" Pharaoh said to Yosef, “I am Pharaoh. And without you no man may lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh called Yosefs name Tzaphenath Paneiach (decipherer of secrets) and he gave him Osnat, the daughter of Potiphera, Chief of On for a wife… Now to Yosef were born two sons – when the year of the famine had not yet set in –whom Osnat daughter of Potiphera, Chief of On, bore to him. Yosef called the name of the firstborn Menashe (“forgetting”) “for God has me forget all my hardship, and all my father’s household.” And the name of the second he called Ephraim (“fruitfulness”) “for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. ” (Bereishis 41:44-52) As we consider these pesukim a number of questions come to mind. - What is inner meaning of the name Tzafnas Paneach? If the Torah tells us that Pharaoh called Yosef by this name it must mean that this name is not merely an Egyptian nickname but a revelation of a particular essential feature of Yosef HaTzaddik. - Who is Osnat? Other than the fact that she is the daughter of Potiphera, the Torah doesn't tell us anything else about her. - There seems to be a connection between the fact that Pharoah named Yosef Tzafnas Paneach and Yosef's subsequent marriage to Osnat. What is the Torah teaching us? - Who is Potiphera, Chief of On? The Gemara (Sotah 13b) tells us that this is the same Potiphar whom Yosef worked for many years prior. He is now called Potiphera because he was emasculated after desiring Yosef fo
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