Hebrew Word Study – Saw (ane/or) Heard   Ra’ah  Shamah -+ Resh Aleph Hei  Shin Mem Hei

Genesis  42:1-2:  “Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another? (2) And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die.”

I was reading this story in Genesis 42 in my Hebrew Bible and ran across something strange.  I went to my English Bible and sure enough it was translated correctly.  Strange how something so obviously contradictory is overlooked when reading the Bible in English and it is quite glaring when you read it in the Hebrew.

Now read these two passages very closely, do you read anything strange, almost contradictory?  Jacob saw there was corn in Egypt and then turned to his sons and said: “I have heard there was corn in Egypt.  How did he see corn in Egypt?  Did he make a trip to Egypt?  Did he see it on the local cable news?  The word saw in Hebrew is yare’ which comes from the root word ra’ah and means to actually see, to visualize, to look at or even to have a vision. It also means to perceive.  

It seems the only explanation is that he had a vision of Egypt and the grain that was available. If that is the case then why did he not tell his sons he had a vision why did he say he heard shama’ that there was corn in Egypt? 

I found the answer in the Genesis Rabbah 91:1.   The sages pondered this question. To them the word ra’ah was used to express the idea that Jacob was looking into a Divine Mirror.  A mirror is a reflection of things, but in ancient times a mirror was only a piece of polished brass and only gave a distorted view of what you really looked like.  A Divine Mirror was said to give you an accurate view of your appearance.  Jacob most likely heard from travelers who had passed through his land that there was corn in Egypt.  What made him think they could acquire some of this corn when the whole known world was starving?  

Remember in Genesis 37 the dream that Joseph had?  He dreamed of the sheaves of grain?  His sheaf stood up and the sheaves of the brothers bowed to his sheaf?   They misinterpreted this dream to mean they would bow to Joseph.    The Bible tells us that the brothers just hated Joseph but Jacob pondered these dreams, he kept them in his heart.  He believed that the brother’s interpretation had to be wrong but he had no other interpretation at the time so he tucked it away in his heart for a later time when the interpretation would be more apparent.

The Talmud teaches that the Bible says Jacob never stopped mourning the loss of Joseph.  That is because he had no closure, all he had was evidence but without closure, actually seeing the body of his son, he could he move on. Jacob always kept the hope, the shavar in his heart that his son was still alive. This idea of closure is very real.  Even today our military makes every possible effort to bring home the body of a fallen warrior.  Would it not be better to just tell the family he is fallen, do they have to put the family through all that emotional trama of actually seeing the body of the loved one? To have a funeral, with maybe an open casket, if possible, for all to view?  Is not a memorial service enough?  Of course not, because people need a closure, they need to have absolute proof that their loved one had truly died.  If not they will be unable to move forward, they will be unable to fully work through their grief, they will like Jacob have that spark of hope that the loved one is still alive somewhere in the world.

When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he ra’ah saw or better yet perceived through the Divine Mirror, reflection of an event 22 years earlier when his beloved son told of a dream of stalks of grain and now it all made sense. 

Perhaps God has given you a promise, a vision, a dream, a hope many years ago and somewhere in your heart remains that spark that this promise will yet be fulfilled.  Then one day you hear something, read something, see something and suddenly you will peer through that Divine Mirror and see that fulfillment like Jacob who knew in his heart after hearing of corn in Egypt that he would see ra’ah his son again.

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