VAYEEGASH
And our father said, ‘Go back – buy for us a little food'” (Bereshis 44:25). Apart from the obvious meaning, there is a deeper one. When it says, ‘our father said go back’, we can understand that our Father in Heaven said to us, ‘Repent – come back to me’. ‘Buy us some’ (Shivru Lanu in Hebrew), can be broken down as follows:
‘Lanu’ (for us) in Gematria equals G-d’s Name of judgement, ‘Elo-kim’. ‘Shivru’ (buy) can also be read as ‘break’. We can thus read this as: ‘through repentance you can break all the decrees of harsh judgements’.
Part of repentance is depriving oneself. When a person holds himself back from eating something he desires, it is considered like a Korban (offering). In the Tana Debei Eliyahu it says that bad occurrences come on account of eating and drinking. If so, a person should not be obsessed with eating and drinking, but should be satisfied with ‘a little food’ (Me’at Ochel).