Potiphar's wife

Zuleika Ceremony
Islamic art
painting on tiles of Mo'avin-Almamalik tekyeh, Kermanshah

Zuleika is the name given to the wife of Potiphar in Jewish legend and Muslim scripture, although she is only mentioned as the "wife of 'Azeez." The word 'Azeez is the Qur'an's honorific title designated for Potiphar.

Legend

The most famous tale about Zuleika is told in a Jewish legend and in the Muslim Qur'an.

Zuleika was mocked by other aristocratic Egyptian ladies, her circle of friends, for being infatuated with a Hebrew slave boy. Inviting her friends to her home, Zuleika gave them all oranges and knives to peel them with. While they engaged in this task, Zuleika had Joseph walk through the room. Distracted by his handsomeness, all the ladies accidentally cut themselves with the knives, drawing blood. Zuleika then reminded her friends that she had to see Joseph every day. Following this incident, her contemporaries no longer mocked her.

Great sinner or great lover

Jewish and Christian scriptural commentators have regarded Zuleika as a sinner and villainess. Notable exceptions are the great Sufi mystic poets Rumi and Hafiz. For Rumi, Zuleika's obsession with Joseph is a symptom and manifestation of the soul's great deep longing for God. This, he insists, is true of any person's deep love for another. Muslims believe that Zuleikha, after many years of suffering and longing and eventually becoming a true believer, ends up marrying Prophet Joseph.

There is no doubt that Potiphar's wife plays a significant role not only in Joseph's life but in the history of our people.

Mata Hari was one. So was Delilah. Some folks put Cleopatra in this category as well. What were they all called? Each one of them was called a vamp, a vixen, or a femme fatale. Whatever the terminology, it refers to a woman with seductive powers who is the downfall of any man whom she desires. Ancient folklore has countless examples of this archetype, as does pulp fiction and modern film. Oftentimes she has a counterpart: the good girl.

In Parashat Vayeishev we come across two women who seem to be members of this girls’ club: Tamar and Potiphar's wife. The former is widowed and childless. Ancient law dictated that she marry her late husband's brother; so the offspring would be considered her late husband's issue. Well, after the death of Tamar’s husband, Er, his younger brother Onan does not perform his duty and also dies. Since his two oldest sons have already died while married to her, Judah, Tamar's father-in-law, withholds his youngest son from her. In desperation she disguises herself as a prostitute and becomes pregnant by her widowed father-in-law. In this case it turns out that the seemingly bad girl was actually doing good. As Judah realizes: "She is more in the right than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah." (Genesis 38:26)

The second example seems to be a bad girl through and through. We don't know her name. She is only identified as Potiphar's wife. (Sefer ha-Yashar calls her Zelikah or Zulaika.) Hubby is very high up in the Egyptian government. Oh yes, and he has purchased a slave, a young man named Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. One little detail is added to the story (Genesis 39:6): Now Joseph was well built and handsome. You can imagine the effect this would have on a bored, desperate housewife:

After a time, his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, "Lie with me." But he refused. He said to his master's wife, "Look, with me here, my master gives no thought to anything in this house, and all that he owns he has placed in my hands. He wields no more authority in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except yourself, since you are his wife. How then could I do this most wicked thing, and sin before God?" And much as she coaxed Joseph day after day, he did not yield to her request to lie beside her, to be with her. Genesis 39:7-10 The language does not carry the complete impact of Joseph's refusal. In the Torah the word for his refusal (va-yimaen) is marked by a shalshelet, a cantillation mark that looks like a zig-zag and appears only four times in the Torah, three of those in Genesis. It is chanted as a relatively long phrase. One can hear it as a clear and definite: no! One can also hear it as a wavering no. Commentators are divided on this. The Netziv explains in his commentary Ha'emek Davar that Joseph does not need to give any reason for his refusal, the moral position is very clear. In fact, Joseph gives a three-fold reason for his refusal (Genesis 39:8-9), beginning with wronging his master and ending with wronging God:

In his response to Potiphar’s wife Joseph says ‘that yielding to her invitation to commit adultery would be a “sin against God” (Gen. 39:9). In many other cultures adultery was merely a proprietary misdemeanor; a wife was considered property, and injury to a man’s possessions drew punishment thought adequate to the act (Deut. 22:29). Joseph speaks in true accents of the Bible, which regards marriage as more than a relationship of civil law. Marital trust has divine sanction and is so fundamental to human relationships that Jewish tradition considers the command against adultery as one of the Noahide laws that every person is bound to observe. W. Gunther Plaut, The Torah: A Modern Commentary, revised edition, p. 258 On the other hand, Midrash Breishit Rabbah, the Talmud (Sotah 36b) and Rashi claim that Joseph actually was quite willing to be seduced but at the last minute saw an image of his father which caused him to flee.

