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How can Potiphar's wife be both "for the sake of heaven" and an "evil beast"? The shiur builds on Rashi (רש"י)'s juxtaposition of Tamar and Potiphar's wife to argue that doing something "l'shem shamayim" without respecting what the Almighty actually wants is not a true relationship. Love without respect is control, not devotion.
Rabbi Zweig analyzes a remarkable contradiction in Parshas Vayeishev. When Yaakov sees Yosef's bloodied tunic, he declares that an "evil beast" devoured his son. Rashi (רש"י) explains that this was a prophetic reference to Potiphar's wife, who would later attempt to seduce Yosef. Yet the Torah (תורה) interrupts the narrative of Yosef's sale to insert the story of Yehuda and Tamar—and Rashi explains that the juxtaposition teaches that just as Tamar acted "l'shem shamayim" (for the sake of heaven), so too did Potiphar's wife act l'shem shamayim. She saw through astrology that she was destined to have children through Yosef, though she didn't realize this would come through her daughter Osnas marrying him. The question is stark: How can someone act for the sake of heaven and simultaneously be called an "evil beast"? Rabbi Zweig explores what it means to truly act l'shem shamayim through several examples. He contrasts Potiphar's wife with Korach and his followers. The Mishna teaches that a dispute "not for the sake of heaven" is one like Korach's. Yet Korach and his cohorts were willing to risk their lives, which suggests they genuinely believed they were acting for heaven's sake. Rashi explains that Korach was driven by jealousy of Moshe. The key principle emerges: when a person has the rational ability to recognize their impure motivations—jealousy, lust, vengeance—then even if they delude themselves into thinking they act for heaven, the Sages do not characterize their actions as l'shem shamayim. A person is responsible for self-delusions they could have caught.
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Bereishis 37:32-33, 39:1
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