed that she was destined 5
image, there must be a force to seduce, tempt, and try them so that to have children with the family of Judah and foresaw that kings
they can grow through trial and error. Thus, the battles between and redeemers would descend from them. She was so convinced of
Jacob and Esau and between the Mashiach and Satan are ones her prophetic intuition that she risked her reputation and her life for
God has set up to allow humanity to ascend in spirituality. Indeed, the sake of fulfilling what she felt was her destiny.
Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh teaches that the numerical value of the
two words “Jacob” (182) and “Satan” (359) equals that of “Israel” Later in this portion, we find the remarkable story of Potiphar’s wife
(541)!! The wrestling match between them actually allowed a new trying to seduce Joseph. While Joseph was handsome, her attempts to
dimension of Jacob to be revealed, allowing him to become Israel. seduce him are still somewhat surprising. According to the Midrash,
she had a very good reason for these attempts: like Tamar, who intuited
The Ba’al Haturim points out that the numerical value of the her need to have children from the family of Judah, Potiphar’s wife
Hebrew word for “he wrestled” equals that of the Hebrew phrase for also had a prophetic intuition that she was meant to be with Joseph.
“throne of glory.” Furthermore, the root of the word “he wrestled” According to the Arizal, she was not entirely mistaken. Potiphar’s
shares the same root with dust. Combining these two insights, the wife possessed two sides: a pure, holy one and an impure one. Her
Sages conclude that the dust of the wrestling reached the throne of passion for Joseph was fuelled by a mixture of the two. She was driven
glory (Chullin 91a). The archetypal confrontation between Jacob by both raw desire and her soul’s profound attraction to Joseph’s
and Esau bears testimony to humanity’s fundamental aim in this holiness. The tradition teaches us that even though Joseph did not
world: to do battle with those forces attempting to prevent mankind sleep with her, several generations later a spark of Joseph’s soul was
from fulfilling its purpose and mission in this world.
reincarnated in Joshua who married Rahab. The mystical tradition
The phrase “small vessels” – which could have been translated teaches that Rahab – the woman who helped Israel conquer the city
as “small jars” or “small flasks” – was translated this way to of Jericho – possessed the good side of Potiphar’s wife’s reincarnated
stress another mystical explanation for Jacob going to get them. soul; thus, at a certain point in history, Potiphar’s wife and Joseph did
The Kabbalah explains that the first seven kings descended from come together (Rabbi Menachem Azaryah’s Reincarnation of Souls,
Esau (who rule and die) represent the primordial World of Chaos, #90; discussed in Return Again: The Dynamics of Reincarnation, pp.
where the initial immature vessels shattered when they could not 148). Additionally, the Midrash teaches that Joseph, himself, married
hold the primordial light of creation. In Kabbalah, humanity is Osnat who was Potiphar’s wife’s adopted daughter. Thus, we see that
charged with rectifying the world and repairing the broken vessels. in Tamar’s case she had a “clear” prophetic intuition of what was to
(See “Transcendence” at the beginning of this portion.) In order to pass, while Potiphar’s wife’s intuition was “unclear,” leading her to
prepare for his confrontation Jacob needed to cross over the Yabbok erroneously attempt to seduce Joseph.
and return to his essential self, to gather up his own “broken vessels,” As we have seen, this portion provides several instances of clear
all those places within himself that needed repair. and unclear prophecy and demonstrates the very fine line dividing
A further message these “vessels” may teach us is that there is no these two states. The portion also exposes us to the fine line between
vessel as whole as a broken heart. In light of this Chassidic teaching, free choice and Divine Providence and forces us to consider how they
we can imagine Jacob standing alone, praying to God from the can operate simultaneously.
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