From: "Yeshivat Har Etzion's
Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash"
To: yhe-intparsha@vbm-torah.org
Subject: INTPARSHA -05: Parashat Chayei Sara
YESHIVAT
HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
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INTRODUCTION
TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA
PARASHAT
CHAYEI SARA
The Purchase of the
Cave of Machpelah
Introduction
This week's Parasha, which opens with the death
and
burial of Sarah, continues with the travels of Avraham's
servant to his birthplace in search of a wife for Yitzchak,
and closes with the death of Avraham, is very much about the
ceaseless cycles of life. The exalted spiritual revolution
wrought by Avraham and Sarah is assured of its continuity
through the marriage of Yitzchak and Rivka, who
will
ultimately show themselves to be fitting successors. Death
followed by marriage, life's final act supervened by the
potential of new progeny committed to the cause, is
a
juxtaposition that undeniably indicates the attainment by
Avraham and Sarah of their life's objective. And in the
background of that mission, always present and palpable, is
the Land. The land of Canaan, seven times promised and
seven times sealed, is the fertile ground upon which the
pageant of these productive lives is played out.
The acquisition of the Cave
of Machpelah, so
painstakingly portrayed at the opening of the Parasha,
raises many questions. In order to fully analyze
the
incident, it will first be necessary to acquaint ourselves
with a protracted section of verses. I would therefore ask
the reader to kindly turn to Bereishit 23:1-20 and to scan
the contents so that the running quotation of such a lengthy
passage can be avoided.
We may conveniently divide the twenty-verse
section
into five separate segments, marked by repeating motifs
and phrasing:
1) 1 - 2: an introductory passage which recounts Sarah's
life span, and records her death in Kiryat Arba, known as
Chevron. Avraham mourns and eulogizes her.
2) 3 - 7: Avraham, expressing interest in
securing a
burial plot, approaches the Hittite inhabitants. They
respond with an offer of the finest plot gratis,
and
Avraham, in a mark of deference, bows.
3) 8 - 12: Avraham requests of them to
approach and
convince Efron the Hittite to allow him to secure the Cave
of Machpelah, situated at the edge of Efron's field, at full
price. Efron, who is present, offers the site as a gift and
again, Avraham bows in respect.
4) 13 - 16: Avraham insists on payment, Efron suggests the
sum of 400 shekels of silver, and Avraham complies.
5) 17 - 20: The Torah narrates that the field of Efron and
the cave within it are purchased by Avraham, who then buries
his wife Sarah. The plot becomes the family sepulchre.
The Securing of Land
Taken at face value, this passage does not appear
to
provide any penetrating insights. The ongoing dialogue
between Avraham and the Hittites seems loquacious and overly
formal. The rational for Avraham's reluctance to accept
their repeated offers of a complimentary plot is not readily
apparent. Nor can we easily reconcile Efron's successive
displays of generosity with the singularly
negative
portrayal of the man and his motives afforded by
the
traditional sources.
One thing, however, is striking. Sarah at her
death,
we are told, is 127 years old. As we outlined in
last
week's discussion, this indicates that Avraham and Sarah
have been in the land of Canaan for more than sixty years
(excepting the brief sojourn in Egypt recorded at
the
beginning of Parashat Lekh Lekha). How unusual that during
the course of all this time, during which Avraham amasses
herds, flocks, servants and precious metals (see Bereishit
12:15; 13:2; 20:14-16; 24:1), the acquisition of a plot of
land for burial is overlooked. Only after the death of
Sarah does Avraham tardily undertake the task. Why has
Avraham been remiss in not securing it earlier?
In the Talmudic and Midrashic sources, the incident of
Sarah's burial is understood as a further trial of Avraham's
spiritual mettle. In a homiletic passage in Bava Batra 15a,
the Satan himself is forced to acknowledge Avraham's great
trust in God: ".the Satan exclaimed: Master
of the
Universe, I have traversed the whole earth and have found no
servant of Yours as faithful as Avraham. Did you not enjoin
upon him to "arise and travel the length and breadth of the
land, for to you shall I give it"? Nevertheless, though he
was not able to secure a place to bury his wife Sarah except
for the exorbitant sum of 400 shekels of silver, he did not
doubt Your words. " In a parallel passage in
Sanhedrin
101a, the trust that Avraham displays in this difficult
circumstance, is regarded as being superior to
that
displayed by Moses under less trying conditions. How are we
to understand the nature of this trial?
