Friday, December 20, 2024

Joseph and those Egyptian women

DR. RABBI EDWIN C. GOLDBERG: Egyptian Women, Captivated by Joseph’s Beauty, Cut Their Hands Slicing Citrons (TheTorah.com).
Potiphar’s wife sets up her friends to learn about Joseph’s beauty for themselves, the hard way, in a story that appears in both rabbinic midrash and the Quran. Sefer HaYashar, a 16th century midrashic work, dramatizes this story in a way sympathetic to her character, even giving her the name Zuleikha, borrowed from Islamic sources.

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