Agriculture, Economic Collapse, and the Joseph Story

At the end of Genesis, Joseph centralizes the agricultural system of Egypt, saving the country from collapse due to upcoming years of bad crops (e.g. due to drought), but turning farmers into serfs upon their own land in the process. The Rabbis debate whether Joseph did a good thing or a bad thing to the people. I take two stories from the headlines to take each side of this debate: first, the collapse of American farms due to corporate monopolies (turning American farmers into serfs on their own land), and second, the upcoming collapse of great world cities like Tehran if they refuse to centralize power and exercise eminent domain to enforce collective action.

You can listen to Agriculture, Economic Collapse, and the Joseph Story online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Agriculture, Economic Collapse, and the Joseph Story is an episode from Authentic, Compassionate Judaism for the Thinking Person by Rabbi Nadav Caine.

This episode is 12:44 long.

This episode was published on Dec 31, 2025.

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