Kommentar zu Bereschit 47:18

בשנה השנית IN THE SECOND YEAR — of the famine.

THEY CAME UNTO HIM IN THE SECOND YEAR. I.e., the second year of the years of the famine. Now although Joseph had said, And there are yet five years when there will be no plowing and sowing,²⁴³Above, 45:6. as soon as Jacob came to Egypt a blessing came with his arrival, and they began to sow and the famine came to an end. And thus we read in the Tosephta of Tractate Sotah.²⁴⁴10:9. Tosephta means “addition.” This is a collection of Tannaitic teachings compiled by Rabbi Chiya and Rabbi Oshayah soon after the Mishnah was completed by Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi. Thus the language of Rashi. And it is similarly mentioned in Bereshith Rabbah:²⁴⁵89:11. “Rabbi Yosei the son of Rabbi Chanina said that the famine lasted for two years, for when our father Jacob went down to Egypt the famine ceased. When did it return? In the days of Ezekiel, etc.” But if so, then Joseph’s words regarding his interpretation of [Pharaoh’s dream which predicted the seven years of famine] were not fulfilled, and would thus cause people to doubt his wisdom! Perhaps we shall say that the famine continued in the land of Canaan as Joseph had said, but in Egypt our father Jacob went down to the river in the presence of Pharaoh and all of Egypt, whereupon all his people saw that the waters in the Nile rose as he approached it, and thus they knew that G-d’s blessing was due to the prophet’s arrival. In that case, the verse stating, And Joseph sustained his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to the want of their little children,²⁴⁶Verse 12 here. applies to the remainder of the seven years and for as long as his father lived,²⁴⁷According to the Tur’s version of Ramban, this passage reads: “applies to the years of plenty of his father’s entire lifespan.” for even after his father’s death, Joseph said, I will sustain you and your little ones.²⁴⁸Further, 50:21.
Yet, with all this, I wonder: for if so, then Pharaoh’s dream was not true since it only revealed the decree to him but not what would ultimately become of those seven years! Now I have seen there in the Tosephta of Tractate Sotah:²⁴⁴10:9. Tosephta means “addition.” This is a collection of Tannaitic teachings compiled by Rabbi Chiya and Rabbi Oshayah soon after the Mishnah was completed by Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi. “Rabbi Yosei said that as soon as our father Jacob died, the famine reverted to its former condition, etc.” We have further been taught in the Sifre:²⁴⁹Sifre Eikev, 38. “And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.²³⁴Verse 10 here. How did he bless him? [His blessing was] that the years of famine should cease. Nevertheless they were completed after Jacob’s death, as it is said, Now therefore fear ye not; I will sustain you.²⁴⁸Further, 50:21. Now just as ‘sustaining’ mentioned above²⁵⁰Above, 45:11. And there I will sustain thee, for there are yet five years of famine. by Scripture refers to years of famine, so also ‘sustaining’ mentioned here²⁴⁸Further, 50:21. refers to years of famine. Rabbi Shimon says, ‘It is not a sanctification of G-d’s Name for the words of the righteous to be effective as long as they live, and then to be removed after their death.’ Rabbi Eleazar the son of Rabbi Shimon said, ‘I accept the opinion of Rabbi Yosei rather than that of my father, for it is indeed a sanctification of G-d’s Name for there to be a blessing in the world for the period that the righteous are in the world, and for the blessing to remove from the world when they leave.’” Thus far the text of the Tosephta. Thus the remaining five years of the famine were completed.
The opinion of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra is that these two years, [recounted in Verses 14-20, during which the Egyptians gave their money and cattle to Joseph in exchange for food], occurred after Jacob had come to Egypt, [and since there were two years of famine before he came to Egypt, this accounts for four of the seven years of famine]. And Ibn Ezra wrote as follows: “We find in homiletic texts of the Rabbis that the famine was removed by the merit of Jacob. It is also possible that there were three more years of famine, but that they were not as severe as the first four years which had passed.” But Ibn Ezra’s words are not at all correct. The account of the dream and its interpretation make all seven years alike, and, had it been as he said, Scripture would have mentioned the different nature of these three last years.
In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan during a period of five years, and he brought it to Pharaoh, for how is it possible for the money and cattle to be exhausted in one year? Rather, the money sufficed them for the entire five years, as is the usual way of the world.²⁵¹In a time of famine, people conserve money and make it last for a long period of time. Now since nothing was initiated, and no change of any kind occurred during all these years, Scripture relates nothing about them except, And Joseph gathered up all the money, etc.²⁵²Verse 14 here. When the money was exhausted, Scripture relates that they came to Joseph — this was in the sixth year of the famine — and he gave them bread in exchange for their cattle. He fed them with bread only to the extent of sustaining them, but not to satiety. And when that year was ended,²⁵³Verse 18 here. in which he had vowed to them that he would feed them with bread in exchange for their cattle—which was the sixth year—they came unto him the second year, [i.e., the year following the sixth year of famine being discussed], and they told him that he should purchase them and their land for the bread which he will feed them during that seventh year, and since the land will then belong to Pharaoh, he should give them seed so that the land will not be desolate, for they knew that when the seven years of famine will be completed, they will have planting and reaping. The verse stating, And Joseph sustained his father…with bread, according to the want of their little ones,²⁴⁶Verse 12 here. thus means that he furnished them with bread sufficient for their needs during the famine, as the expression, according to the want of their little ones, indicates.

