Summarized by Shmuel Goldberg
Translated by David Strauss
The Purchase of the Field and the Cave
The Torah goes to great lengths to describe how Avraham bought the field of Makhpela and the cave in it from the sons of Chet as a burial site. Efron and the sons of Chet did not want to pass the plot into his possession, but rather they tried to persuade him to bury his wife in "the choicest of our tombs" (Bereishit 23:6). Yet Avraham refused their offer and insisted on buying a field, at no small cost. In the end, our parasha tells us at length:
So the field of Efron in Makhpela near Mamre – the field, its cave, and all the trees within the field's borders – passed to Avraham as his possession in the presence of all the children of Chet, who had come to the city gate… Thus the field and its cave passed from the Chittites to Avraham as a burial site. (23:17-18, 23)
So too at the end of the parasha, the Torah relates that Avraham was buried in the Makhpela Cave, and emphasizes that "the field which Avraham had bought from the children of Chet, there Avraham and Sara his wife were buried" (25:10). Moreover, the Torah attaches great significance to the purchase of the field and the cave two more times in the book of Bereishit. In Yaakov's testament to his sons, he requests:
Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Efron the Chittite, in the cave that is in the field of Makhpela, near Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Avraham bought with the field from Efron the Chittite for a burial-plot… The field and its cave, which were purchased from the children of Chet. (49:29-30, 32)
And when Yaakov's sons acted upon his request, it is related:
For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Makhpela, which Avraham bought with the field, as a burial plot, from Efron the Chittite, near Mamre. (50:13)
One cannot help but raise an eyebrow at the whole business that the Torah makes of this acquisition, how it repeatedly emphasizes that the field and cave were purchased from the sons of Chet. What does this mean?
The two components of the purchase express two very important principles: the acquisition of the field expresses the importance of the connection to the land, and the acquisition of the cave expresses the importance of family and the connection to our ancestors – we are dealing here with a twofold and intertwined connection to our roots.
Monetary Acquisition of the Land
The purchase of the field of Makhpela in our parasha is the first purchase of land in the Land of Israel recorded in the Bible, but it is not the last. Yaakov buys a field near Shechem from the sons of Chamor, the father of Shechem; David buys the threshing floor of Aravna the Yevusite on Mount Moriya; and even Mount Samaria – also known as Sebastia, near the settlement of Shavei Shomron in our day -– is purchased with money. It follows from the Torah that there is significance to the acquisition of the Land of Israel with money.
The importance of the conquest of the Land of Israel by force should not be minimized: the book of Joshua is full of it, and it was necessary to drive out the Canaanites, whose sins had defiled the land, to the point that "the land vomited out its inhabitants" (Vayikra 18:25).
But acquisition by force is not our only connection to the Land of Israel. Throughout the Bible we see also the importance of purchasing the land from the inhabitants of the land, settling with the consent of the nations of the world, and cultivating and beautifying desolate places in the land that others had failed to settle before. The question of the relationship between these two acquisitions, and how they can be reconciled, is a great one, and the Bible often deals with it. As "an action of the fathers serving as a sign to the sons" (maaseh avot siman la-banim), it is manifest and significant also in recent generations and in our own time.
Family Burial
Beyond the significance of the acquisition of the field, the Torah also emphasizes that Avraham insisted on purchasing a special cave in which to bury Sara. This insistence teaches us the significance of family burial. Avraham could have buried his wife in the choicest spot among the burial places of the local Canaanites, and when Avraham died 38 years later he could have been buried elsewhere, and when Yitzchak died 105 years after Avraham, he could have been buried somewhere else, and when Rivka died before him, she could have been buried in a fourth place. But Avraham attaches great significance to being buried with his wife and with the generations of his family to come – the family continues even after death and includes not only the living but also the dead.
Ruth says to Naomi:
Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried; may the Lord do so to me, and more also, if (ki) death parts you and me. (Ruth 1:17)
The word "ki" here means "if" – May the Lord do to me, and more also if death parts you and me. Since death is not the end of existence, but only the end of existence in this world, it should not separate family members. Hence it is very important to Avraham to purchase a family burial cave. We have already noted on several occasions that Avraham's purchase of a cave in which to bury his wife, and later to be buried beside her, is a kind of second betrothal to Sara; this is intimated by the verbal analogy, "'kicha kicha from the field of Efron" at the beginning of tractate Kiddushin (2a), which connects this episode to the halakhic process of betrothal.
Family Service of God
We spent this Shabbat discussing "How to Love and Fear God," and it is impossible to discuss this topic without mentioning the significance that the Torah attaches to the Jewish family – the importance of the fact that we do not see ourselves as descendants of one man but as descendants of a family; the Torah's emphasis on the mitzva of honoring one's father and mother, on the relationship between father and mother, and between them and their sons and daughters; the importance it attributes to the transmission of the tradition through these roots.
