Rashi brings from Chazal that what stopped Yosef from sin was the דמות דיוקנו של אביו. The Maggid (who's yom hilulah was this week, יט כסלו, says it means that Yosef saved himself by looking at the source of his desire for אשת פוטיפר and that was the middah of teferes, the middah of Yaakov. This is a manner advised by the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid to resist physical temptations is instead to put one's focus on its source, where it is rooted in holiness and that will remove one's temptation for the sin. The Tanya (Ch. 28) says this method is not for 'regular people' who this will not help for but only need them to sin, this method is only for tzaddikim. This was not a one time event where Yosef used this mindset to get through the situation but it was his mindset for his life. How did he survive all the terrible events that occurred to him, from bad to worse, from being sold by his brothers as a slave, to being thrown in jail? How could he have not sought revenge when the opportunity arose? Because he understood that everything came from a place of kedusha. He did not view it as a descent into a abyss but instead saw it all as part of a holy mission. That lesson is indeed even for the 'regular people.'
The N.E. in beshalach says an even more radical idea that the tzadik can appreciate physical beauty and be maaleh it and that is what yosef was trying to do.
ReplyDeleteBasically all the approaches boil down to creating an idea of beauty that is distinct from the hedonistic definition of something that gives pleasure.