ר"ע תיתד תונויצל ינויערה גוחה ,םולשו זוע
"And Isaac and Ishmael buried him": Hence we know that Ishmael repented and let Isaac walk before before him, and this is the ripe old age that is attributed to Abraham.
(Rashi on Genesis 25,9).
"The Life of Sarah": Rashi comments, "It is all equal to goodness," and even though regarding Ishmael it is written, "And these are the years of the life of Ishmael," it may be said that he repented, as Rashi commented regarding "And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him." And a convert is similar to a newborn child, and all the years that were earlier, all the evil that he did, are not thought to be anything, and he is like someone who has repented all his life.
(Da'at Zekenim Miba'alei Hatosafot," Genesis 23,1)
For many religious Jews, Abraham's acquisition of the Cave of Machpela as a burial plot serves as proof of the Jewish people's ownership of Hebron and the surrounding areas. According to them, the ownership is not merely of a gravesite; rather it is ownership over an inherited city in which many Jews live as ba'alei bayit (owners of the house) with everything that is implied by the term. There are also those who go further and use this portion of the Torah to prove ownership of the entire Land of Israel. According to this latter position, Abraham acquired not one field, but all of the Land. The Cave of Machpela, even Hebron, is not a specific place but the whole land. Hebron is the eternal essence of the Land of Israel. These two approaches are simply a modern midrash of ancient sources. All the biblical exegetes, from the rabbis of the Talmud through the Hassidic rebbes, faced a fundamental question: Why does Abraham go hat in hand, so to speak, to the Hittites, begging them to sell him the field in which lay the cave? Had God not promised Abraham the Land!? Underlying this question, of course, is the assumption that God's promise was, in and of itself, an act investing Abraham with title and rights. Thus the Rabbis, and Rashi in their footsteps: "I am stranger and a sojourner with you – if you wish, I am a stranger; if not, I will be a sojourner and take it by right." (Genesis 23:4) In other words, the purchase of the field and the cave was an act of kindness, beyond the letter of the law, on Abraham's part. As the field had been promised to him by God, Abraham need not have paid for it, and could have taken it by force. This despite the fact that no mortal had participated with Abraham in the Covenant of the Pieces (brit bein habetarim) in which the Land had been promised to him, and the Hittites had no knowledge of it. Since not only the field of the cave, but the entire Land, had been promised to Abraham, it follows that he could have taken any part of the Promised Land by force.
The author of Shem Mishmuel, Rabbi Shmuel of Sochotchov, discusses the story from a different angle. In the style of the hassidic rebbe, he turns to the "internal aspects" of the story. In his sermon in 5678/1918, he asked how Abraham could covet the field of his neighbor and desire to acquire that which was not his? For according to the text Abraham was not satisfied with the general suggestion of the Hittites "in the choice of our sephulcres bury thy dead;" he desired rather the Cave of Machpela. Abraham asked the Hittites to convince the owner of the field with the cave in it, Ephron, to agree to sell it to him. As Ephron could not decide whether to sell Abraham the cave, it was necessary to apply psychological and social pressure on him to get him to agree to the sale.
The author of Shem Mishmuel claims that Ephron was indecisive because the cave in question was not just any cave: The name Hebron is explained in many sources as deriving from the word hibbur, or union; the union in question here is the union of the land, the earth in its concrete sense, and material human existence, with the Garden of Eden. This union is realized when a tzaddik, or righteous person, is interred, as is Sarah in our case. The interment is not mere burial in the ground, but an ascension, the resting of Sarah at the gates of Eden. Ephron did not see or know the true value of the cave; nor did he know that buried in his cave were Adam and Eve, as well. Abraham, on the other hand, knew this clearly, since he could see the spiritual side of the cave and understand its true worth. The spiritual treasure belonged not to Ephron, but to Abraham. Ephron owned only the external, incidental side of the cave, while its true, internal owner was Abraham. The purchase of the cave was essentially an act of exercising ownership and not of its transfer. Ephron therefore should have asked merely for a symbolic sum in return for his incidental share in the cave. His demanding the hefty sum of 400 silver sheqel earned him the appellation of "grasping" from the Shem Mishmuel.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict gave birth to a religious view that goes well beyond this. In addition to seeing the Jewish people as the owners, in the full meaning of the term, of the Cave of Machpela and the city of Hebron (and, figuratively, of all of the Land of Israel) by virtue of these originally having been promised to Abraham or since only the forefathers and the Jewish people distinguish the inner potential of the Land and unite with it; and in addition to the license (some would say obligation) to conquer the Land by force and initiative; there has also developed a chilling tendency to see a connection between an act of acquisition in the Land of Israel and the digging of a grave in it. In other words, to see a connection between blood, man and the soil. The Cave of Machpela, on this view, was acquired by death and the grave, and not by a commercial transaction. As "the acts of the forefathers are a sign for the children," it follows that the Land of Israel is acquired by blood. The use of force, war over the land and the spilling of blood are not a reaction to a necessity imposed by an external reality, but the way to salvation and the sovereignty of Israel in its land. This interpretation is supported by the midrash and by Rashi, who hold that Sarah did not die a natural death. "The death of Sarah was adjoined to the binding of Isaac (akeda) because upon hearing the news of the akeda that her son was ready to be slaughtered... her soul left her and she died" (Rashi 23:2). The akeda is concluded with the death of Sarah and the purchase of the Cave of Machpela. In other words, the akeda is tied to death, the digging of a grave and settlement of the land.
