This week’s Parsha, Parshas Chayei Sarah, could be described
as a parsha that is about death. After all, it begins with the death and burial
of the matriarch and ends with the death and burial of the patriarch. (That may
sound almost depressing, but it cannot be forgotten that in-between is the
foundation of the next generation – the shidduch of Yitzchak and Rivka.) As
significant as it is to have their passings and their burials recorded, the
state of the world today bares a constant reminder of the other critical aspect
of this parsha: the acquisition of a burial plot for Sarah.
The details of the actual purchase of Marat Hamachpela are vital
for the Jewish people to know and understand. Avraham’s specifically public
negotiations and payment set the tone for all of his descendants. Even while
Hashem had promised Avraham that his children and his children’s children, the
myriad there would be for generations, would inherit the land, there were right
ways and wrong ways to go about it. Avraham’s insistence on a clean purchase,
on no solicitous gifts or false faced dealings such as those presented by Ephron
the Hittite, reverberates through history and empowers us even today.
It is interesting to note that Ephron the Hittite is
recorded at both the beginning and the end of the parsha. The beginning, when
the negotiations are recorded, make sense. Why, however, does the Torah repeat Ephron’s
name when Yitzchak and Yishmael bring their father to his final resting
place. “His sons Yitzchak and Yishmael
buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the
Hittite, facing Mamre, the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites;
there Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife (Bereishis 25:9-10).
The obvious answer is that his name is attached here for
clarification, so that no one will be confused about where Avraham was buried. That
answer is just a bit too obvious because it would simply be redundant
information. Bereishis 23 makes the purchase very clear by the burial of Sarah.
We must, therefore, look deeper.
The Midrash notes in Bereishis Rabbah 58 that Ephron was
greedy. His persona is associated with Mishlei 28:22: “A greedy man rushes
after wealth; and he does not know that diminishment will befall him.” His
diminishment is noted in the Torah in that Pasuk 23:16 “diminished the letter vav
from him.” And while this specific
short-form is noted at the end of the negotiations with Avraham, the negotiations
in which Avraham demonstrated straight-forwardness and integrity, it should be
noted that the short form is also used in the one reference to Ephron in perek
chaf-hey. Avraham was willing to pay whatever price was necessary for Machpela,
even the bloated evaluation of Ephron the Hittite. Thus stating the contrast
between the two and legitimizing Avraham’s purchase of the cave.
But this set of pasukim in Perek Chaf-Hey catch the commentators’
attention for other reasons. The pasuk states: “His sons Yitzchak and Yishmael...”
Proper format, even according to today’s etiquette, is that the name of the
elder child goes first. And while we know that Yitzchak was Avraham’s true
heir, Yishmael was, nevertheless, his first-born son. A fair number of
commentators, such as Rabbeinu Bahya and the Ramban determine from this pasuk
that Yishmael has, by the time of his father’s funeral, done complete teshuva.
This explanation means that not only did he repent of all his ways, but that he
started following his father’s path.
In doing teshuva, Yishmael needed to do more than just turn
his life around. He had to overcome a possibly justifiable sense of righteous
indignation at being seconded by a much younger brother. He had to put aside
his jealousy at the bracha showered upon Yitzchak. He had to “see” that there
was a designated path and accept it. Let’s be realistic, it probably was not an
easy thing for him to do.
Adding in the fact that Yishmael set his pride aside and
acknowledged Yitzchak’s position at Machpela reminds us that Yishmael was fully
cognizant of the legitimacy of the claim of Yitzchak’s descendants to the Promised
Land. However, there is still a lingering question as the why it was necessary
to repeat “the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the
Hittite, facing Mamre, the field that Avraham had bought from the Hittites.”
We have all seen the maps of the Middle East. There are
giant splashes of one color and a tiny sliver of another – a provocative reminder
of the size of the claim the State of Israel has for a Jewish national holding
compared to the size and number of Arab states. By stating this very specific
location, the Torah is setting a reminder that we may claim only that which is
ours and that we have no need for that which is others. The Jewish nation has
no desire for anything more than its homeland, and the fact that it is our
homeland – that Yitzchak’s descendants had precedence – was acknowledged and
respected by Yishmael, the forefather of the Muslim people.
Good Shabbas and Mazal Tov Eitan Kelly on you Bar Mitzvah this Shabbas.
No comments:
Post a Comment