Pt1 The Temptation and Trial of Joseph in Genesis 39: From Potiphar's House to the High Priest's Ephod (Sotah 36a-b)
This is the first part of a three-part series. The outline for the series is below.
This sugya weaves together biblical exegesis, theological symbolism, and moral psychology to explore two seemingly disparate themes: the arrangement of the names of the Twelve Tribes on the ephod stones worn by the High Priest, and the moral trial of Joseph in the house of Potiphar.
Beginning with a close reading of Joshua 8:33 and Exodus 28:10, the rabbis notice linguistic echoes between the tribes’ division during the covenant ceremony at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal and the engraving of the tribal names onto the ephod.1 These textual parallels spark a broader discussion about how the Twelve Tribes were divided on the stones—by birth order, maternal lineage, or theological significance.
The sugya then pivots to an extensive midrashic narrative about Joseph’s confrontation with Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39, which is reinterpreted through a moral-theological lens. Joseph’s resistance to sexual temptation is not merely a private act of chastity but an act of sanctification—’Kiddush Hashem’—linked to his spiritual legacy and national destiny.
In the Talmud's dramatic retelling, Joseph resists temptation only after the “icon” (דיוקנו) of his father Jacob appears to him, warning him that yielding would erase his name from the ephod stones.
One of the most striking moments in this sugya is the intensely corporeal and symbolic interpretation of Jacob’s deathbed blessing of Joseph in Genesis 49:22-24, which the rabbis read as an extended veiled allusion to Joseph’s struggle with sexual temptation.
The phrase “his bow abode firm” is reinterpreted as a euphemism referring to Joseph’s penis, asserting that his “bow returned to its strength” after he resisted Potiphar’s wife. This euphemistic reading is further developed in the physical detail that Joseph thrust his hands into the ground in a desperate act of restraint, causing an involuntary emission of semen “through his fingers”.
The sugya further explores how Benjamin's ten sons all carried names honoring aspects of his brother Joseph's life and character, representing the twelve tribes Joseph himself might have fathered (like his father Jacob) had he not experienced an emission during his resistance to Potiphar's wife.
The final sections of the sugya examine Joseph's linguistic abilities in Pharaoh's court, where his knowledge of the world’s Seventy Languages—divinely granted through the addition of a letter from God's name—enables his rise to power.
The sugya culminates with Joseph cleverly using an oath to secure permission to bury his father in Canaan, illustrating his diplomatic skill and continued devotion to family obligations.
The Verses - Genesis 39, 49
These are the major verses at the core of this sugya:
Genesis 39:11
ויהי כהיום הזה
ויבא הביתה לעשות מלאכתו
ואין איש מאנשי הבית שם בבית
One such day,
He [=Joseph] came into the house to do his work.
None of the household were there inside
Genesis 49:22-24 (part of Jacob’s Blessing)
בן פרת יוסף
בן פרת עלי־עין
בנות צעדה עלי־שור
וימררהו
ורבו
וישטמהו בעלי חצים
ותשב באיתן קשתו
ויפזו זרעי ידיו
מידי אביר יעקב
משם רעה
אבן ישראל
Joseph is a wild ass,2
A wild ass by a spring (עין)
Wild colts on a hillside.
Archers bitterly assailed him;
They shot at him
and harried him.
