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Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Chaye Sarah Genesis 23:1-25:18
By Shlomo Riskin
Efrat, Israel - This week’s Biblical reading opens with a strange and
verbose dialogue that seems to go in circles. Abraham requires a burial plot
for his beloved wife Sarah, who has just died. He asks “to be given the
possession of a grave” (23:4), and he is immediately told that he can
choose anyone he wishes (23:5). Here is where the discussion ought end:
request granted. But apparently the patriarch is not satisfied; he insists
on meeting a certain Efron ben Zahar, from whom he wishes to purchase a
field with a two-story cave for “full money as a possession” (23:9).
Efron seems most accommodating, wishing to give him the cave as a gift.
Abraham remains dissatisfied, so Efron charges him four-hundred shekels of
silver, and the purchase deal is consummated. What’s going on? Why does
Abraham insist on paying for what he can obtain free of charge? What
happened to his Jewish “bargain-hunting” gene?
Rav Elhanan Samet drew my attention to the studies of Prof. Moshe Veinfeld
and Ezra Tziyon Melamed, who reveal that in the ancient Middle East only a
resident citizen - in this case, a bona fide Hittite - could purchase land
which would become his eternal possession which he could bequeath to his
descendants. Abraham is not interested in a temporary grave-site which would
revert to Hittite property after his death, Abraham wants Sarah’s remains
to be the patrimony of his progeny eternally. Hence he is requesting special
treatment even though he is an alien resident (ger toshav), a Hebrew and not
a Hittite; he wants an eternal possession of a grave, that he can bequeath
to his descendants, for which he will gladly pay. (Ahuzat Keser, the
possession, eternal ownership, of the grave). And such a concession can only
be made - and given - with the permission and in the presence of all the
Hittite together, in a public forum, a town meeting.
Abraham is initially refused this request. Although the denial is couched in
most complimentary terms - “a prince of G-d are you in our midst” -
Abraham is unequivocally informed that although noone will withhold his
gravesite from him, the grave will have to remain the eternal possession of
the Hittite who owns it. Abraham can use or borrow anyone’s grave that he
wishes, but he will not have it as his possession, it will not become an
inheritance he will be able to pass on to his descendants.
Abraham tries again. He wishes to meet Efron, who apparently owns the last
parcel of Hittite land. Abraham now asks to be able to purchase the end of
that estate, with a two-story cave upon it which can become a mausoleum for
Sarah (and later on for himself as well, and for his children and
grand-children); and the patriarch is willing - nay insistent - to pay “full
money”, but it must become his “possession of the cave,” a piece of
land that he truly owns and that he can pass down to his future generations
(23:9).
Efron once again tries to pawn the land off as a gift - it will cost you
nothing, you can use it in your lifetime as a burial plot, but you will not
own it; Abraham insists on purchase. He pays a sum which would ordinarily
acquire 150 dunam of land, but at the end of the negotiation, “the field
of Efron which was of two stories..., the field and the cave which was on
it..., went up as an acquisition to Abraham in the presence of the
Hittite... for the possession of a grave...”(23:17-20). It became Abraham’s
possession, an inheritance which he could bequeath to his descendants.
Abraham’s request reverberates through the millennia and speaks to us in a
most timely manner. The Hebrew is addressing the Gentile who has inhabited
the land he was promised by G-d: Give to me the right to bequeath this land
to my descendants; I shall pay for it in any way you wish to exact payment,
in demim (money) or, if it G-d forbid be necessary, in dam (blood). But don’t
do me any favors; I am willing to do whatever I must do to acquire it as my
possession.
The fact that the very first plot of land ‘acquired by right of ownership”
in Israel is the grave-site of Sarah is fraught with profound significance;
Israel is the land of our continuity, the place of our eternity. It was
never meant for temporary use by our people; it is our eternal homeland. And
just as Abraham insists on paying for Sarah’s grave - so that it can never
revert back to any other Gentile owner - so does King David insist upon
paying Arvona the Jebusite for the land which was to become the Temple
Mount: “Nay, I must purchase, yes purchase it from you, for a price, so
that I not make my offerings to the G-d of whole burnt offerings free of
charge (without the legal right of ownership).” (Samuel 2, 24:24); and
again, “Nay, I will purchase, yes purchase it for full silver (cash money,
Kesef Male, chronicles 1, 21:24).
From this perspective, we can well understand why our Talmudic Sages derive
the husband-wife acquisition - engagement (Kinyan Kidushin) by means of a
wedding ring from Abraham’s acquisition of Efron’s field for Sarah’s
burial plot by means of a financial transfer. A Jewish marriage is an
eternal relationship of responsibility which extends even beyond the spouse’s
lifetime; a Jewish marriage portends continuity from generation to
generation; the relationship of the nation of Israel to the land of Israel
is an eternal one, which extends from generation to generation.
How ironic it is that the two sacred places whose purchase contract by
Israel is recorded in the Bible - the Cave of the Couples and the Temple
Mount - remain the most hotly contested areas in Israel by our Arab
neighbors?!
Shabbat Shalom
Shlomo Riskin
Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone
Chief Rabbi - Efrat Israel
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