HIS FATHER’S VALUES

Our patriarch Jacob was one of the wisest and holiest men in the world in his time. Yet, for all his closeness to G-d and spiritual insight, his son Joseph had disappeared and he had no idea what had really happened to him. Was he still alive or had he been torn to death by wild beasts?

Events in this week’s parasha set Jacob wondering. Famine had broken out in the Middle East. One country, Egypt, had food.

Chapter 42 opens with the words: “Jacob ‘saw’ that there was shever or food in Egypt.”

Rashi questions the use of the word ‘saw.’ Obviously, Jacob had not been to Egypt himself. Don’t we mean Jacob ‘heard’ that grain being sold in Egypt? Rashi answers that Jacob ‘saw’ in a spiritual sense, in a mirror of prophecy, that food was available in Egypt.

Rabbi J B Soloveitchik expands on Rashi. What was it that Jacob saw in his vision? Jacob was amazed at the way food was being sold in Egypt. It was so unlike the behaviour of pagan society. Jacob perceived that Egypt had set up a system of rationing food to prevent inflationary prices, speculation and hoarding.

The word the Torah uses for grain is shever. The word also means to break. The link between the two words being that food satisfies or breaks hunger. Shever refers to food available for sustenance, not delicacies or large quantities of food.

Joseph sold food strictly according to the needs of each family or individual. Each head of a family had to appear before Joseph. Hoarding was forbidden. Buying for speculation was made impossible. Each person was allowed to carry away one loaded animal. Luxury items were not for sale.

To Jacob’s amazement, his vision indicated that Egypt had instituted a system that was typical of Jewish ethics. Later on, we will read in the Torah that the manna was provided according to each person’s needs. In times of famine or other trouble, people had to share whatever they had.

In addition, Egypt was limiting its own consumption of food to make rations available to other countries. Had Egypt been guided by pagan morality, it would have kept all its food for itself. Jacob could not understand what made Egypt act so charitably. He was determined to investigate what was going on in Egypt that seemed to reflect the values of the Patriarchs.

Lastly, the age-old question, why didn’t Joseph send a message to his father that he was alive? The answer is – he did! In setting up an ethical food system for Egypt, Joseph was proclaiming to the world, and especially to his father, that here was a Jew seeking to benefit the society in which he lived.