Yet his bow stayed taut,
And his arms were made firm
By the hands of the Mighty One (אביר) of Jacob
There, the Shepherd,
the Rock of Israel
Outline
Intro
The Verses - Genesis 39, 49
Genesis 39:11
Genesis 49:22-24 (part of Jacob’s Blessing)
The Passage - The Temptation and Trial of Joseph in Genesis 39: From Potiphar's House to the High Priest's Ephod (Sotah 36a-b)
The Names of the 12 Tribes on the Ephod stones - Exodus 28:10
The High Priest wore two shoulder stones of the ephod, each engraved with six of the Twelve Tribes’ names (Exodus 28:10)
Order of Names: Not by Birth for All (Exodus 28:10)
The Tribe of Joseph and Immunity to the Evil Eye
Tribe of Joseph's Complaint of Limited Inheritance (Joshua 17:14-15)
Hiding from the Evil Eye
Tribal Rebuttal: Joseph Is Immune to the Evil Eye (Genesis 49:22)
R' Yosei ben Ḥanina - Additional Proof from Fish Imagery (Genesis 48:16)
R' Yitzḥak - How the Ephod Contained 50 Letters for the Tribal Names (Psalms 81:6, Genesis 35:18): Question of Letter Count; name of Joseph or Binyamin lengthened by adding a letter
Story of Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife - Genesis 39:11-12
Rav Ḥana bar Bizna citing R' Shimon Ḥasida - Sanctifying God's Name - Joseph and Judah Compared (Genesis 39:11): Private Sanctification - Joseph's Restraint; Public Sanctification - Judah’s Boldness
R' Yoḥanan, Rav, and Shmuel - Joseph and Private Sanctification of God's Name (Genesis 39:11): The Context of Joseph’s Test; Intentions of Both Parties; Dispute Over Joseph’s Motives
R' Yishmael’s School - Potiphar's Wife and the Opportunity of the Festival (Genesis 39:11): Questioning the Plausibility of an Empty House
Joseph Resists Temptation Through a Vision of His Father's Image (Genesis 39:12; Proverbs 29:3): Vision of Jacob's Face; Moral Appeal and Future Consequences; Loss of Honor
Jacob Blesses Joseph - Genesis 49:24
R' Yoḥanan citing R' Meir - Joseph’s Sexual Restraint and the Interpretation of "His Bow Abode Firm" (Genesis 49:24): Meaning of "Bow" as Euphemism
Physical Aspect of Joseph’s Resistance to Sexual Temptation (Genesis 49:24): Interpretation of “Arms of His Hands Were Made Supple”; Resistance; Involuntary Emission
Joseph’s Reward for Sexual Restraint (Genesis 49:24): Divine Strength and Merit
From Trial to Leadership (Genesis 49:24; Psalms 80:2)
Joseph’s Lost Potential and the Legacy Continued Through Benjamin (Genesis 37:2): Joseph’s Potential for Twelve Tribes; Disqualification Due to Improper Emission; Legacy Transferred to Benjamin
Benjamin’s Sons’ Names as Tributes to Joseph (Genesis 46:21)
Joseph, the Royal Polyglot: Language, Oaths, and Power
R' Ḥiyya bar Abba citing R' Yoḥanan - Astrologers Challenge Joseph's Authority (Genesis 41:44)
Joseph’s Language Test; Divine Intervention Through a Letter (Psalms 81:6)
Joseph Outspeaks Pharaoh
The Oath Reemerges (Genesis 50:5)
Appendix 1 - R' Ḥanina ben Gamliel’s Alternative Division of the Names of the Tribes on the Ephod
R' Ḥanina ben Gamliel’s Alternative Division (Exodus 1:2-4)
“According to Their Birth” Reinterpreted
Appendix 2 - Homiletic Readings of Genesis Verses in Biblical Order
Genesis 35:18 - Benjamin's Name
Genesis 37:2 - Joseph's Potential
Genesis 39:11-12 - Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
Genesis 41:44 - Joseph's Appointment
Genesis 46:21 - Benjamin's Sons
Genesis 48:16 - Fish Imagery
Genesis 49:22 - Joseph as a Fruitful Vine
Genesis 49:24 - Joseph's Restraint
Genesis 50:5-6 - Joseph's Oath
Appendix 3 - Gabriel in Talmudic literature as the Jewish people’s guardian archangel
Gabriel Saving Biblical Figures from Furnaces: Abraham from Nimrod’s Furnace, and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah from Nebuchadnezzar’s Furnace (Pesachim 118a-b)
God Rescues Abraham Directly
Gabriel Rescues Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Daniel 3)
Vision, Sin, and Judgment: Angelic Intervention and Ezekiel’s Temple Visions (Yoma 76b-77a)
Daniel’s Angelic Visitor and Its Impediments (Daniel 10:12); Elders offering incense to foreign gods, and 25 men facing east, worshipping the sun with their backs to the Temple (Ezekiel 8)
God’s Rejection of Michael’s Intercession
God commands Gabriel to take coals from beneath the cherubim and scatter them over Jerusalem—a symbolic act of destruction (Ezekiel 10:2,7)
Rav Ḥana bar Bizna citing R' Shimon Ḥasida - Cooling of the Coals and Partial Mercy
Appendix 4 - On the Division of the Torah into Five Books, and the terms ‘Pentateuch’ and ‘Chumash’
The Passage
The High Priest wore two shoulder stones of the ephod, each engraved with six of the Twelve Tribes’ names (Exodus 28:10)
The High Priest wore two shoulder stones,3 each engraved with six of the Twelve Tribes’ names, as stated in Exodus 28:10.
שתי אבנים טובות היו לו לכהן גדול על כתיפיו,
אחת מכאן,
ואחת מכאן,
ושמות שנים עשר שבטים כתוב עליהם,
ששה על אבן זו,
וששה על אבן זו,
שנאמר: ״ששה משמותם על האבן האחת וגו׳״.
