{"id":39366,"date":"2018-09-04T13:58:28","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T10:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=39366"},"modified":"2022-03-29T20:13:22","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T17:13:22","slug":"blaming-the-victim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/blaming-the-victim\/","title":{"rendered":"Blaming the Victim"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[363,572],"acf":{"old_id":"39366","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":38555,"related_cahpter":"39","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"One of the earliest descriptions of sexual harassment by a person in a position of \u00a0authority toward the person under their authority appears in the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife in our chapter","content":"

“There is no absolute guard against sexual immorality” is a statement of our Sages (found in Ketubot 13b and elsewhere) that has been proven true a multitude of times throughout human history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many people, great and small, wise and foolish, policemen and leaders, military officers and ministers, rabbis and intellectuals, have failed in areas of sexual morality. Some have failed with serious crimes like rape, and some have failed in lesser offenses like sexual harassment.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the old days, there were those who referred to minor acts of sexual harassment with indifference. In recent years, the Israeli legislator has been inclined, properly and correctly, to follow the more advanced countries and treat stringently those guilty of sexual harassment who violate the dignity of another person through sexual innuendo, speech and action.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the earliest descriptions of sexual harassment by a person in a position of \u00a0authority toward the person under their authority appears in the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife in our chapter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Potiphar’s wife “casts her eyes upon Joseph” (Genesis 39:7) and commands him: “Lie with me\u201d (ibid.). As is the case with harassment of this type, the one doing the harassing–in this case a woman–did not stop trying until finally she found the right moment. And much as she coaxed Joseph day after day, he did not yield to her request to lie with her. One such day, he came into the house to do his work. None of the household being there inside, she caught hold of him by his garment and said, \u201cLie with me!\u201d But he left his garment in her hand and got away and fled outside\u201d (Genesis 39:10-12).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne sin leads to another,\u201d as they say in Pirkei Avot 4:2.<\/span><\/p>\n

As is common in such offenses, the perpetrator seeks to pin the moral offense on the victim. Potiphar’s wife falsely accuses Joseph for having “initiated” with her, and as punishment Joseph was thrown in prison. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Sages expand the story in midrashim, fill in the gaps in the biblical narrative, and are not afraid to express that even the righteous and pious may be caught in the net of this sin. One narrative passage in the Talmud (Sotah 36b) even pins the offense on Joseph: “What is written in Genesis 39:11 (that both Joseph and Potiphar\u2019s wife stayed in the house alone) teaches that both she and he intended to commit some sin.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The bottom line is \u201cThat which has been is that which shall be, and that which has been done is that which shall be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). \u201cThe devisings of man\u2019s mind are evil from his youth\u201d (Genesis 8:21) and \u00a0“there is no absolute guard against sexual immorality” (Ketubot 13b).<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, as today, our duty is to restrain these impulses and to prevent a situation where these impulses become a means of degrading human dignity and harming their freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Blaming the Victim","main_caption":"One of the earliest descriptions of sexual harassment by a person in a position of \u00a0authority toward the person under their authority appears in the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife in our chapter","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"old_create_date":"","links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39366"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103493,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39366\/revisions\/103493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}