Commentaire de citation sur La Genèse 43:2

כי יש שבר במצרים, “that there is grain for sale in Egypt.” The word שבר usually refers to something for sale as we know from Deut. 2,6 אוכל תשברו מאתם, “purchase food provisions from them.” It is noteworthy that Yaakov neither mentioned the word “food,” nor the word “grain,” The reason he referred to grain by saying שבר is because that word includes both “trading or selling” as well as “‘grain.” He continued using this word when he told his sons in Genesis 43,2: שובו שברו לנו מעט אוכל, “go back and secure for us some food (by buying grain).” In our verse (2) he said: שברו לנו משם, without the word אוכל. When Yaakov described the journey to Egypt he asked his sons to undertake as רדו שמה, “descend there,” instead of לכו שמה, “go there,” he also foreshadowed that any journey to Egypt would be but a prelude to the family’s eventual exile in Egypt. The number of years the Jewish people would be enslaved in Egypt corresponded to the numerical value of the letters in the word רדו, i.e. 210 years. When he used the expression ושברו משם, he meant that he foresaw both food supply as well as enslavement or exile as emanating from Egypt.

You will note that the expression והנה occurs three times in this paragraph. This is reminiscent of the three journeys the brothers were to make to Egypt on account of Joseph’s sheaf of corn. Each time the journey meant that they would humble themselves before Joseph. The first time they went to Egypt because of the famine which prevailed in the land of Canaan. The second time they went to Egypt at the insistence of their father, ostensibly in order to buy some grain (43,2) but perhaps even more so in order to secure the release of their brother Shimon. On that occasion Joseph revealed himself to them. The third time they traveled to Egypt with their father as immigrants; by that time all three dreams of Joseph had been fulfilled.

But the table, which symbolizes the crown of kingship, and all the human successes which Israel merits from the table of the High One [divine providence], had some of its cubits [measurements] complete and some broken. This is because every wise person rejoices in his portion and imagines in his soul as if he has everything and lacks nothing, as Jacob said, I have everything (Genesis 33:11). However, some [of the measurements] were broken to teach that a person should not completely fulfill all his desires, and should not give the material body all that his soul desires. Rather, one needs to break his desires. For this reason, the term “breaking” [shevirah] is mentioned regarding bread, as it is written (Genesis 43:2), Buy [shivru] us a little food, and it is written (Leviticus 26:26), When I break your staff of bread. This will be further explained shortly in the section about the table. But the incense altar had all its measurements complete, and so did the burnt offering altar, because the purpose of both is to complete what a person lacks due to his deeds. For everything that comes to atone for a person completes what he lacks, since the burnt offering altar atones for the body of the sinner through the offering of animal bodies, and the incense altar atones for the soul and the spirit of God that ascends upward like the smoke of the incense. Therefore, all those measurements were complete. After this brief introduction, we will explain in detail the matter of the Tabernacle and its vessels.

When I applied my heart. This “כַּאֲשֶׁר” is not used as an expression of an example, as in, “as כַּאֲשֶׁר he did, so shall it be done,”³⁵Vayikra 24:19. rather it is an expression of time, as in, “When כַּאֲשֶׁר Yoseif came,”³⁶Bereishis 37:23. [and as in,] “when כַּאֲשֶׁר they finished eating, etc.”³⁷Ibid. 43:2. This too is so, When כַּאֲשֶׁר I applied my heart “to know, to explore, etc.,”³⁸Above 7:25. then, “I saw all the works of God.”