... The fifth-century Palestinian midrashic collection Genesis Rabbah and the Bavli both contain several traditions characterizing Joseph as “immune to the evil eye.” In the former case, the lasciviously gazing Mrs. Potiphar personifies the evil eye. In the Bavli, Joseph’s immunity to the evil eye, which is provoked by his great beauty, is due to his refusal “to feast his eye on what did not belong to him.” The Palestinian sources bring both ends of the visual economy – Joseph’s eyes and those who gaze at him – together, explaining that when he walked the streets of Egypt, princesses would peer at him through lattices and throw jewelry at him so that he would “lift up his eyes and look at them; nonetheless, he would not look at them.” Even as they announce his virtue, Palestinian sources state that Joseph had every intention of sleeping with Potiphar’s wife but was only stopped from consummating his desire when his upright “bow” was felled by the sight of his father’s or his mother’s image (ikonin, from the Greek eikonion). Most interesting for our purposes, is how the Palestinian midrash blames Joseph for luring Mrs. Potiphar’s eyes ...