בשברי. שם הפעל ובא שבור כמו בשכבה ובקומה וטעם השבר בעבור מטה לחם והוא דרך משל ובישעיה משען לחם כי הלחם לבב אנוש יסעד: WHEN I BREAK. Shivri (I break) is an infinitive. It is vocalized with a chirik.94Rather than with a small kamatz. Compare, shikhvah (she lay down) in when she lay down, nor when she arose (Gen. 19:33).95It too is an infinitive and is vocalized with a chirik rather than with a small kamatz. The Torah employs the term break because it speaks of the staff of bread.96A staff breaks. The latter is a metaphor. We find that Isaiah employs the phrase stay97Hebrew, mishan (a staff). of bread (Is.3:1), for bread stays man’s heart (Ps. 104:15).
עשר נשים. כי הוא סך חשבון כי מנהג ישראל היה לאפות כל בית תנור לעצמו שיאכלו כל השבוע ומערכ׳ השבת תוכיח: TEN WOMEN. Scripture says ten women, for ten is the last of the numbers.98Hebrew, sakh ha-cheshbon. It is the last of the single numbers. See I.E. on verse 6. It was the custom of Israel for each family to bake99On one day. one oven full of bread for them to eat for the entire week.100According to I.E. the meaning of our verse is that there will be so little food that a lot of women will bake their week’s supply of bread in one oven. The arrangement of the Sabbath bread101The show bread, the lecham ha-panim. is proof of this.102A week’s supply of show bread was baked every Friday (Sarim).
והשיבו לחמכם במשקל. בעבור שהיא מעט: AND THEY SHALL DELIVER YOUR BREAD AGAIN BY WEIGHT. For it will consist of a small amount.103There will be so little food that each morsel will be precious.
ואכלתם ולא תשבעו. יש רעב וישבע האוכל ממעט ואתם מאוכל הרבה לא ישבעו: AND YE SHALL EAT, AND NOT BE SATISFIED. There are hungry people who are satisfied by eating a little amount of food. However, you will not be satisfied from eating much food.104See Rashi, “This is a curse within the intestines upon (which will affect) the bread.”