[Avodah] Water during a drought

[Zev Sero]

On 18/12/2011 11:21 AM, Liron Kopinsky wrote:
> Ber 43:24
>   וַיָּבֵא הָאִישׁ אֶת-הָאֲנָשִׁים, בֵּיתָה יוֹסֵף; וַיִּתֶּן-מַיִם וַיִּרְחֲצוּ רַגְלֵיהֶם, וַיִּתֵּן מִסְפּוֹא לַחֲמֹרֵיהֶם.	*24* And the man brought the men into Joseph's house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet; and he gave their asses provender.
>
>
> Does anyone comment on the use of water here to wash their feet during the drought? I don't see anything in the Mikraot Gedolot I have here.

The pesukim don't say anything about a drought, just a famine.  What
caused it is not stated.  Egypt doesn't depend directly on rain anyway;
its water comes from the river, so even in a drought there would have been
no scarcity of water for washing, so long as there were servants to carry
it up from the river.


-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon