Summary Chaye Sarah 5762
Both the Torah Portion of Chaye Sarah and the Haftarah mark the transition from one generation to another. The sedra begins with the death and burial of Sarah, continues with the (successful) search for a wife for Isaac and concludes with the death of Abraham and Ishmael. The Haftarah deals with the issue of King David's successor.

A further underlying theme of the sedra is Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. Sarah has now died and Abraham seeks a burial plot.

The Torah tells us that he approached the Hittite nation with a request to buy a suitable burial plot. This was their response (chapter 23):
"Listen to us sir. You are a prince of G-d among us. Take our best burial site".

Abraham then bowed down to the people and said: "If you really want to help me, speak to Efron for me, and ask him to sell me the cave of Machpelah, on the edge of his field".

"No my lord", Efron replied. "Listen to me! I have already given you the cave and the field, in the presence of the people!"

Abraham then replied: "No sir, you listen to me! I want to give you money for the field".

This was Efron's reply: "My lord, listen to me! What's 400 silver shekels between you and me?"

So the Torah tells us that Abraham paid 400 shekels for the Cave of Machpelah and the field around it.

Points to Ponder
Question 1
At the outset, Abraham requested a burial plot. He was offered one free of charge, but wanted to purchase the Cave of Machpelah. The people's leader Efron seemed quite happy to give Abraham the Cave and the Field surrounding it, but Abraham insisted on paying for it. Why?

Question 2
One would have thought that, having offered the Cave and Field for nothing, Efron would have charged a nominal cost when Abraham insisted on paying. Yet he charged 400 shekels of silver. This was a huge amount of money for those times. According to the Hammurabi code, a year's wage was only about 6-8 shekels at that time! What kind of person was Efron?

Answer 1
There is a well-known midrash that says that there are three sites in the Land of Israel over which the nations of the world will have no legal claim. They are: the cave of Machpelah purchased by Abraham; a plot of land in Shechem purchased by Jacob and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, purchased by King David. All these transaction are recorded in the Bible. Therefore, we can suggest that Abraham wanted to effect a legal (freehold) purchase, so that no-one may come and say that this land does not belong to his family, that the permission to bury did not really constitute acquisition of the land itself. The fact of Abraham's purchase is mentioned several times in the book of Bereshit, to reinforce this point. He paid a lot of money for this land, and it has not been sold since.

Answer 2
In verse 17, you will notice that Efron's name has the letter 'vav' missing. Despite the most courteous manner with which he addressed Abraham, he was in fact lacking in sincerity. Last week we saw that Abraham, in his welcome to visitors 'said little, but did much'. Here we have the opposite: Efron made grand gestures, but they amounted to nothing.

In the second part of the sedra, Abraham sends his faithful servant to find a wife for his son Isaac. We presume that the servant is Eliezer, but his name is not mentioned. Eliezer is commanded to go to Abraham's homeland, Aram Naharayim, to find a wife and bring her back to the Land of Israel. He is not permitted to allow Isaac to leave Israel on order to satisfy the girl or her parents.

On his arrival, Eliezer prays to G-d for success. He asks that when the girls of the town come out to draw water, he will approach one of them and ask for water. She will respond positively and also offer water to the camels. Before Eliezer had even finished speaking, Rebekah, Abraham's great-niece had appeared, and the scene played itself out, just as Eliezer had asked.

The Torah sets this story out in great detail, repeating parts of the story three times. On this our sages say that "the table-talk of the servants of the Patriarchs' households is (even) more beautiful than the Torah of their descendants".

On a more sour note, we are also introduced to Rebekah's brother Laban. We shall see in two weeks' time what a rogue he was, but even in this story it is clear that his 'falling over himself' for Eliezer was due to the gifts borne by the latter. (see chapter 24, verses 29-31)

Other points in brief:
1. Chapter 24, verse 67: "and (Isaac) took Rebekah, who became his wife, and he loved her. Isaac was thus comforted for the loss of his mother". Two points from these moving words: real, deep love comes after marriage, notwithstanding modern trends; and the Torah doesn't always comment on emotions at the time, but when most effective. Isaac evidently suffered with the passing of his mother; he was comforted when he beheld the nature of Rebekah...

2. Abraham's wife, Keturah (Ch 25, v1), is presumed to be Hagar. This is because in chapter 24, verse 62, Isaac was travelling from Be'er Lachai Ro'i, the place at which we last heard of Hagar and Ishmael. It seems that Isaac had decided that the time was ripe for reconciliation with Ishmael, who we see was present at Abraham's burial, see chapter 25, verse 9.

Shabbat Shalom