The Bible is full of these values, and in my humble opinion the place where the value of fathers and mothers together educating their sons and daughters is most clearly expressed is the book of Mishlei, which we do not always like to read. From "Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching" (Mishlei 1:8) to "Hearken to your father that begot you, and despise not your mother when she is old" (Mishlei 23:22), the book of Mishlei establishes the centrality of the transmission of tradition from father to son, and does not neglect to mention "The words of King Lemuel; the burden with which his mother corrected him" (Mishlei 31:1). A family in which there is love between father and mother and between them and their sons and daughters is the basis for the transmission of tradition. We see such a relationship between Avraham and Sara at the beginning of our parasha, the continuation of the parasha describes the relationship between Yitzchak and Rivka and the family that they built, and the continuation of the book of Bereishit describes the relationship between Yaakov and his wives and family.
The Torah's model of the Jewish family stands in stark contrast to Western culture today. I love Western culture for its many positive aspects, but regarding this issue there is a deep and wide divide between it and our Torah. In contrast to the Western view which sees each individual as belonging to a world of his own, the Torah sees each individual as rooted in a multi-generational family, through which tradition and heritage are passed down. We can develop this tradition, steer it this way or that, but we cannot uproot it. A tree can change shape, its foliage can spread to new places, but in the end its roots remain fixed in place. This rootedness is becoming increasingly challenging in the modern world, as technology, communication, and transportation develop. Western culture is also increasingly casting doubt on the concept of love of country, which is becoming more challenging to maintain as airports grow and people travel to see this country and that.
The bond to family and the bond to the land go hand in hand – like the purchase of the cave and the purchase of the field. A person who is connected to his homeland is connected to the land where his father and grandfather lived. In the case of our generation, our grandfather did not live in the Land of Israel but rather in the Diaspora, but the grandfather of our grandfather did live in Israel. Through our lives in this land we are connected to Rabbi Yochanan and his colleagues and to Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues who studied here; we are connected to the prophets who spoke here with God and sought the messages He was sending in every situation; we are connected to the kings of Israel and Judah who ruled here – the good and the righteous among them; and we are connected to our holy forefathers who lived and raised their families here. When the Israelites came to the Land of Israel they were returning to the place of their forefathers. It is not by chance that the first place to which the spies go is the Makhpela Cave – "And they went up into the South, and came to Chevron" (Bamidbar 13:22): when Kalev prostrates himself on the graves of the patriarchs, he closes a circle that began with Avraham many years before.
Both the bond with family and the bond with the land are weakening in Western culture, and we must struggle against this phenomenon. We must not alienate ourselves from Western culture – it has so much good in it and gives us so much – but this battle we must fight.
The Family of Israel
I spoke this week to a class I was teaching about the various opinions regarding the matter of conversion. We saw the words of the Rambam, who highlights the acceptance of the Torah and the mitzvot, because he sees conversion as continuing the entry into the covenant at Sinai; and we saw other Rishonim who maintain that failure to accept the mitzvot does not invalidate a conversion. In their view, the essence of conversion is entry into the family, the family of the Jewish people. This is why one of its components is circumcision. Circumcision expresses the familial nature of the Jewish people: in our parasha Avraham makes Eliezer swear "that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell" (Bereishit 24:3), as he places his hand under Avraham's thigh, corresponding to the site of circumcision. Later the significance of circumcision was extended beyond not marrying a Canaanite to not marrying any non-Jew. Likewise, when Yaakov asks to be buried with his family in the Makhpela Cave, he makes Yosef swear in the same way, placing his hand under Yaakov's thigh.
Our relationship with God is twofold: there is the component of observing Torah and mitzvot, which is critical – it is so self-evident that it is sometimes not emphasized enough; and there is an additional component of what is acquired not from the Rabbi or Rosh Yeshiva but from the father, the mother, the grandfather, the grandmother, the grandfather's grandfather and the grandmother's grandmother.
The Jewish family and the Jewish rootedness in our past are together an iron condition of Jewish life. There is so much for us to learn from our forefathers – from their legacy, from their morality, from their self-sacrifice. Each of us carries on his back a knapsack of stories of his ancestors. I too have many stories to tell, but there is no need – each knapsack is full of stories from one's own family. The Jewish family is the foundation of education in the observance of mitzvot and walking in the path of God, to love and to fear Him, and through it, the Jewish people pass the banner of God from generation to generation.
[This sicha was delivered by Harav Yaakov Medan on Shabbat Parashat Chayei Sara 5783.]
Edited by Yair Lichtman
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