Rav Kook on Parashat Mikeitz: Yosef and the Ein Hara

Rebbi Yochanan, the third century scholar, had an unusual custom. He would sometimes sit down outside the town mikveh. This way, he explained, the Jewish women will see me as they leave the bath and will have children as beautiful as me.

Rebbi Yochanan’s colleagues asked him: Are you not afraid of the Ein Hara?

“I am descended from Yosef,” he replied, “and the Ein Hara had no power over him.” (Berachot 20a)

Apart from the issue of Rebbi Yochanan’s beauty, this story raises some interesting questions. What is the Ein Hara? Is it just a primitive superstition? And why was Yosef, more than any other Biblical figure, immune from it?

The Gemara explains that Yosef merited protection from the Ein Hara since “his eye did not wish to benefit from that which did not belong to him.” Despite Mrs. Potiphar’s attempts to seduce him, Joseph remained faithful to God and his employer. Truly an act of great moral integrity — but what does this have to do with the Ein Hara? 

Rav Kook explained that the Ein Hara is an example of how one soul may affect another through unseen connections between them. We are all influenced by our environment. Living among the refined and the righteous has a strong positive effect, while living among the crass and the corrupt has a negative one. The Ein Hara is simply the venomous impact from malignant feelings of jealousy and envy of those around us.

A person who has hardened his inner resolve and does not allow himself to be misled from the correct path, despite outside pressures — such a person has built a ‘firewall’ protecting his soul from external influences. The Biblical hero who most prominently demonstrated this strength of character and refusal to be led astray is Yosef. Seventeen years old, young and handsome, estranged from the protective framework of his family and culture, a slave propositioned by a powerful and attractive woman, Yosef nevertheless beat the odds and remained faithful to his ideals. Joseph determined that he would not be swayed by his surroundings, no matter how persuasive.

Through his heroic stance, Yosef merited that the Ein Hara would have no power over him and his descendants.

(Gold from the Land of Israel, pp. 86-87. Adapted from Ein Eyah vol. I, p. 102 by Rav Chanan Morrison)