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I've been looking for the source that the famine actually ended when Yaakov blessed Pharaoh. I found it in the Midrash, but I'm not sure whether it is a purely midrashic source, or whether it is based on the Gemara or some other source. I know Rashi says that what the blessing was actually that the Nile would overflow, but Rashi isn't known for citing his sources and this is no exception.

It is pretty clear that the famine was supposed to last seven years according to the text; there are some say that it was supposed to last for >40 years. Was the blessing even to end the famine (given that the next perek talks about the rest of Egypt paying for their food)?

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  • Rashi writes that the next chapter happened two years previously.
    – Michoel
    Dec 25, 2012 at 5:23
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    @Michoel And Rashi constantly uses Midrashic sources without citing them. I tend to take Rashi at the same value as the Midrash (if you believe they all happened, you're a fool, if you believe they couldn't have, you're a heretic). If this was brought down in the Gemara, that would be different. Dec 25, 2012 at 5:36

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Chumash Shai Lamoreh to Rashi 47:19 provides the following sources: Tosefta Sota Chapter 10:8, Breishis Rabbah 89, 9, Sifri Parshas Eikev on the posuk "לא כארץ מצרים" and Pesiksa Zuta. (Not sure if this was the specific brocha of 47:10 to Pharoah or just his coming to Egypt )

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