פירוש על בראשית 47:12

לפי הטף ACCORDING TO THEIR LITTLE ONES — according to the requirements of all their household.

לחם לפי הטף. Even though Joseph was in a position to allocate generous rations to the members of his family, he did not show them any preference and treated them on the basis of need, each family according to the number of souls. Our sages have stated that at a time when the general population suffers shortage even those who have ample are to limit themselves.

ויכלכל..לחם לפי הטף, the reason children are mentioned is that children eat all day long and waste food, leaving crumbs behind all over the place. Our sages in Pessachim 10 state that it is in the nature of children to break food up into crumbs and to leave them all over the place. There is a well known proverb which states that children are responsible for decay of food.

According to the needs of all the members of the household. Meaning: children scatter bread unnecessarily, and it says that Yoseif provided even for the needs of the children, i.e., he provided more than they really needed. [Thus Rashi knows that] he surely provided for the needs of the members of the household.

לחם לפי הטף. Kindern kann man nichts abknappen, selbst in Zeiten der Teurung und des Mangels lassen sie sich nicht wie Erwachsene beschränken, insbesondere nicht טף, in dem zarten Alter, das dieses Wort ausdrückt. Es scheint daher hiermit angedeutet, dass Josef die Vorräte auch seinem Vater und seiner Familie nur mit weiser Sparsamkeit zuwendete.

ויכלכל יוסף את אביו, “Joseph sustained his father;” Yaakov had become dependent on Joseph’s economic support, as according to what we read in verse 13, the amount of grain available in Egypt during those years for the general population was just enough for bread for each individual.

לפי הטף, “the rations Joseph handed out were not based on the price of bread, but on the number of children each family head had to support.”