ספר בראשית

Another allusion conveyed by the shalshelet over our ‎word reminds us of Proverbs 5,5 where Solomon says of the ‎sexually immoral woman, the ‎זונה‎, that “her feet go down to ‎death, her steps support ‘she-ol,’ hell.” Joseph reminded himself ‎of that dictum and was aware of the need to keep his distance ‎from this kind of “death,” and to cleave to G’d instead. G’d’s name ‎is always linked to life, i.e. eternal life in the celestial regions, as ‎King Chiskiyah (after recovering from his sickness) pointed out in ‎his prayer in Isaiah 38,11‎אמרתי לא אראה י-ה, י-ה בארץ החיים‎ “I said ‎to myself that I would not see G’d, the G’d Who is in the land of ‎the Living.” According to Sotah 36 the reason why the ‎letter ‎ה‎ was added to Joseph’s name (psalms 81,6; so that it ‎contained 3 of the letters of the tetragram) was that he sanctified ‎the Lord’s name in the privacy of his master’s house. ‎‎[Yehudah, who sanctified the Lord’s name in public ‎‎(Nachshon at the sea of Reeds) had two letters added to his name, ‎i.e. his name contained the entire tetragram. Ed.] The ‎‎shalshelet over the word ‎וימאן‎ alerts us to when Joseph ‎earned eternal life.‎