The High Priest had two precious stones on the part of the ephod that rested on his shoulders,
one on this side
and one on that side,
and the names of the 12 tribes were written on them,
6 on this stone
and 6 on that stone,
as it is stated: “6 of their names on the one stone, and the names of the 6 that remain on the other stone, according to their birth” (Exodus 28:10).
Order of Names: Not by Birth for All (Exodus 28:10)
The verse says “according to their birth”,4 but the Talmud understands that this is applied only to the second stone.5
The first stone had Judah listed first (מוקדם), out of birth order.6
There were thus 50 letters total, divided evenly—25 on each stone.7
שניה כתולדותם,
ולא ראשונה כתולדותם
מפני שיהודה מוקדם.
וחמשים אותיות היו,
עשרים וחמש על אבן זו,
ועשרים וחמש על אבן זו
[...]
It is derived from the verse that only the names on the 2nd stone were written according to the order of their birth:
Gad,
Asher,
Issachar,
Zebulun,
Joseph,
Benjamin.
But the names on the 1st stone were not written according to the order of their birth,
as Judah was written 1st, and afterward came
Reuben,
Simeon,
Levi,
Dan,
Naphtali.
And there were 50 letters on the two stones of the ephod,
25 letters on this stone
and 25 on that stone
[...]
The Tribe of Joseph and Immunity to the Evil Eye
Tribe of Joseph's Complaint of Limited Inheritance (Joshua 17:14-15)
In Joshua 17:14–15, the descendants of Joseph protest to Joshua about being allotted only one portion of land despite being numerous.
Joshua responds that if they are indeed so numerous, they should go clear land in the forest themselves.
״וידברו בני יוסף את יהושע לאמר:
מדוע נתתה לי נחלה גורל אחד
וחבל אחד
ואני עם רב ...
ויאמר אליהם יהושע:
אם עם רב אתה
עלה לך היערה״
“And the children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying:
Why did you give me a single lot
and one part for an inheritance,
seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as YHWH has blessed me thus,
and Joshua said to them:
If you are a great people,
you should go up to the forest” (Joshua 17:14–15).
Hiding from the Evil Eye
The Talmud reinterprets Joshua’s response to the tribe of Joseph as advice that they should hide in the forest to avoid the effects of the evil eye, which might befall such a populous group.
אמר להן:
לכו והחביאו עצמכם ביערים,
שלא תשלוט בכם עין הרע
The Talmud explains that Joshua said to them:
Go and hide yourselves in the forests,
so that the evil eye will not have dominion over you, as you are such a large number of people.
Tribal Rebuttal: Joseph Is Immune to the Evil Eye (Genesis 49:22)
The tribe counters with a tradition: the evil eye has no power over Joseph’s descendants.
They cite Jacob’s Blessing in Genesis 49:22, “Joseph is a fruitful vine by a fountain,” which R' Abbahu reinterprets as "those who rise above the eye",8 meaning they transcend the evil eye.
אמרו ליה:
זרעיה דיוסף לא שלטא ביה עינא בישא,
דכתיב:
״בן פרת יוסף
בן פרת עלי עין״,
ואמר רבי אבהו:
אל תהי קורא ״עלי עין״,
אלא ״עולי עין״
The tribe of Joseph said to him:
The evil eye does not have dominion over the offspring of Joseph,
as it is written:
“Joseph is a fruitful vine,
a fruitful vine by a fountain” (Genesis 49:22),
and R' Abbahu says:
Do not read the verse as saying: “By a fountain [alei ayin]”;
rather, read it as: Those who rise above the evil eye [olei ayin], teaching that Joseph and his descendants are not susceptible to the evil eye.
R' Yosei ben Ḥanina - Additional Proof from Fish Imagery (Genesis 48:16)
R' Yosei ben Ḥanina adds another support from Genesis 48:16, where Jacob blesses Joseph’s children Ephraim and Manasseh to multiply “like fish.”
Just as fish are concealed underwater and not susceptible to the evil eye, so too are Joseph's offspring protected from it.
רבי יוסי ברבי חנינא אמר:
מהכא: ״וידגו לרב בקרב הארץ״,
מה דגים שבים —
מים מכסין עליהן, ואין העין שולטת בהן,
אף זרעו של יוסף —
אין העין שולטת בהן
The Talmud cites an alternative source for the assertion that the evil eye holds no sway over Joseph and his descendants: R' Yosei, son of R' Ḥanina, said that it is derived from here:
Jacob blessed Joseph’s children and said: “And let them grow [veyidgu] into a multitude in the midst of the earth” (Genesis 48:16).
