(in the name of Rabbi Adam Siegel in the name of Rabbi Shapiro)
When the brothers brought Joseph’s coat to Jacob, Jacob said, a wild animal, a ” חיה רעה ” ate him. Rashi points out that he was
not wrong, that he had ruach hakodesh and saw that Potifar’s wife was a wild animal, since she was trying to “eat” Joseph and
devour his strength of yidishkeit. Rashi says this so that people realize that tzadikim are never wrong, and that this does not
only apply to this situation. Later in a different Rashi, it says “why was Tamar’s incident connected to Potifar’s wife’s incident? To
show that just like Tamar was לשם שמים so too was potifars wife.”

Wait, so he is saying that you can be a wild animal חיה רעה even if you are doing something for שם שמים? Our enemies are doing
everything ” לשם שמים ” but they act like wild animals!

This is why you have to ask a rabbi, before you do anything, because even if you have good intentions, you don’t want to be a
חיה רעה , Like Potifar’s wife.

I give everyone a bracha that we should be זוכה to serve Hashem לשם שמים but not be a wild animal.