Chasidut zu Bereschit 47:24

‎[I have decided to omit the balance of this lengthy ‎paragraph as, in my opinion it does not add anything to what the ‎author has previously written about at length. Ed.]‎.

‎‎Genesis 47,23. “here is seed for you to sow the land; ‎and you shall give one fifth (of the harvest) to Pharaoh ‎whereas the other four fifths are for you to feed your ‎families.” A glance at Rashi’s commentary on verse ‎‎45,6 that there would be five more years of no ploughing and no ‎harvesting, poses a problem. As soon as Yaakov had arrived the ‎people had noticed an improvement in the condition of the soil, ‎so that they began using some of the seed they had, and sowed it ‎instead of using it for food as instructed. (45,5) The Egyptians ‎prepared themselves to eat the seed that they had been keeping ‎in reserve until better times would make planting more ‎propitious. Since they had violated Joseph’s instructions, he had ‎decreed that any harvest from such seed would wither and be ‎useless; this is why the Egyptians accused Joseph of decreeing to ‎let them die. This also explains why Joseph did not need to ‎appoint overseers to ensure that the Egyptians who gathered in ‎an unauthorized harvest had delivered one fifth of it to Pharaoh ‎for storage. In the third year Joseph did not decree such a curse ‎on any crop grown, stipulating that their efforts would be ‎successful only if they would deliver one fifth of their crops to ‎Pharaoh. Anyone shortchanging Pharaoh would stand to lose his ‎entire harvest.. This enables us to understand Rashi. Joseph’s ‎prediction of seven consecutive years of famine was based on the ‎people trying to grow food without Joseph’s blessing. (verse 19) ‎Even after Yaakov’s arrival, the decree of another five years of ‎famine would be cancelled only if Joseph withdrew his decree ‎against planting.

Going back to the Talmud Pessachim 54, which we ‎quoted at the beginning of this subject of the creation of the ‎‎“light/fire, which is the subject of the benediction recited at the ‎end of the Sabbath, in the first chapter of the Talmud ‎‎B’rachot, folio 10 the question is raised why King David in ‎psalms 103-104 uses the expression ‎ברכי נפשי ‏‎ no fewer than five ‎times. The answer given is that David refers both to G’d and to ‎man’s soul. David sees a comparison between G’d and our soul, ‎G’d filling the whole universe and the soul permeating the entire ‎human body. G’d sees all without being seen, and the soul ‎similarly sees without being seen by a human eye. G’d provides ‎nourishment for all His creatures, and the soul provides spiritual ‎nourishment for the whole body. G’d is ritually pure, and the soul ‎remains ritually pure. G’d’s domain is in the innermost holy place, ‎and the soul’s abode is also in the innermost part of the body. ‎David appeals to G’d Who possesses these five attributes to bless ‎his soul that also possesses five comparable attributes. At the ‎same time we have a saying in the Zohar III 73 that just as ‎the Torah is supernatural and contains revealed and hidden ‎aspects, so it contains both hidden and revealed names of the ‎Lord. The four hidden aspects of G’d are that G’d sees while ‎Himself invisible, He provides nourishment, (though unseen); G’d ‎resides in the innermost part of the celestial regions is another ‎one of His hidden aspects. His is pure and incapable of becoming ‎impure; one of His hidden features is His ability to feed the ‎universe without His requiring nourishment Himself. However, ‎the fact that He fills the entire universe is the visible aspect of ‎G’d. When Joseph spoke about the four parts out of five that ‎would belong to the Egyptian farmer to use for himself and his ‎family, this was an allusion to the four hidden aspects of G’d, ‎whereas the fifth part that would be given to Pharaoh was an ‎allusion to the visible part of G’d. It is possible that on occasion ‎this fifth aspect of G’d becomes revealed as the letter ‎ה‎=5 is the ‎last letter in the tetragram, the holiest of G’d’s names. It is ‎accepted in kabbalistic circles that the last letter in the tetragram ‎alludes to G’d when He manifests Himself.‎