창세기 47:15의 주석

אפס — Render this as the Targum does: שלים IS AT AN END.

AND WHEN THE MONEY WAS ALL SPENT IN THE LAND OF EGYPT, AND IN THE LAND OF CANAAN, ALL THE EGYPTIANS CAME UNTO JOSEPH, etc. Scripture mentions that the money in the land of Canaan had been exhausted because when the Egyptians came before Joseph they reminded him of this, for they said: “Since the money is also exhausted in the land of Canaan, and since they will no longer come to buy food, why should we die in thy presence? For the money is at an end, and you will cause our death in vain, for the food will remain in your hand, and no man shall buy it.”

ולמה נמות….כי אפס כסף, "why should we die …for there is no more money?" The people complained that Joseph had proved unwilling to accept any payment other than money in return for grain. They argued that they were not destitute, they could pay him with other chattels; why should they die merely because they could not pay cash? This is why Joseph replied that he was willing to accept their cattle in payment only "if indeed there is no more money." Joseph's reason for all this was to impoverish the Egyptians so that his brothers would not be in an economically inferior position vis-a-vis the Egyptians. Joseph was very clever not to accept any payment other than money as long as there was cash around. As long as the Egyptians still had their livestock they would have to provide fodder for their animals; presumably one effect of the famine was the absence of grazing land. The Egyptians therefore had to feed their livestock with barley. This in turn led to the money supply becoming completely exhausted within a year. As a result of Joseph's strategy the brothers who arrived during the second year of the famine were wealthy compared to the average Egyptian at that time.

ויבאו כל מצרים, the people living in the land of Canaan went elsewhere to secure their food supplies. By now the Torah speaks of conditions during the sixth year of the famine. During that year Joseph distributed food and accepted livestock as payment. In the seventh year he handed over food in return for the local land owners renouncing their title to their land in favour of Pharaoh. He distributed seed so that there would be a harvest during the eight’s year when the famine was supposed to have ended. Our sages, quoted by Rashi, claim that the famine ceased with the arrival of Yaakov in Egypt and his blessing to Pharaoh which resulted in the Nile once again overflowing its banks and providing irrigation for the fields. One can raise serious reservations about this approach. If the famine did indeed stop already in the second year or at the end thereof, when did all the measures Joseph is described as taking in verses 14-22 take place?

ויתום הכסף מארץ מצרים, “Egypt completely ran out of money,” money stopped circulating as there was too little of it both in Egypt and in the land of Canaan. The reason why the Torah had to mention that money had also run out in the land of Canaan was that the Egyptians said to Joseph: “seeing that there is no point in your waiting for more buyers from the land of Canaan, as they have no money with which to buy, you might as well introduce a new bartering system in Egypt. If you keep waiting for customers and we die in the meantime, you will be left with tons of supplies and no one who will buy it from you. The disappearance of money from circulation occurred gradually, beginning with the poor running out of cash first. The words ויתם הכסף describe a state when even the wealthy people had no more ready cash. According to the Midrash Joseph had been equipped with a degree of prophecy so much so that he knew how much money every person still possessed. He used this knowledge to charge higher prices to the rich and lower prices to the poor, in order to preserve a certain degree of equality amongst the population when it came to obtaining the necessities of life.

The Egyptians may also have meant to convey to Joseph that they did have money but that they had no cash flow at that time. They were unable to collect their receivables. This was not something unusual as many people invested their money in enterprises in foreign countries, sending money on ships which were meant to import goods. Their argument therefore was: "why should we die since we have the necessary liquid assets and are only unable temporarily to collect that money?" Accordingly, Joseph told them that if they really did have money in the form of receivables he was willing to accept their livestock as payment for food in the meantime. The livestock served as collateral for the cash the Egyptians would owe him. As soon as they would collect their receivables he expected them to turn over the money to him.