JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

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[Arden J. Geldman and Rela Mintz Geffen (2nd ed.)]
FAMINE AND DROUGHT. Agriculture in Ereẓ Israel was
dependent on irregular rainfall, but drought and consequent
famine were of frequent occurrence. The paradoxical appreciation
by Deuteronomy 11:10ff. of this disadvantage (as involving
God in constant attention to the land) puts a good
face upon what Ezekiel 36:30 bluntly calls the land’s “reproach
among the nations for its famine.” Kimḥi comments on this
as follows: “The land of Israel stands in greater need of rain
than other lands [being mountainous in contrast, e.g., to the
great river valleys of Mesopotamia and Egypt]; hence famine
is more common in it than elsewhere. And when one has
to leave his land for another because of famine – as witness
Abraham, Isaac, and Elimelech – it is a reproach to it.” Another
cause of famine through natural causes was the failure
of the crop through pests and disease. In addition to these two
“acts of God,” famine was caused by siege in time of war. Of
famine and drought
the famines in Ereẓ Israel mentioned in the Bible (the most
famous, the seven years’ famine predicted by Joseph in Egypt,
included also the Land of Israel – Gen. 41:54, 43:1) most were
due to drought (Gen. 12:10; 26:1; 41:54; Ruth 1:1; II Sam. 21:1;
I Kings 18:1–2; II Kings 8:1; and apparently Amos 4:6 (cf. verses
7ff.), two to the result of siege – that of Samaria by Ben-Hadad
(II Kings 6:24–29) and of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar
(ibid. 25:3) – and one the result of a visitation of locusts (Joel
1:4–20). A vivid description of the effects of drought occurs in
Jeremiah 14:1–6. The same conditions, both natural and manmade
(cf. Jos., Wars, 5:424–35), continued during the period of
the Second Temple, but to them were added famine, or at least
shortage of food, which resulted from the strict adherence to
the law requiring that land should remain untilled during the
Sabbatical year, to which there is no historical reference in the
Bible. The frequency of famine is reflected in the fact that of
the seven calamities said in the Mishnah to afflict the world
because of sin, three are famines of various degrees of intensity:
the “famine of drought,” which does not affect the whole
population, the “famine of panic,” which affects all, and the
“famine of utter destruction” (Avot 5:8). The traditional triad
of major catastrophes consists of “pestilence, sword, and famine”
(cf. Jer. 14:12; 21:7, 9; 24:10; Ezek. 6:11, etc.; compare the
Hashkivenu and the Avinu Malkenu prayers). The fact that,
given a choice of one of these three, David chose pestilence
suggests that it was the least of them (II Sam. 24:14f.). Lamentations
gives a preference in the scale of suffering to famine
over the sword (4:9). This would indicate that famine was the
greatest evil of all: it is in fact difficult to envisage the terrible
suffering endured through famine in ancient times. The grim
picture, given by R. Johanan, imaginative though it is, of the
consequences of the seven-year famine predicted by *Elisha
(II Kings 8:1) – that in the fourth year people would be reduced
to eating unclean animals, in the fifth reptiles and insects,
in the sixth their children, and in the seventh their own
flesh (Ta’an. 5a) – is probably not so exaggerated as may appear.
Both during the famine caused by the siege of Samaria
by *Ben-Hadad and of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the eating
of human flesh is mentioned (II Kings 6:29; Lam. 2:20–31;
4:10). Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria (669–27) claims that the
Babylonians under siege by him ate their children. Similarly,
Assyrian treaties threaten potential violators that they will be
reduced to eating their children. Josephus mentions the eating
of children in Jerusalem during the Roman War (Wars
6:201–13, cf. I Bar. 2:2ff.). A pathetic story is told of one of the
wealthiest women of Jerusalem picking out grain from animal
dung after the Roman War (Git. 56a). There are at least three
historical references to famine caused by the observance of the
Sabbatical year, one during the siege of Jerusalem by the forces
of Antiochus IV (Ant. 12:378 = I Macc. 6:49–54), one in the
war of Herod against Antigonus (ibid., 14:476) and one during
Herod’s reign (ibid., 15:7 – see also *Shemittah). The Midrash
(Ruth Rabbah 1:4) enumerates ten famines which visited the
world. It includes only seven of those mentioned in the Bible
as due to drought, and makes up the complement by one as-
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 707