The Semi-Nomadic Life
Although they resided within the borders of Canaan, the
lives of Avraham and Sarah seem to have been singularly
unsettled. Thus, we find the two pitching their tents all
along the central hill country, the Negev, and the lowlands
east of the coastal plain. The place names associated with
their journeys include Shechem, Elon Moreh, Bet El, Shalem,
Chevron, Elonei Mamreh (all located along the crest of the
central hills of "Judea and Samaria"), Gerar (a Philistine
region) and Be'er Sheva in the arid south. There are no
indications in the text that Avraham is
engaged in
agriculture which would tend to connect him to a particular
region of land (in contrast to Yitzchak who is described in
Bereishit 26:12 as "planting in the land of Gerar
and
harvesting a hundred fold"). His wealth,
rather, is
concentrated in flocks of sheep, cattle, camels,
and
donkeys. His life is therefore the life of the semi-nomadic
tribesman, who grazes his flocks in an area of pasture and
then moves on. Or as Rashi (11th century, France) phrases
it: "Avraham's dwelling patterns were transitory. He would
remain in a particular location for a period of a month or
so, and then move on and pitch his tent elsewhere" (see
Bereishit 12:9). A careful study of these place names on a
map indicates, in fact, that Avraham and Sarah tended to
avoid the well-populated coastal and northern plains, and
were instead associated with the more sparsely-populated
hills.
This fact seems doubly strange, for Avraham and
his
ancestors hail from Ur, a major urban and commercial center
situated along the southern extremity of the Euphrates
River. Having followed God's command to forsake homeland,
birthplace and family, why has Avraham
additionally
renounced the life of the city to become a wanderer and
migrant in his new home?
The answer to this question is
abundantly clear.
Avraham and Sarah are semi-nomadic herdsmen
because,
notwithstanding Divine promises to the contrary, there is as
of yet no Hebrew nation to settle the
land. While
associated with Canaan, their direct connection to the land
is tenuous and fragile, because Avraham and Sarah personify
the earliest stages of a new nation being born. Only one
thing anchors them to this place, and that is the word of
God. Actual possession and settlement, the true possibility
of a national destiny being realized, is for them far off in
the future. For now, the land is firmly in the hands of the
indigenous inhabitants, the Canaanites.
Understanding the Trial
It will be recalled that as soon as Avram enters
the
land, God appears to him promising that "to your descendants
shall I give this land," and indeed variations of
this
promise appear in almost every exchange that takes place
between them. The twin promises of offspring and land,
which form the two critical components of a national destiny
and mission, constitute for most of Avraham's lifetime,
empty and hollow words. A child is denied him until late in
life, and the land so lovingly proffered remains a distant
dream. Thus, there is a disquieting dichotomy between what
God has promised him, and the reality that Avraham sees with
his own eyes. His wife Sarah is dead, and Avraham lacks
even a plot of land within which to bury her!
Avraham, however, forever resolute in steadfast trust,
possesses the far-reaching perspective of the visionary. He
can continue to believe in the Divine oath because he can
see a future in which his descendants will constitute a with
a land. He is not perturbed by his lack of even a burial
ground, because he knows that one-day his progeny will
checker the land with cities and fields.
The true
revolutionary, who is absolutely convinced of the inevitable
success of his cause, can bear even the pain
of not
witnessing its accomplishment during his lifetime.
Overtures
With this introductory analysis in mind, it
is now
possible to appreciate the exchange that takes place between
Avraham and the Hittites. Following the death of his wife
and the performance of the customary rites of mourning,
Avraham approaches the inhabitants of the land. The ensuing
exchange is actually full of legal terms and formularies,
for as we shall see, this narrative actually describes an
official transaction carried out at the level of local
government.
"I am a stranger (Ger) and a sojourner (Toshav) with you.
Provide me with a burial plot (Achuza) among you so that I
might bury my dead." Introducing himself as a "ger" and a
"toshav" Avraham spells out the nature of his predicament.
These terms are indicative of one who is not an indigenous
inhabitant of a place but rather has come to dwell there
from another locale.
In a brilliant observation, R. Avraham Ibn Ezra (11th
century, Spain) remarks that the Torah frequently compares
the "Ezrach" or citizen, with the "Ger" or
convert: "A
single law shall apply to all, whether citizen or convert,
for I am the Lord your God" (VaYikra 24:22). In another
context, in which the word "Ezrach" signifies a species of
tree, David sees the flourishing success of the wicked
wither away: "I perceived the powerful wicked ones, who were
firmly rooted as a leafy tree ("ezrach ra'anan").
In a
moment, they had disappeared." (Tehillim 37:35-36).