Just as with regard to fish [dagim] in the sea,
waters cover them, and the evil eye therefore has no dominion over them,
so too, with regard to Joseph’s descendants,
the evil eye has no dominion over them.
R' Yitzḥak - How the Ephod Contained 50 Letters for the Tribal Names (Psalms 81:6, Genesis 35:18): Question of Letter Count; name of Joseph or Binyamin lengthened by adding a letter
The Talmud questions a baraita that claims the names of the 12 tribes inscribed on the ephod totaled 50 letters.9 However, the Talmud says that a count yields only 49.10
R' Yitzḥak suggests that the name of Joseph was lengthened by adding the letter ‘heh’, changing it from "Yosef" to "Yehosef" (יהוסף). He cites Psalms 81:6, where the name appears in its expanded form.11
Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak challenges this, arguing that the names must follow the wording “according to their birth,” and "Yehosef" was not Joseph’s birth name.
Instead, he proposes that the name "Binyamin" was spelled in full—with a second letter ‘yod’—on the ephod. Although usually written without it, Genesis 35:18 describes Benjamin’s naming with the extra yod.12
הני חמשים אותיות?
חמשים נכי חדא הויין!
אמר רבי יצחק:
יוסף הוסיפו לו אות אחת,
שנאמר:
״עדות ביהוסף שמו
בצאתו על ארץ מצרים״
מתקיף לה רב נחמן בר יצחק: ״כתולדתם״ בעינן!
אלא:
כל התורה כולה ״בנימן״ כתיב,
והכא ״בנימין״ שלם,
כדכתיב: ״ואביו קרא לו בנימין״.
The Talmud asks with regard to the baraita that contradicts Rav Kahana’s opinion: Are these names of the tribes, which were written on the ephod, composed of a total of 50 letters?
There are only 49.
R' Yitzḥak says:
They added one letter to the name of Joseph [Yosef] when it was written on the ephod,
as it is stated:
“He appointed it in Joseph [Yehosef] for a testimony
when He went forth against the land of Egypt” (Psalms 81:6).
Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak objects to this: We require the names to be written “according to their birth,” and Joseph was not called Yehosef from birth.
Rather, the explanation is as follows:
Throughout the entire Torah, the name of Benjamin is written without a second letter yod between the letters mem and nun,
and here, where he is born, Benjamin is written in full, spelled with a second yod.
As it is written: “But his father called him Benjamin” (Genesis 35:18).
Therefore, his name was written on the ephod with a second yod, “according to his birth.”
Referring to the historical blessings and burses at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, as described in the Bible.
This sugya is part of a larger aggadic sugya that’s playing off of the Mishnah that I discuss here: “Sacred Speech: The Languages of Ritual Recitations and the Historical Blessings and Curses at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal in Deuteronomy 27 and Joshua 8 (Mishnah Sotah 7:1-5)“.
In the traditional printing, that Mishnah appears a page earlier than our sugya, in Sotah.32a.5-32b.1 (=Mishnah_Sotah.7.1-5).
פרת.
On the meaning of this word, see Hebrew Wikipedia, “בן פורת יוסף“, section “פרשנים מפרשים“.
על כתיפיו - i.e. on the ephod.
כתולדותם - i.e. in birth order.
The first 11 out of 12 births of Jacob’s sons are described and listed in Genesis 29-30. See the table in Hebrew Wikipedia, “שבטי ישראל“, section “שמות השבטים“, screenshot (I added red tick dividing the first 6 from the second 6):
Which had the names Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin.
Followed by the rest in birth order: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Dan, and Naphtali.
So, in fact, the names are all in birth order, other than Judah being shifted up on the first stone.
See the Talmud’s discussion of this count in a later section of this sugya. And see the appendix for the part that I elide here: “R' Ḥanina ben Gamliel’s Alternative Division of the Names of the Tribes on the Ephod”.
Via a pun: ‘olei ayin’ instead of ‘alei ayin’, and playing on two major possible meanings of the word ‘ayin’ (עין): “eye” or “spring (of water)”.
The straightforward reading of the verse is that ‘ayin’ here means the latter.
See my table in the earlier section.
At this point, the Talmud sees Benjamin to be spelled בנימן, so only 5 letters, see later.
The Talmud later in the sugya elaborates on this, see later section “Joseph’s Language Test; Divine Intervention Through a Letter (Psalms 81:6)“.
Thus preserving the “according to their birth” criterion and completing the count to 50 letters.