Page 17 - HaMizrachiChayei Sarah AUS 2020

GLOBAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS

Rabbi Hershel Schachter

Kever Avot

ם ָ ה ָ ר ְ ב ַ א ְ ל ...הל ֵּ פ ְ כ ַּ מ ַּ ב ר ֶ ׁש ֲ א ן ֹור ְ פ ֶ ע ה ֵ ד ְ ׂש ם ָ ק ָּי ַ ו – the National Homeland of his understand how a good Frenchman
ם ָ ה ָ ר ְ ב ַ א ר ַ ב ָ ק ן ֵ כ י ֵ ר ֲ ח ַ א ְ ו ...ת ֵ ח יֵנ ְ ב יֵני ֵ ע ְ ל הָנ ְ ק ִ מ ְ ל descendants. can be buried in another land!”
ֹו ּ ב־ר ֶ ׁש ֲ א ה ָ ר ָ ע ְּ מ ַ ה ְ ו ה ֶ ד ָּ ׂש ַ ה ם ָ קָּי ַ ו ...ֹו ּ ת ְ ׁש ִ א ה ָ ר ָ ׂש־ת ֶ א
.תֵֽ ח יֵנ ְּ ב ת ֵ א ֵ מ ר ֶ ב ָ ק תַּז ֻ ח ֲ א ַ ל ם ָ ה ָ ר ְ ב ַ א ְ ל The Ramban (Bereishit 23:19), com- Although he was not that observant
menting on the many acts of kind- of mitzvot, Baron Rothschild felt he
nd Efron’s field, which was in ness that G-d did for Avraham, high- should be buried in Eretz Yisrael,
Machpelah, was confirmed … lights this point. First, despite the recognizing it as our National Home-
Aas Avraham’s, as a purchase in fact he was a stranger, Avraham was land. Ya’akov told his children and his
the view of the children of Chet… And accorded great honor, thereby ful- grandchildren, as did Yosef, that he
afterward, Avraham buried Sarah his filling in his lifetime the promise of wanted to be buried in Eretz Yisrael
wife… Thus, the field with its cave was ך ֶ מ ְ ׁש ה ָ ל ְ ּ ד ַ ג ֲ א ַ ו – “I will make your name since he wanted everyone to keep in
ָ
confirmed as Avraham’s as an estate for great” (12:2). Furthermore, when his mind our strong connection to Eretz
a burial site, from the children of Chet. wife died, he merited that she was Yisrael. Nechemiah, upon being ques-
(Bereishit 23:17-20). buried in “nachalat Hashem” – the tioned by King Artachshasta over his

Rav Soloveitchik questioned the rep- heritage-land of G-d. The Ramban downcast appearance, responded in a
etition in these verses. Why do we thus implies that the acquisition of similar vein: רי ִ ע ָ ה ר ֶ ׁש ֲ א יַנ ָ פ ּוע ְ רֵי־אלֹ ַ עּו ּ ד ַ מ
ה ָ ב ֵ ר ֲ ח י ַ תֹב ֲ א תֹור ְ ב ִ ק־תי ֵּ ב – “Why should
need to be told twice that the land Ma’arat HaMachpelah, specifically as my face not be downcast when the
was confirmed as being owned by a הָּז ֻ ח ֲ א ה ֵ ד ְ ׂש, represented the beginning city of my ancestors’ graves is in
Avraham? of the fulfillment of G-d’s promise to
Avraham that Eretz Yisrael would be ruin?” (Nechemiah 2:3).
The Rav noted an apparent shift in the his nachala. People have a deep attachment to the
status of Avraham’s possession of the place of kever avot, and Jews are simi-
field of Efron, from that of a הָנ ְ ק ִ מ ה ֵ ד ְ ׂש Rav Soloveitchik (Divrei Hashkafah, larly drawn to Eretz Yisrael, where our
– a purchased field – to that of a ה ֵ ד ְ ׂש 1994 ed., pp. 37-38) recounted an Avot and Imahot are buried. This rela-
הָּז ֻ ח ֲ א – an ancestral field. Accordingly, incident he heard from Alain de tionship began in our parsha through
he explained the sequence of verses Rothschild of Paris. In 1949, after the the burial of Sarah Imeinu. 1
as follows: at first, Avraham bought War of Independence, the family of
the field merely as a purchase of real the Nadiv HaYadua (“The Famous Adapted from Rav Schachter on the Parsha II.
estate. However, after he buried Sarah Benefactor”), Baron Edmond de Roth-
there, his relationship with the land was schild, began to make plans to re-inter 1 See MiPninei HaRav, 2001 ed., pp. 274-275.
transformed; it was now an ancestral his remains and those of his wife in
Eretz Yisrael. When General Charles
heritage for him, and he understood he de Gaulle heard of the plans, he
would never leave that Land. Indeed, summoned James de Rothschild, the
one is not permitted to sell his ancestral baron’s son, and remarked to him, “I
field unless he becomes impoverished,
and even then, he should try not to sell always thought the Rothschild family
all of it (Rashi, Vayikra 25:25). was completely loyal to France. Now, I
want to ask you, what is true loyalty?”
That is why the phrase תֵֽ ח יֵנ ְּ ב ת ֵ א ֵ מ is De Gaulle answered his own ques-
used in relation to the ר ֶ ב ֶ ק תַּז ֻ ח ֲ א, in tion: “A true Frenchman is one who
contrast to ת ֵ ח יֵנ ְ ב יֵני ֵ ע ְ ל. This denotes was educated in French schools, who
the complete removal of the land fights for France in times of war, who Rabbi Hershel Schachter is Rosh
from the control of bnei Chet into contributes to French society. And a Yeshiva and Rosh Kollel at Rabbi Isaac
the possession of Avraham, for good Frenchman is also one who lives, Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva
whom it became a “land of destiny” dies and is buried in France. I cannot University.

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