First, Potifar's wife:
midrash rabba, parasha 85 siman 2:
ב ויהי בעת ההיא
ולא היה צריך קרייה למימר אלא ויוסף הורד מצרימה
ומפני מה הסמיך פרשה זו לזו?
רבי אלעזר ור' יוחנן
רבי אלעזר אמר כדי לסמוך ירידה לירידה
רבי יוחנן אמר כדי לסמוך הכר להכר
ר"ש בר נחמן אמר כדי לסמוך מעשה תמר למעשה אשתו של פוטיפר:
מה זו לשם שמים אף זו לשם שמים
דא"ר יהושע בן לוי רואה היתה באסטרולוגין שלה שהיא עתידה להעמיד ממנו בן
ולא היתה יודעת אם ממנה אם מבתה
הה"ד (שם מז) מודיעים לחדשים מאשר יבואו עליך
ר' איבו אמר מאשר ולא כל אשר"And it was at that time..."
{Note: this is the first pasuk of Bereishit 38:
| א וַיְהִי בָּעֵת הַהִוא, וַיֵּרֶד יְהוּדָה מֵאֵת אֶחָיו; וַיֵּט עַד-אִישׁ עֲדֻלָּמִי, וּשְׁמוֹ חִירָה. | 1 And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. |
And the Scriptures only needed to say "and Yosef was brought down to Egypt."{Note: This is the first pasuk of the Bereishit 39:
| א וְיוֹסֵף, הוּרַד מִצְרָיְמָה; וַיִּקְנֵהוּ פּוֹטִיפַר סְרִיס פַּרְעֹה שַׂר הַטַּבָּחִים, אִישׁ מִצְרִי, מִיַּד הַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִים, אֲשֶׁר הוֹרִדֻהוּ שָׁמָּה. | 1 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hand of the Ishmaelites, that had brought him down thither. |
This resumes the Yosef story where it left off, two prakim earlier. The question is thus, why place the story of Yehuda and Tamar right here, in the middle of the Yosef narrative?}
And for what cause was this narrative juxtoposed with that?Thus, some of what she saw was true, but she did not see well enough. While hindsight is 20/20, foresight is not always so.
Rabbi Elazer and Rabbi Yochanan.
Rabbi Elazer says, to connect one descending to another descending.
{Either just the words or act - that both Yehuda and Yosef went down - or more likely, that the sale of Yosef, of which Yehuda played a part, causing Yosef to go down to Egypt, was linked with Yehuda separating from his brothers and all these events (including losing his wife and kids, and/or coming to shame).}
Rabbi Yochanan said, in order to link one הכר - "recognize" to הכר.
{The brothers, and according to the midrash which links them, perhaps Yehuda specifically, present Yosef's goat-blood-stained coat to Yaakov and ask if he recognizes it, and Yaakov responds by crying that his son has been devoured.
This is in Bereishit 37:32-33:
Bereishit 38:25-26:
}
Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman said, in order to juxtopose the story of Tamar with the story of Potifar's wife.
{This is novel. The previous two, who were introduced as the two opposing sides, are all trying to link punishment to Yehuda with what was done to Yosef, with Rabbi Eliezer linking the middle story forward, to the first pasuk of the continuation, and Rabbi Yochanan linking it backwards to the phrase הַכֶּר-נָא. Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman is linking it forward, but ignoring the issue of the sale of Yosef, focusing instead on two different personages.
}
Just as this one {Tamar} acted for the sake of heaven, so did this one {Potifar's wife} act for the sake of heaven.
For Rabbi Yehuda ben Levi said that she {Potifar's wife} saw via her astrology that she was in the future to establish from him a son.
And she did not know if from her, or if from her daughter.
This is as is written in Yeshaya 47:13: מוֹדִעִים לֶחֳדָשִׁים, מֵאֲשֶׁר יָבֹאוּ עָלָיִךְ - "the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from the things that shall come upon thee."
Rabbi Aibo said: מֵאֲשֶׁר - "from the things [that shall come upon you]" {focusing on the letter מ, meaning "from"} and not all the things.
Two final points before we move on. First, where do we see Yosef married to Potifar's daughter? This is a result of equating Potifar with Potifera Kohen On. As we read in parshat Mikeitz, in Bereishit 41:45:
| מה וַיִּקְרָא פַרְעֹה שֵׁם-יוֹסֵף, צָפְנַת פַּעְנֵחַ, וַיִּתֶּן-לוֹ אֶת-אָסְנַת בַּת-פּוֹטִי פֶרַע כֹּהֵן אֹן, לְאִשָּׁה; וַיֵּצֵא יוֹסֵף, עַל-אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם. | 45 And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Poti-phera priest of On. And Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.-- |
Secondly, how do we know that she saw this with her astrology? We saw the juxtoposition, and this was ascribed to the cause of wishing to show she was also acting for the sake of heaven, but Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman was basing himself on a statement by Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi that she saw this with her astrology. The statement in Yeshaya just talks about the limits of astrology, and not about Potifar's wife, though perhaps we might interpret the surrounding psukim to be directed towards Potifar's wife.
The truth, I think, is much simpler. The problems with Potifar's wife begin in Bereishit 39:7:
| ז וַיְהִי, אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה, וַתִּשָּׂא אֵשֶׁת-אֲדֹנָיו אֶת-עֵינֶיהָ, אֶל-יוֹסֵף; וַתֹּאמֶר, שִׁכְבָה עִמִּי. | 7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said: 'Lie with me.' |
Let us now turn to the second person, Korach. The following, from Midrash Tanchuma on Korach, siman 5, is a drash on Bamidbar 16:7, and specifically on the phrase רַב-לָכֶם, בְּנֵי לֵוִי:
The midrash says:Where do we see the sons of Korach did teshuva and survived? We read in Bemidbar 26:וקרח שפקח היה, מה ראה לשטות הזו.And Korach, who was an intelligent person, what did he see that led him to this nonsense?
אלא עינו הטעתו.
ראה שלשלת גדולה עומדת הימנו,
שמואל ששקול כנגד משה ואהרן,
שנאמר, משה ואהרן בכהניו ושמואל בקוראי שמו (תהל' צט ו),
ועשרים וארבעה משמרות עומדות מבני בניו שכולן מתנבאין ברוח הקדש,
שנאמר, כל אלה בנים להימן חוזה המלך בדברי האלהים להרים קרן (דה"א כה ה).
אמר, אפשר הגדולה הזו עתידה לעמוד ממני ואני אובד (אותה).
ולא ראה יפה, לפי שבניו היו עושין תשובה ועומדין מהן,
ומשה היה רואה יפה.
לכך נשתתף לבא לאותה חזקה ששמע מפי משה
שכולן אובדין ואחד פלט, שנאמר, והיה האיש אשר יבחר ה' הוא הקדוש
Rather, his eye misled him.
He saw the chain of greatness coming from him:
Shmuel who is measured against Moshe and Aharon {J: who, after all, are those who Korach was fighting against.}
As is stated in Tehillim 99:6:
מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן, בְּכֹהֲנָיו, וּשְׁמוּאֵל, בְּקֹרְאֵי שְׁמוֹ
"Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name..."
And the 24 mishmarot from his descendants who all prophesied with ruaḥ haqodeš.
As is stated in 1 Chronicles 25:5:
midrash seems to be applying the word חֹזֵה, seer , to all the sons instead of to the father. Many Psalms in Tehillim are attributed to בני קרח - which we can take as the sons of=descendants of Korach.}
He {Korach} said: is it possible that greatness will in the future emerge from me, and I will {now} be lost?
And he {Korach} did not see well,
for his sons did repentance {and did not perish} and {the future great ones} were established from them.
And Moshe saw well.
And therefore {because he did not see well} he {Korach} combined with them on the basis of the statement by Moshe
That everyone {who brought incense} would be lost and one would survive, as it states {in pasuk 7, cited above}: וְהָיָה הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר-יִבְחַר יְהוָה, הוּא הַקָּדוֹשׁ - "and it shall be that the man whom the LORD doth choose, he shall be holy."
{Update Dec 6: I neglected to mention how the midrash gets this idea in the case of Korach.
It is a midrash on the words רַב-לָכֶם, בְּנֵי לֵוִי. The idea seems to be that רַב-לָכֶם, you have great ones to you, in terms of בְּנֵי לֵוִי, your descendants.}
Once again, we have someone who sees the future, but not well enough. In both cases, the people in question acted with the foreknowledge of descendants to come, but they did not realize that these descendants would come from their children.
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