בשנה השנית, the second year after the money had run out. This was the seventh year of the famine.

לא נכחד מאדוני, "we will not hide the fact from my lord, etc." The expression "we will not hide" presents a difficulty. What was the point of speaking of hiding something which was bound to be revealed if indeed it existed? On the other hand, if they were to claim that their livestock and money had not been exhausted they had to deliver it! Why would they say that they would not conceal the existence of money or livestock? Besides, what is the meaning of the words כי אם? Furthermore, they had told Joseph already at the end of the previous year that their money supply was exhausted? Why did the Egytians say to Joseph: "and the livestock is all gone to you, sir?"

ויבואו אליו בשנה השנית, “They came to him in the second year, etc.” according to Rashi the verse speaks about the second year of the famine, even though Joseph had spoken about another 5 years of crop failures, (45,11) However, as soon as Yaakov arrived in Egypt, a miracle happened and the blessings returned as a result of his presence. Nachmanides writes that although Joseph’s prediction of seven consecutive years of famine did not come true, no one used this as an excuse to call Joseph a liar or a false prophet. The reason was that they noted that the famine continued in the surrounding countries, so that it was clear to them that special circumstances had arisen when Yaakov went down to the Nile and suddenly the waters of the Nile rose to welcome him. Pharaoh himself had witnessed this phenomenon. He showed it to his servants and they realized that Yaakov’s blessing had been effective. We must therefore understand Joseph’s pledge to support his brothers economically as being meant for the normal years to follow, a pledge which was to be valid for at least as long as his father would remain alive. In fact, Joseph continued to support his brothers financially even after his father’s death (50,51) Even considering all this, if all this is true, then Pharaoh’s dream had not been interpreted correctly seeing that Pharaoh had not really been shown the decree nor how it could be changed. There is an interesting Tossephta in Sotah according to which Rabbi Yossi said that as soon as Yaakov died, the famine resumed in Egypt. There is also a statement in the Sifri according to which Yaakov’s blessing to Pharaoh consisted in the promise that the famine would cease forthwith. Nonetheless, seeing seven years of famine had been decreed in the dream, these did in fact occur, at intervals, after Yaakov’s death. Rabbi Shimon protested such an interpretation, saying that it does not confer glory on either G’d or His righteous people on earth if the promise (blessing) of a צדיק remains effective only during his own lifetime. In response to this Rabbi Eleazar, son of Rabbi Shimon (ben Yochai) said that he prefers the interpretation of Rabbi Yossi to that of his own father, as it is a greater sanctification of G’d when people observe that as long as a tzaddik walks the earth there is visible blessing on earth thanks to his merit. The very fact that the blessings on earth we due to the presence of Tzaddikim at that time, becomes manifest when these blessings cease as soon as the Tzaddik leaves this earth. The fact is that there are 5 more mentions of famine in Egypt scattered throughout the Bible; these five years of famine completed those predicted by Joseph but interrupted by the blessing of his father Yaakov when he went to see Pharaoh. [by the way, the clue Yaakov had found in Pharaoh’s dream that gave him the opening for this blessing was that the parched ears of corn symbolizing the years of famine, did not grow on a single stalk, whereas the good ears of corn all grew on a single stalk, suggesting that the good years would be consecutive. Ed.] Ibn Ezra claims that here we are speaking about the first 2 years of the famine after Yaakov’s arrival in Egypt. We find support for this in the Midrash, which states that the famine ended thanks to the merit of Yaakov. It is also possible that the division was four years of famine at once, and three years at a later date, but of far less severity. Nachmanides writes that he finds these interpretations as unsatisfactory, for if that had been so the Torah herself would have referred to some of these events explicitly. At any rate, the meaning of the text read straightforwardly is that Joseph collected all the available money during five years of the famine, but seeing that during those five years no new elements developed, the Torah did not refer to those years individually, but treated them as if they had been a single year. When a new development occurred, i.e. the people for the first time confronting Joseph, the Torah resumes the thread of the narrative. What is related now actually occurred during the sixth year of the famine. At that time Joseph handed out grain and took cattle and beasts of burden as payment for this. When the people came back again in the following year, the second of the last two years, he acquired their land on behalf of Pharaoh and made sharecroppers out of all of them. When he began to hand out seed for sowing it became clear that this had been the last year of the famine.