In
other words, explains Ibn Ezra, the citizen is compared to
the rooted tree, for he is firmly connected to a place. He
has the advantage of family, friends and the
extended
network of community, which conceptually much resemble the
spreading branches and leaves of the "ezrach."
The "ger" or convert, in contrast, comes from somewhere
else. He has consciously uprooted himself from his kindred
in order to join a new society. Conceptually, he is like
the "gargir" (from which is derived "ger"), the single berry
or kernel that has fallen from the cluster, for he initially
lacks the benefit of a firm attachment to people or place.
Securing a Family Sepulchre
"I possess no land of my own here," says Avraham,
"for
I have come from another place. Kindly allow me to secure a
burial plot for my dead." A piece of land that serves as a
family crypt is perhaps the strongest notion of being linked
to a place that human beings recognize.
The family
sepulchre expresses in very tangible form the
intense
connection to a land, a clan, and even a way of life. To be
buried in a place is to be part of that place. What Avraham
seeks to establish is not simply a cemetery, but rather an
undisputed and irreversible foothold in the land of Canaan.
The Divine promise might take generations to be realized in
its entirety, but the progenitor of the
people is
ideologically driven to initiate the process during his
lifetime. Avraham's goal is to effect a fundamental change
in his status and, more significantly, the status of his
posterity. They are to cease being considered as aliens and
to begin being regarded as citizens. As Ramban
(13th
century, Spain) explains: "the prevailing custom was for
each family to have its own cemetery, and for the foreigners
to be buried in a common plot. Avraham explained to the
Hittites that having come from another land, he did not
inherit a family sepulchre in Canaan. His intent
now,
however, was to become a permanent dweller in the land.
Therefore, he wanted to secure a burial plot for future
generations, so that he might be considered an inhabitant
like them." (Verse 4)
The Hittites, genuinely courteous
and generous,
seemingly respond in the affirmative. "You are a prince of
God among us," they exclaim, "choose the best of our burial
plots ("bemivchar kevareinu") for your own." The
careful
reader might already detect a foreboding tone to their
words, which is borne out by Efron's subsequent offer: "Sir,
hear me," he exclaims to Avraham, "I hereby give you the
field and the cave. In sight of all assembled here I give
it to you, so that you may bury your dead." How can we not
but be impressed by these munificent words in which Efron
echoes the sentiments of his kinfolk and offers the desired
land free of charge? Why then is Avraham reluctant
to
accept such a benevolent offer? Has he not in the past
accepted gifts from Pharaoh (Bereishit 12:16) and Avimelech
(Bereishit 20:14-16)?
Avraham's aversion, I believe, stems from the fact that
he realizes (as do the Hittites) that legal
ownership
secured through purchase, differs markedly from
legal
ownership that is the result of a gift. The former entails
no ongoing relationship with the seller and involves no
necessity of acknowledging favors. A gift, on the other
hand, creates a dependence on the benefactor, and often
involves the imposition of conditions on the recipient which
tend to lessen the latter's absolute and incontrovertible
claim to ownership.
The Hittites and Efron are more than willing to provide
Avraham with the burial plot that he desires, free
of
charge. Although this offer can certainly be interpreted as
a magnanimous gesture on their part, it simultaneously
contains a threatening undercurrent. This is because the
provision of the burial plot (indicative of
official
status) as a gift will actually undermine Avraham's attempt
to secure undisputed legal deed to the land as well as the
status as a citizen that goes with it. Therefore, Avraham
refuses.
Efron finally relents and agrees to Avraham's desire to
buy the cave. By attaching such an outrageous price to it,
though, he is in effect again attempting to dissuade Avraham
from trying to attain deed through purchase. But Avraham is
undeterred and immediately agrees to the terms of the sale,
thus succeeding in establishing an eternal connection with
the land that can never be severed.
The lessons of this passage are clear.
The abiding
faith and foresight demonstrated by Avraham Avinu
in
securing the cave of Machpelah, teaches us much about our
own connection to the Land of Israel. It is a link that
exists primarily as function of God's everlasting promise
but also because of our own investments of effort
and
capital. At the same time, our mission in this land has not
changed since Avraham and Sarah's day: to build a society
founded upon the ideals of justice, righteousness, and
truth, and predicated on an intense
and intimate
relationship with God.
Shabbat Shalom
For further study: See the portentous Midrash in Bereishit
Rabbah 79:7 in which three purchases of land in Israel are
singled out: the Cave of Machpelah, the plot of land at
Shechem, and the site of the Temple. How do the
above
themes apply to these cases as well? Compare the Midrash
with the account of land purchase described in Yirmiyahu
Chapter 32.
YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433
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