The adjoining of the akeda and the acquisition of the Cave of Machpela allows an entirely different reading of the story. In contrast to the view that the binding of the son ends in death, one can suggest an alternate reading that sees the akeda as tied to life. When Isaac is taken off the altar, Abraham's tenth, climactic, trial, the akeda, has not yet ended. After leaving Mount Moriah Abraham returns to his house and, to his great sorrow, finds that the woman to whom he has been married since youth has passed away. "Our rabbis stated that this, too, was one of the trials of Abraham: that he searched for a burial place for Sarah and could not find one". (Ramban, 23:19) At this difficult time Abraham had to complete the trial of the akeda. The test is how he will relate to the people among whom he lives and in whose possession is the cave in which he wants to bury Sarah. Abraham bows to the Hittites just as he bowed to God; he honors them even though they see him as a "prince of God", and insists on his right to pay the full price for a gravesite even though the Land of Israel was promised to him for quite a while and he has undergone a tremendous experience at the akeda. The fact that God did not wish Isaac to die taught Abraham that God would fulfill all He had promised him. Abraham could conclude from the akeda that he had in his pocket a divine insurance policy in whose name he could impose his rule on the land's inhabitants and take Ephron's field by force. The trial of Abraham, the conclusion of the akeda, is not dying in order to acquire the land, but living with the people of the land. Awareness of Divine election and God's promise to inherit the Land do not allow taking it by force, even immediately following unique, wondrous events in Jewish history. Thus the Ibn Ezra (Ramban, ibid.) explains the verse "And the field, and the cave that is in it, were made over to Abraham": The purchase of the Cave of Machpela is the fulfillment of the Divine promise at the Covenant of the Pieces. The promise is realized neither by the sword nor by authority. The Land of Israel is acquired through understanding and by agreement with its inhabitants.
Dr. Menachem Klein, member of "Shabbat Shalom's" editorial staff, teaches at the Department of Political Science at Bar-Ilan University.
"And Isaac came from coming" and where did he go? To the well of the living One who sees me he went, to bring Hagar, the one who was sitting near the well and said the One who lives forever has seen my shame.
(Genesis Raba, Chapter 70).
The Midrash tells us something marvelous: the meeting between Isaac and Rebecca, who was brought to him, took place at the Well of the One who sees me, which was the place where Hagar had fled from Sarah. What did Isaac have to do with the Well of the One who sees me? The Midrash says that after the death of his mother Sarah, Isaac went to return his stepmother Hagar to his father. He went to the Well of the One who sees me to bring back Hagar, who had been sent away because of his mother, and to restore her to his father and repair the injustice. This legend says a great deal in praise of Hagar, whom it identifies with Ketura, saying: "Why was she called Ketura? Because her deeds were as pleasant as incense (Ketoret in Hebrew)." This interpretative wordplay shows how deeply the great masters of faith in our world reflected upon the deeds of the Patriarchs. They noticed every flaw and defect in them, and they thought about how to repair them. There is a great deal to be learned from this for all generations: that one should not idealize everything that was, but that one must see things as they were in themselves, and understand them, and judge them and think about repairing them.
(From "Comments on the Portions of the Week" by Professor Yeshayahu Leibovitz.)
"Old and satisfied," who had seen all the wishes of his heart and been satisfied with everything good, and therefore he was sated with days (Gen. 35,29), for his soul was sated with days, and he did not desire to have his days renewed, and as with David, of whom it says, "and he died at a ripe old age, sated with days and wealth and honor" (1 Chornicles 29,28). This is told of the grace of the Lord for the righteous and of a virtue in them, that they do not desire superfluous things, as it is said of them, "the desire of his heart you gave to him" (Psalms 21,3). This is not as is said of other people, "he who loves money will not be satisfied with money" (Ecclesiastes 8,9). Of that kind of person it was said (Ecclesiastes Raba, 1,13) that he does not leave the world with half of his desires in his hand. If he has a hundred, he wants two hundred, and if he has obtained two hundred, he wants four hundred. As it is said, "he who loves money, will never be sated with money." And in Genesis Raba (72,2) it is said that the Holy One blessed be He shows the righteous the reward that they will have in the world to come, and their soul is satisfied, and they sleep. The Sages were aware of this and interpreted the verse that says "he was satisfied" with this image.
(Ramban on Genesis, 25,8)
An almost ideal tranquility prevails in Abraham's tent, compared to the tense atmosphere in the court of David's kingdom. Here we truly have the contrast between the tent of the time of the Patriarchs and the royal palace. That tent and its future seem far stronger than the splendid royal court, in which the first signs of decline and disingegration are already visible.
(From: "The Vision of Scripture" by Rabbi Yissachar Yakobson, presented in "New Studies in the Book of Genesis" by Professor Nechama Leibovitz).
The main article was translated by David Schorr.
The additional commentaries were translated by Jeff Green.
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