That the money and livestock are used up... Rashi writes אשר in place of [Scripture’s word] אם. This is because אם [generally] conveys “if,” but here it does not mean that. Rashi adds, “And everything has come into my master’s hand,” because the verse seemingly says that the money was used up by Yoseif. [But now] it conveys: “We did not spend any of our money on anything else; all has come into our master’s hand.”

בשנה השנית, “during the second year;” according to the plain meaning of the text, this refers to the second year after Yaakov had arrived in Egypt, which was the fourth year of the famine. The food which had been stored up during the seven years of plenty plus the financial savings of the population had sufficed to see them through the first three years. In the fourth year the people tendered their livestock for food, and in the fifth year they tendered their land holdings. In the sixth year they agreed to become slaves of Pharaoh in return for receiving rations from Joseph’s stores. In the seventh year, Joseph gave them seed to plant and they planted it, collecting a harvest in the eight’s year, and the famine was over.

כי 'אם תם הכסף וגו is the same as כי אשר תם הכסף and the meaning is: but (כי) it is a fact that (אשר) the money and the herds of cattle are exhausted, and everything has now come into my lord's hands.

לא נכחד מאדוני, that we still possess some livestock, כי אם תם הכסף ומקנה הבהמה.

The same as: if not for our bodies. [Rashi knows this] because בלתי cannot mean “except for” and it cannot mean “not,” because then the word אם (“if”) will not fit in. [I.e., it would read as: “except for if our bodies,” or: “not if our bodies.”] Thus Rashi explains that בלתי indeed means “not.” However, the verse’s wording must be inverted: אם לא גויתינו, i.e., אם בלתי גויתינו. Accordingly, it means: “except for our bodies.”

Perhaps what the Egyptians meant was: "we really have no more money, we are not hiding it, the money is truly exhausted." They did not want Joseph to suspect them of pretending to be destitute, asking for a handout. They added that as far as the livestock was concerned there was not even a need to tell Joseph they had none left, seeing Joseph had bought it all and it could not be hidden even if they tried. As a result the only thing they had left were their very bodies.

לא נכחד, “we cannot hide, etc.” i.e. “we have nothing left that we could hide instead of offering it to you.”

בלתי אם גויתנו is the same as [NOTHING REMAINS] IF IT BE NOT OUR BODIES.

According to the alternative meaning of the words אפס כסף, that their cash receivables were not collectible at that time, the verse does not need any explanation at all. They told Joseph that when they argued previously that they had receivables but that those could not be collected at that time, that had been a lie, and they would not deny that they had lied in order to get Joseph to accept their livestock in payment for the grain. The fact was that at this time all their assets other than their bodies had been exhausted. This is the reason that whereas the first time around the Torah speaks about אפס כסף, i.e an absence of money, they now spoke about תם הכסף, that the money had been completely exhausted.

When they said: ומקנה הבהמה אל אדוני, "and the livestock is all gone to you, sir," they referred to the livestock they had pledged in lieu of the cash they had not had available at the time they made their recent grain purchases. As of now, this livestock belonged to Joseph absolutely. This is why they added the word אדוני.