How many of you have seen Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat? I see and hear this portion in those terms.
This is an old, old story. Yet, this is a portion that seems ripped from the headlines today. These stories go on and on.
Joseph is sold, taken to Egypt and becomes the head of Potipher’s, his master’s house. The text tells us something wonderful: “Now Joseph was well built and handsome.” How nice. Who wouldn’t want to spend time with this good looking guy. The master’s wife is no exception. She tried to get him to, you know, lie with her. Joseph refused, multiple times. However, at one stage she managed to rip his cloak from him. She falsely accuses him of going after her and he is thrown in jail.
False accusations are akin to gossip, rumor. It is expressly forbidden in Judaism. On Yom Kippur when we recite the sins, more have to do with our speech than any other category. There is an old story about two women who are sniping at each other and telling tales about each other all over town. They go to the rabbi for help. He, it’s always a he in these stories, tells them something surprising. Take a down pillow into the town center, rip it open and scatter all the feathers. They do just as he said. It didn’t help. They go back to the rabbi. He tells them to go back and collect all the feathers. Impossible. So, it is with words. Once they are out of your mouth, they are impossible to get back. The damage is done. (I’ve actually told this story before and scattered feathers to let kids collect them. Much harder than gathering Hershey’s kisses at a B-Mitzvah!)
Recently, just this month as CNN reported, “More than 18 years after accusing three former Duke University lacrosse players of raping her, a falsified account she shared in graphic detail, Crystal Mangum has admitted she lied about the encounter. I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn’t, and that was wrong. And I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me,” Mangum said on Katerena DePasquale’s show, “Let’s Talk with Kat.” “I made up a story that wasn’t true because I wanted validation from people and not from God.”
The damage that she did to the lacrosse players may never be completely undone.
Yet, the damage done is to more than the players, to Duke and to court system. The damage effects every woman who does have the courage to report a real sexual assault.
“False reports hurt not only the people falsely accused, they hurt every rape victim,” Jennifer Simmons Kaleba, vice president of communications for RAINN, told CNN. “There are already too many victims who do not report the crime for fear of not being believed. After a false report in such a high-profile case, even more survivors may be reluctant to come forward out of fear that law enforcement will not believe them.”
According to one study 63% of sexual assaults are not reported. https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/Publications_NSVRC_Overview_False-Reporting.pdf There are many reasons for that. Among them the fear of not being believed because of false reporting. Having served on a rape and domestic violence hotline, I can tell you that women fear reporting because they are afraid they will not be believed.
This is a worldwide problem.
In France recently, 51 men were convicted of drugging, raping and filming their escapades. The evidence was irrefutable. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/world/europe/pelicot-rape-trial-guilty-verdict.html In this case, there were no false accusations and the primary victim did not even know that she was a victim until 2020 when confronted by the photographic evidence. She had worried about why her hair was falling out and unexplained. memory losses.
After October 7th it became clear that many victims had been sexually assaulted. We know that rape is a tool of war. Yet it took the UN until March to recognize the truth of it. Here is their press release: https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15621.doc.htm
There are still women being held as hostages. What horrors have they experienced in captivity? There are still 13 women who are being held as of Nov. 25, the International Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=531232856456698
The text tells us the G-d was with Joseph:
“GOD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he stayed in the house of his Egyptian master.” (Gen. 39:2)
“GOD was with Joseph—extending kindness to him and disposing the chief jailer favorably toward him.” (Gen 39:21)
“The chief jailer did not supervise anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because GOD was with him, and whatever he did GOD made successful. (Gen 39:23)
This hope leads to the song from Joseph:
Close every door to me,
Hide all the world from me
Bar all the windows
And shut out the light
Do what you want with me,
Hate me and laugh at me
Darken my daytime
And torture my night
If my life were important I
Would ask will I live or die
But I know the answers lie
Far from this world
Close every door to me,
Keep those I love from me
Children of Israel
Are never alone
We pray that G-d is with the hostages, all of the hostages, and their families, that they know the sense of not being alone, even in those darkest tunnels. Yes, we pray for the Gazan and Syrian and Lebanese mothers and children. For all those who experience sexual violence, in the US, France, Gaza, the West Bank, around the world, that they have the courage to survive and report it. We pray for a day where sexual violence will not be a tool of war. Full stop.
It is really very simple. Don’t gossip. Don’t engage in rumors. Don’t create false rumors. If someone tells you that they have been assaulted, believe them.