One clue that should help establish Joseph’s innocence is that he was thrown into prison. Had he said yes to the seductress, would she not have kept him at her side? Yet she and nobody else handed him over to his jailer, after first turning the facts around. Her reaction seems both feminine and human. To wish to please and fail: what worse humiliation could there be for a woman? When it happened to her, Madame Potiphar took revenge by accusing Joseph of her own sins.

In all fairness, we ought to pose the problem the other way round as well. What if, in spite of everything, she was telling the truth? An unlikely hypothesis. It seems hard to believe that Joseph, a slave and stateless, would have run the risk of offending the mistress of the house, wife of his owner and benefactor. It seems even harder to believe that Madame Potiphar would have rejected him: he was handsome, attractive, irresistible, all legends attest to that. And also, ultimate argument, who could believe for even one minute that Joseph the Tzaddik could have uttered a lie? A Tzaddik who lies? A contradiction in terms.

And that is how all the texts present him, as a Tzaddik. Even later, when he was already ensconced in the royal palace, success did not go to his head. He remained devout, bound to God and His commandments. One commentator insists that he observed the laws of Shabbat. Another waxed indignant: Why only the laws of Shabbat? What about the others? He observed them all, says another, and more! He was a nazir, an ascetic; he refrained from drinking wine. We are told also that he was a . . . hasid. Every Just Man, says the Talmud, has one characteristic trait: his was devoutness. God-fearing, humble, he whispered his prayers even while working. Moreover, he had a superb command of the secular sciences; he mastered seventy languages . . . plus one: Hebrew. Naturally, the Pharaoh took advantage of having such a talented linguist at his court. Joseph was to teach him the sacred tongue. And Joseph did try to guide him through an accelerated course. It was a failure. Was it the fault of the teacher or the pupil? The private lessons came to an end—the only failure Joseph ever experienced in his long career. All his undertakings, both in his private and public life—including the rationing of food and the charting of economic plans—were crowned with success. Yet he never boasted. His modesty, it seems, was never at stake.

• • •

When he sent for his father, he told his brothers: Do tell him of all the honors that have been bestowed upon me here. What? wondered the great Rebbe Menahem-Mendl of Kotzk. Such vanity on Joseph’s lips? Did he really think he could impress the pure, the saintly patriarch Jacob? No, mused the rebbe, the message should be read differently: Do tell my father that I am capable of receiving honors—and remain unaffected by them . . . Jacob had nothing to fear; the wealthy and powerful prince was still his son.