Tehillim 22 - Yosef - Dog - Shackles
- “Mi-yad kelev yechidati” - (deliver my one and only soul from the dogs).
Yosef was imprisoned and remained there for 10 years because he had been implicated in the affair with Potiphar’s wife. According to the Arizal, after he lost the 10 souls he was destined to father, he was imprisoned for 10 years on their account.
The Zohar HaKadosh writes that a man who has intimate relations with a non-Jewish woman comes under the influence of an impure force—the klipat “kelev” (dog).
It is precisely this klipah that David HaMelech writes about in Tehillim 22:21: “Mi-yad kelev yechidati” - (deliver my one and only soul from the dogs).
Yosef nearly entered into a relationship with Zuleikha, and at that very moment the image of his father, Yaakov, appeared before him and said: “Know, Yosef, that the Kohen Gadol will have a breastplate with 12 stones corresponding to the 12 tribes, and your name will be written on one of them. If you sin now, your name will be erased from the breastplate.”
Yosef fled from Zuleikha, but lost 10 drops of his soul through his fingers. It was because of these drops that the word “kelev” (dog) became the word “kevel” (shackles)—the letters are identical. Since he did not have relations with the non-Jewish woman, but only came under her influence for a moment, he was imprisoned for 10 years, during which he was shackled: “Le'eved nimkar Yosef, inui va-kevel raglo...” - (Yosef was sold into slavery; his feet were bound in shackles). (Tehillim 105:17–18)
(Based on a lesson by Rav Daniel Cohen, “Sha'arei HaEmet”)
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Tags: The Hidden Meaning of Tehillim, Joseph, Calev, Tehillim 22 – Yosef – Dog – Shackles, Tehillim 22, Yosef HaTzadik