A vengeful Mrs. Potiphar keeps trying to seduce Joseph and finally accuses him of attempted rape which gets Joseph imprisoned. This woman exudes pure evil. Even a modern feminist reading cannot find anything redeeming about her:

Potiphar’s wife is overtly sensual and verbally aggressive. Like the negative archetype of the feminine in one passage of the book of Proverbs (7:1-23), she tempts the young man into sexual impropriety. Potiphar’s wife serves as a test in the initiation of Joseph, the young wisdom hero who refuses to allow a woman to make him unfaithful to his master. Susan Niditch, The Torah: A Women's Commentary, Tamara Cohen Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss, eds., p. 226 Which is why it is most interesting that she is presented in a more positive light rabbinically. First of all, there is this whole issue with pretty-boy Joseph who is so aware of his beauty that Midrash Tanhuma elaborates on his vanity. He was so taken in by his own beauty, even as a slave, that in Potiphar's house he spent time curling his hair. Breishit Rabbah (87:3) interprets the action of Potiphar's wife as being incited by God in order to teach Joseph a lesson. God made her do it, but does that change her inherent nature?

A second midrash claims that Mrs. Potiphar's intentions were honourable, in fact, she was as in the right as Tamar. This is used to explain why both stories are in this parashah:

Rabbi Samuel ben Nahman said: In order to bring the stories of Tamar and Potiphar's wife into proximity, thus teaching that as the former was actuated by a pure motive, so was the latter. For Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said: She [Potiphar's wife] saw by her astrological arts that she was to produce a child by him [Joseph], but she did not know whether it was to be from her or from her daughter. Breishit Rabbah 85:2, Soncino translation (Let's explain the last part about "her daughter." Joseph eventually marries Asenath, the daughter of an Egyptian priest named Poti-phera (Genesis 41:45). Since the priest's name is similar to Potiphar, Joseph's besherte (intended) is understood to be the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Potiphar. Mom just got it wrong and thought she was his intended!)

Overall, it is commonly accepted that Mrs. Potiphar is a vengeful individual who gives us the first example of sexual harassment in the Bible. Why is Joseph, accused of rape, only imprisoned and not killed? According to another midrash, it is because Mr. Potiphar knew his wife was lying.

Is she pure evil? Perhaps she is just the bored wife of a successful man. The most sympathetic portrayal comes from Lillie Devereux Blake, a nineteenth century American suffragette who commented in Elizabeth Cady Stanton's The Woman's Bible. As described in Let Her Speak for Herself: Nineteenth Century Women Writing on Women in the Bible (pp. 438-9) Blake notes that Potiphar is described as a eunuch and so the Potiphars were married in name only. (The Hebrew saris can be translated as eunuch or government official.) This certainly portrays the marriage in a tragic light.

However one views her, there is no doubt that Potiphar's wife plays a significant role not only in Joseph's life but in the history of our people:

Discussions of the Potiphar’s wife episode generally revolve around the foreign woman and her actions, but in fact, she is pivotal — as the story is transmitted — to the survival of the Hebrews in time of famine. … Despite her attempt at seduction, this woman fills a positive narrative role; she initiates the story line that will bring the Hebrews to Egypt thus setting the stage for the exodus — perhaps the most important event related in the Hebrew Bible. Susan Tower Hollis, "Wife of Potiphar" in Women in Scripture, Carol Meyers, ed., p. 184 Why does it matter what sort of person this woman was? Perhaps it is because she is a woman that I want to find something redeeming about her. I want to assume that life was not easy, that she was trapped by her situation. Yet it is obvious in the story that she was not powerless. Too often we fall into the trap of making excuses for why a person behaves in a particular manner. She is not the victim in this story. In fact, every person in this parashah who appears to be a victim is not. Tamar, Potiphar's wife, even Joseph the slave are free to act morally. In short, this parashah teaches us that there are no excuses. We are indeed responsible for our actions. If Mrs. Potiphar was enslaved by her circumstances, so too was Tamar, and Joseph the most. It is Joseph who teaches a vital lesson: Whatever your status you always have the free will to act morally.

See also

• Yusuf and Zulaikha, legend and poem
• Zuleika Dobson, a novel
• Zuleika (musical)