Comentario citado sobre Génesis 26:1

What does the Torah tell us about the geographical entity we call Egypt? First of all, Egypt functions as a place of economic refuge for those living around it. Both Avraham and Ya’akov go to Egypt when confronted with famine (Bereshit 12:10 and Bereshit 46:6).⁹Bereshit 12:10 and 46:6, respectively. Yitzchak would have done the same had he not been prohibited by special Divine mandate (Bereshit 26:1-2).¹⁰Ibid., 26:1–2. Moreover, we read that other nations would also come to Egypt to find sustenance in times of famine (Bereshit 41:57).¹¹Ibid., 41:57. Were we to know nothing else, these passages immediately show us that even when the rest of the region is experiencing drought, Egypt is somehow spared.

דרך ארץ פלשתים כי קרוב הוא, “the route which runs through the land of the Philistines; although (or because), it was the shortest route.” According to our author what is meant is “although,” despite, the fact that it was the shortest route. We find a similar meaning for the word כי in Exodus 19,5: כי לי כל הארץ, “although the whole earth belongs to Me.” Another example of this meaning of the word כי is found in Psalms 41,5, “heal me although I have sinned against You.” רפאה נפשי כי חטאתי לך. Consider also Genesis 48,14: שכל ידיו כי מנשה הבכור, “he crossed his hands although Menashe was the firstborn.” In our context, although there was an additional boundary to be crossed between Egypt and the land of Canaan, namely the land of the Philistines, as we know from when while in the land of the Philistines G-d had commanded Yitzchok not to continue on to Egypt on account of the famine in the land of Canaan, (Genesis 26,1) so that it seemed strange that G-d did not lead the Israelites by this route, He was afraid that if they would find resistance to their traversing that land, they would refer to return to Egypt.

בראותם מלחמה, “when they come face to face with war.” This would have been a war on two fronts, the pursuing Egyptians at their back and the furious Philistines facing them, trying to force them back to their allies the Egyptians. Our author had explained already on Genesis 21,22 where the fact that the barren Sarah had given birth to a son for Avraham, that the prophecies given to him started to be taken seriously by the rulers of that time. Up until then they had not worried about these prophecies. In Joshua 13,3, we read about the Israelites indeed having had to face enemies on two fronts when Joshua had aged and not yet conquered all of the land of Canaan as he had been instructed to do. ושבו מצרימה. “and they will prefer to return to Egypt.” That this was a logical consideration is born out by the fact that the Israelites, even though not having taken that route, were on the point of voluntarily returning to Egypt on numerous occasions, on most occasions when they faced problems in the desert.