In Parshat Miketz, after Pharaoh put Yosef in charge of all
of
we read (Breisheet 41:45): “Pharaoh gave Yosef the name Tzafnat Paneiach, and
he gave him Osnat, the daughter of Poti Phera, Kohen On as a wife.”
In Breishhet 41:50-52 we read about the births of Yosef’s
children: “Two sons were born to Yosef before the years of famine came. They
were born to him by Osnat, the daughter of Poti Phera, Kohen On. Yosef named
the first born, Menashe, ‘For God has made me forget all my trouble, and all
that was in my father’s house.’ He named the second one Ephraim, ‘Because God
has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.’”
In Parshat Vayigash (46:20), the genealogy of Yaakov lists
Yosef’s descendents as follows: “In the
sons were born to Yosef, which were born to him by Osnat, daughter of Poti
Phera, Kohen On; they were Menashe and Ephraim.
From looking at the different quotes, all that we know about
Osnat is that she is the daughter of Poti Phera, Kohen On, she married Yosef
and had two sons, Ephraim and Menashe.
Why was Yosef comfortable marrying Poti Phera’s daughter?
Rabbeinu Bechaya, quoting the midrash, Pirkei D’Rebbi
Eliezer tries to fill in the blanks as to who Osnat really was: According to
the midrash, Osnat was actually the daughter that Dinah (Yaakov’s daughter)
gave birth to after she was raped by Shchem, the son of Chamor. Yaakov sent her
away from his home and she hid behind a bush (the name Osnat comes from the
same root as sneh- bush). Chizkuni quotes the midrash in Torah Shlema which
says that Yaakov hid her because his sons wanted to kill her. Yaakov tied a
locket around her neck which said that she is Yaakov’s granddaughter. The angel
Gavriel brought her down to
Potiphar’s wife took her in and raised her. The young women would throw their
jewelry at Yosef as he walked past them. When Yosef saw Osnat’s locket, he knew
that she was the right match for him. When Yaakov came down to
who the children were (Breisheet 48:8-9), Yosef showed him the words that he
had written in the locket so many years before.
After reading these midrashim, we can now understand why
Osnat is called the daughter of Poti Phera. Sine Potiphar and his wife raised
her it is as if she was their own child.
We can also see why Yosef didn’t have any hesitations about
marrying Osnat as he knew that she was part of Yaakov’s family.
