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Avraham’s famine is mentioned twice in one pasuk (Bereishit 12:10). It is serious enough to cause Avraham and Sarah to go to Egypt, as it was limited to Eretz C’na’an, where they lived. In Yitzchak’s times (also only in Eretz C’na’an), the ra’av is also mentioned twice in one pasuk (ibid. 26:1), and the Torah connects it to Avraham’s ra’av.
The famine in Yaakov’s times is treated much more prominently. The word ra’av appears there ten times, without any connection to previous famines. It was much more severe and impactful, and it covered a broader region, including Egypt. We will look for the ideas behind the historical event.
Chazal tried to understand Yaakov’s apparently being (partially?) unaware of the sale of Yosef and its peripheral events. How could such a powerful prophet be unaware of something so major?
The P’sikta Zutrata (Bereishit 37:33) says that Yaakov’s ruach hakodesh (divine spirit, or semi-prophetic power) left him because of his sadness upon Yosef’s disappearance. The Tanchuma posits that the brothers banned all , even Hashem from divulging the secret. So, while Yaakov maintained his powers of prophecy/divine spirit, the ban held back from him information regarding Yosef. Rashi took the Tanchuma’s approach and posited that when the Torah attributes to Yaakov the idea that Yosef was "eaten by a bad animal" (Bereishit 37:33), he had a flash of divine spirit, and Potiphar’s wife represented the bad animal, as she caused Yosef’s incarceration. Rashi continues that Yitzchak actually knew the secret but reasoned that he should not tell that which Hashem was not telling Yaakov.
With proper caution and respect, we have a suggestion that stems from the approach of the Tanchuma and Rashi, that Yaakov maintained his divine spirit but "stumbled in darkness" as mida k’neged mida (treatment in kind for one’s actions). Since he took advantage of his father’s inability to see to secure Yitzchak’s blessing, he too was left in the dark.
Yaakov’s level of awareness of things having to do with Yosef is related to ra’av. Yaakov understood that the r a’av hinted at a lacking in the implementation of the concept of ar ev (inversion of the same letters), taking responsibility for those close to you, but he did not know how. Therefore, when Yehuda offered to Yaakov that he would be an arev (guarantor) for Binyamin’s life (Bereishit 43:9), Yaakov quickly entrusted him. Yehuda realized the importance of this arvut and mentioned it to Yosef (ibid. 44:32-34).
"Yaakov ‘saw’ that there was shever (literally, food) in Egypt" (ibid. 42:1). The midrash attributes this to a semi-prophetic vision of hope, that referred to Yosef. It seems that the shever referred not only to food and Yosef but also to a crisis (mashber) in familial accountability. During the episode, Yaakov sent to the Egyptian viceroy special products of the Land – tzari, d’vash, nechot, and lot (ibid. 43:11). This strongly overlaps with the wares the peddlers who took Yosef to Egypt had in their caravan (ibid. 37:25).
In summary, the famine’s true significance was not in the realm of food but of prophetic clarity. This was withheld from Yaakov until he was reunited with Yosef and until his family rediscovered the value of arvut.
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