פרשת חיי שרה תש"ט - אברהם ובני חת

If it is really your will. I will not bury my dead anywhere else, so if you wish to help me — intercede for me with Ephron. Which is at the end of his field. Avraham noted that Ephron did not use it as a burial ground but considered it simply part of his field. LET HIM GRANT ME THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH... LET HIM GRANT IT TO ME. The explanation of "let him grant [lit. give] me" and "let him grant it to me" is: "I shall consider it a gift, [even] if I buy it full price." That's why he didnt use the word "selling". likewise we find "Food you shall sell me and you will 'give' me water for money" [He meant] that "even for water which is [usually] given as a gift I will pay you" Alternatively, its normal in Hebrew to use ["giving"] in sales. THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. A quote from Rashi. A lower flor with an upper floor above it. Also, for its doubled with couples. But its not satisfactory. For the Torah says, "Efron's field which was in Machpelah" so its the name of the place oft he field, and there's no name to look for reasons of names of places. Breishit Rabbah says: "because G-d folded over (כפל) the full length of Adam and buried him inside that field" According to their opinion, the whole area was always called this but people didnt know the reason. For Efron sold it all to him for the price of a field for he assumed there's no grave there. Now Avram asked only to buy the cave for it was at the edge of the field and the [rest] would stay Efron's. But Efron said to Avram as courtesy or deceit that he would give him the field along with the cave, for its impossible that a distinguished man like Avram should own a grave for burial while the field belong to someone else. Avram in fact was happy about this and so he bought the whole lot for the price Efron mentioned to him.

Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying:

’Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee; bury thy dead.’

And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the hearing of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.

So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the border thereof round about, were made sure

’I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.’

And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is Mine; for ye are strangers and settlers with Me.

So shall ye divide this land unto you according to the tribes of Israel. And it shall come to pass, that ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you and to the strangers that sojourn among you, who shall beget children among you; and they shall be unto you as the home-born among the children of Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. And it shall come to pass, that in what tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance, saith the Lord GOD.

’I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.’

’Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us; in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead.’

And Abraham rose up, and bowed down to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.

מקצר רוח THROUGH ANGUISH (lit. shortness) OF SPIRIT — If one is in anguish his breath comes in short gasps and he cannot draw long breaths. In a somewhat similar manner to this I heard this section expounded by Rabbi Baruch the son of Rabbi Eliezer, and he cited the following verse to me in proof of his explanation: (Jeremiah 16:21) “This once will I cause them to know My hand and My might, and they shall know that My Name is the Lord”. Rabbi Baruch said: we may learn from this text that when the Holy One, blessed be He, fulfils His words, even when it is a matter of punishment, He makes it known that His Name is the Lord; and, of course, this is all the more so, when He fulfils His words in a matter of bestowing reward. — Our Rabbis explained it (this section) as having reference to what precedes it — that Moses said (5:22): “Wherefore hast thou done so evil [to this people]”. Whereupon God said to him, “Alas, for those that are gone (i. e. the patriarchs) and are no more to be found! I really have reason to deplore the death of the patriarchs. Many a time did I reveal Myself to them by the name ‘God Almighty’, and not once did they ask Me, What is Thy Name? (i. e. what is the name that describes Thy true essence); but thou hast at once said (Exodus 3:13) “[If they ask] ‘what is His name’, what shall I say unto them?!” (Exodus Rabbah 6:4; Sanhedrin 111a).