Comentario sobre Génesis 41:34

וחמש — render it as the Targum does “and they shall prepare”. Similar is (Exodus 13:18) “וחמושים and prepared (for war)”.

ויפקד פקידים...וחמש, the general population would be required to hand over one fifth of the non-perishable parts of their harvest to a central storage facility administered by the government. According to Samuel warning the Jewish people of taxation that a king would impose upon them, (Samuel I 8,14-15) such taxation normally amounted to ten percent. Joseph now suggested that during the seven years of plenty this level of taxation be increased to twenty per cent, (a reserve for the people for the years of the famine to follow), not for the king’s needs as regular taxation.

יעשה פרעה ויפקד, and see to it that this man appoint officials as his delegates in each and every city so that these officials will be known locally as their superiors as well as accepting the authority of their economic czar and that all of them work together in harmony. Special conditions require special measures. Once the Jewish people were dispersed in their own country, the Torah also legislated measures of centralising supreme religious authority in Jerusalem as we know from Deuteronomy 17,8 וקמת ועלית אל המקום אשר יבחר ה' אלוקיך בו, “you will arise and ascend to the place which the Lord your G’d will select for being this the seat of this central authority.”