When the famine hit Egypt, Pharaoh told everyone to go to Yosef. Yosef opened all the storehouses and showed the people how much grain he had; enough for all of them. Then the Torah tells us the famine got stronger in all the land.
It seems odd that the famine would intensify immediately as Yosef was showing how much food there was. One would have assumed that the famine would have been staved off a bit, since it was now known they would not starve.
Some commentaries explain that the famine got worse for everything but bread, but there’s another insight for us here.
Chazal tell us the famine began with the rich people. This seems unusual. Those are the people who likely had storage houses of their own. But their food spoiled, and though Yosef had food for everyone, they would now all be equal—something the rich people couldn’t handle.
They were used to having more than others, and when this was no longer the case, even if they had food to eat, they felt they were penniless and deprived.
We should take a lesson from this to focus on being satisfied with whatever Hashem gives us, and not need to have nicer things than others. All that does is put us at bigger risk for poverty, even just in our own minds.
