(cue sound of a wah-wah lyre)

Genesis 39: 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.

Depending on your perspective, this ends badly for Joseph. Already a slave, he resists the repeated entreaties of his mistress. Who, it must be said, is damn fine, a 10 on the pharaohonic-rubenesque scale. The bitter noblewoman accuses him of sexual misconduct and Joseph is carted off to jail.

My Hebrew School classmates cut to the heart of the issue as only 12-year-old boys can: why didn’t that fool just give her what she wanted? Hasn’t he suffered enough? The rabbis had a classic patris-ex-machina response prepared: at the height of temptation, an apparition of Joseph’s father Jacob appeared and told him to not give in. Still scratching my head over that one.