Jacob, seeing a famine in the land, tells his sons, "Why do you make yourselves conspicuous?" (Genesis 42:1). Simple enough, right? But the rabbis of the Midrash, particularly in Bereshit Rabbah 91, see layers upon layers of meaning packed into that very first phrase: "Jacob saw that there was grain [shever] in Egypt."
It all hinges on the word shever, which means "grain." But as the rabbis point out, shever sounds awfully similar to other words, opening up a whole universe of interpretation. It's a classic Midrashic move, finding profound connections through wordplay and association.
The Midrash immediately latches onto the similarity between shever (grain) and sivro (hope). "Happy is he whose help is from the God of Jacob, whose hope [sivro] is in the Lord his God" (Psalms 146:5). See the connection? Jacob seeing grain becomes Jacob placing his hope in God. It’s a beautiful reminder that even in times of scarcity, hope remains.
But the interpretations don't stop there. The Midrash then quotes Job 12:14: "Behold, He demolishes, and it will not be rebuilt." This verse, seemingly unrelated, is brought in to explain that, according to the sages, once God stymied the intention of Joseph's brothers to kill him, that plan was never restored.
And then, another verse from Job: "He shuts a man in, and it will not be opened" (Job 12:14). Who is this referring to? The Midrash says it’s the ten tribes, Joseph’s brothers, going to and from Egypt, completely unaware that their brother was alive and in charge. Imagine that! They were walking right past him, buying grain from him, and they had no clue.
But here’s the real kicker: the Midrash reveals that while the brothers were in the dark, Jacob had a glimmer of hope, a sense that Joseph was still alive. How? Because "Jacob saw that there was shever in Egypt." The word shever, the Midrash says, can also mean "disaster." Think of Lamentations 2:11. So, "Jacob saw that there was shever in Egypt" means he saw both disaster (the famine) and hope (that Joseph was alive).
The Midrash then expands on this duality, contrasting disaster and hope in Joseph's story: "That there was disaster [shever]" – "Joseph was taken down to Egypt" (Genesis 39:1); "that there was hope [sever]" – "Joseph was the ruler over the land" (Genesis 42:6). It's like two sides of the same coin, tragedy and triumph intertwined.
And it doesn’t end there! "That there was disaster [shever]" – "they will be enslaved to them and they will oppress them" (Genesis 15:13); "that there was hope [sever]" – "then they will emerge with great wealth" (Genesis 15:14). Even the future enslavement in Egypt holds the seed of eventual redemption.
Finally, the Midrash circles back to the idea of hidden knowledge, quoting Job 9:7: "Who says to the sun and it does not shine…and seals the stars." This is interpreted as Jacob not having full knowledge of Joseph's fate, while the ten tribes were completely in the dark. God, in a way, dimmed the light for them, keeping the truth concealed. But the light did shine, however dimly, for Jacob.
What does this all mean? Well, for me, it's a powerful reminder that even in the darkest of times, hope can exist alongside despair. That even within apparent disaster, there might be a seed of redemption, a possibility for transformation. And that sometimes, the truth is hidden in plain sight, waiting for us to see it, to hear it, to understand it. It invites us to look deeper, to listen more closely, and to find the hidden meanings within the stories we think we know. Maybe, just maybe, we too can find the shever – the grain, the disaster, and the hope – in our own lives.