Vayeshev 

וישב

Potiphar’s wife attempts to seduce Joseph, who resists her and flees. The Sages describe the circumstances that led to her attempt and how Joseph overcame the temptation. 

His master’s wife was with him in the house and was verbally enticing him each and every day. She would change her clothing three times each and every day. She would not wear at midday the garments that she wore in the morning, and she would not wear in the afternoon the garments that she wore at midday. Why did she labor over her appearance to that extent? So that Joseph would gaze at her and desire her. One time, the Egyptian women came together to see Joseph’s beauty. What did Potiphar’s wife do? She took citrons and gave one to each of them, gave a knife to each of them, and called Joseph to come. She stood Joseph before them. When they looked at Joseph’s beauty, they cut their hands with the knives due to their distraction at seeing Joseph. She said to them: If this is what happens to you in a brief moment of seeing him, I, who see him all the time, all the more so that I desire him. The verse relates: “It was on a certain day; he went into the house to perform his labor, and none of the people of the household were there in the house” (Genesis 39:11). Is it possible that there was no one in a house as large as the house of that wicked man, Potiphar? That day was the day of their festival, and they all went to their house of idolatry. Potiphar’s wife told them that she was ill. She said to herself: There is no day available for me like this day that Joseph will consort with me [as the house is otherwise empty]. “She seized him by his garment, saying: Lie with me” (39:12). At that moment, the image of Joseph’s father came and appeared to him in the window. Jacob said to him: Your brothers are destined to be written on the stones of the ephod,<source>(Tanĥuma, Vayeshev; Sota 36b) </source>