Lack of bread for Lekh-Lekha

וַיְהִ֥י רָעָ֖ב בָּאָ֑רֶץ וַיֵּ֨רֶד אַבְרָ֤ם מִצְרַ֨יְמָה֙ לָג֣וּר שָׁ֔ם כִּֽי־כָבֵ֥ד הָֽרָעָ֖ב בָּאָֽרֶץ:־

There was famine in the land [of Cana'an], and Avram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. (Genesis 12:10)

The story following Avram’s move to Egypt is so interesting, and frankly so weird, that we rarely stop to think about his motivation. Perhaps it’s just too hard to grasp for people with easy access to food, or even for people who are food insecure but living in a prosperous society. In a famine, the food is not out of reach or too expensive; it’s just not there. The crops have failed, the reserves (if there were any) are depleted or will be soon, and the impending die-off is inevitable. If you can, you try to be somewhere else.

Famines are less common than they used to be, thanks largely to the Columbian exchange, but they do still happen with frightening regularity in politically unstable parts of the world or areas experiencing the harsher aspects of climate change. Even beyond famine, hunger is still an enormous issue around the world. This includes the United States, where as of 2010, 14.5 percent of all households—more than one in seven—were classified as having “low” or “very low” food security.

This Shabbat is the American Jewish World Service Global Hunger Shabbat, to be followed by 18 days of action leading up to Thanksgiving. Please consider heading to the sites and learning more about these issues. Anything you can do, no matter how small, will make an important difference in someone’s life.

Shabbat shalom!