What was Potifar's wife referring to when she said, "ka'Devarim ha'Eleh"?
Rashi (from Bereishis Rabah 87:9): At a time of intimacy 1 with Potifar 2 , she said, 'your slave did things like this to me.'
Shir Ma'on (to 39:17): She said roughly, but not exactly, like she told the household, lest Potifar realize that she lies. If witnesses say exactly the same words, their testimony is disqualified, lest they coordinated to say the same lie. In proper testimony, each witness speaks in his style, 3 and they begin the account from different points.
Ramban #1: She was referring, not to anything that they were doing, but to the things that were mentioned above.
Ramban #2: She simply told him the same as she told the members of her household. 4
Ha'amek Davar: Potifar could not believe that Yosef began with such a despicable sporting. She answered that several times before, he was frivolous with me, but I did not pay attention until this sporting.
Gur Aryeh: How is this derived? The entire phrase is extra; the verse could have said merely, 'When he heard his wife's words, his anger flared'! The extra description "matters such as these," tells us that she said so during intimacy.
Even though here she speaks in both cases, one speaks differently to her husband than to her household, and amidst greater agitation right after a shocking experience, than later, after calming down. (PF)
Ramban: The 'Kaf'' (in "ka'Devarim') is unneeded (really, it was exactly the same) like we find for example above (24:28).
Why was Potifar angry?
Seforno: He was angry with his wife for accusing him of bringing an Ish Ivri into the house to make fun of them - because he believed Yosef more than he believed his wife, whom he concluded had lied about Yosef. 1 And he placed Yosef in jail out of respect for her, as if he actually believed her. 2
Ohr ha'Chayim: He did not believe her to punish Yosef like a slave who puts his eyes on his master's wife, but her words somewhat moved him.
Malbim: She said that he had already lain with her. Potifar did not believe that Yosef would be so bold to do so. He was not angry at Yosef; if he were, he would have killed him! Rather, he truly understood the matter; he was angry that now he cannot keep Yosef in his house.
Alshich: He understood that his wife lied. (Refer to 39:17:151:1.)
QUESTIONS ON RASHI
Rashi writes: "She said, 'Your slave did things such as these,' i.e. matters of intimacy." But earlier, she said that when the slave had approached with that intent, she had screamed, and he fled - i.e. without lying with her!
Gur Aryeh: She was not saying that they had had relations, but rather that the slave had approached her with the intent of relations, 1 doing to her such things that usually lead up to them.
Ha'amek Davar (to 39:14,17): She changed her story here. It was only to the other members of the household, that she said outright that he came "to lie (i.e. have relations) with me" (39:14). To her husband, however, she said merely that he came "to 'sport' (l'Tzachek) with me" (39:17). (CS)
Rashi writes: "She said, 'Your slave did things such as these,' i.e. matters of intimacy." Would a woman tell her husband that she had been intimate with another man?
Gur Aryeh: She did not say that they had had relations, but rather that the slave had approached with that intent, and did to her such things that usually lead up to relations.
Rashi writes: "She said this to him during intimacy [with her husband]." Why did she tell her husband specifically then?
Gur Aryeh: She wanted her husband to become very angry at Yosef. She waited for the moment that her husband was about to be with her - knowing that a husband is disgusted by the thought that his wife has lain with another man - and suddenly told him that Yosef had approached and did to her such-and-such - so that he would be as angry as possible.
Rashi writes (from Bereishis Rabah 87:9) that at a time of intimacy with Potifar, she said to him, "your slave did things like this to me." Potifar was a eunuch and could not have Bi'ah! (See Rashi to 41:45).
Ramban, Da'as Zekenim #1, Hadar Zekenim (to 39:17) #1: The Midrash does not refer to actual Bi'ah, rather, to the foreplay that leads to it.
Da'as Zekenim #2, Hadar Zekenim (to 39:17) #2, Riva (to 39:17): He was partially castrated. He could get heated enough to be intimate with a female, but not with a male. 1
Da'as Zekenim #3: He was castrated only when he wanted to be intimate with Yosef.
Moshav Zekenim: He was able to be intimate, but not to ejaculate. 2
