Page 34 - HaMizrachiChayei Sarah AUS 2020

CHAYEI SARAH READING

Rabbi Ari Kahn

Negotiations and Acquisitions

arah has died and Avraham has as punctuation of the Hebrew text, a And so, Avraham insists on paying for
a carefully planned agenda for very different parsing emerges: “Know the burial plot. He insists on burying
Sthe funeral arrangements. He with certainty that your descendants Sarah specifically in that spot because
approaches the local clan and asks to will be strangers in a land that is not he cherishes the Land. He appreci-
purchase a particular parcel of land theirs for 400 years. (At times,) they ates its significance and holiness, and
owned by a man named Ephron. will be enslaved and oppressed.” This he wants to be a part of it. He wants
Ephron offers to give Avraham the nuanced reading of the text is not to make an acquisition, to establish
plot of land as a gift, free of charge, always conveyed correctly in transla- a foothold, in this very unique place.
yet Avraham insists on paying for it. tion, but the gist of the verse is that He knows he will continue to be a
Eventually, a price is set; the sum is the 400 years describes the dura- stranger in the eyes of the surround-
apparently exorbitant, especially con- tion of time in which they would be ing population, but he also knows that
sidering the opening “price” offered strangers or foreigners, devoid of sov- this acquisition is the down payment
by the seller. ereignty. The verse describes a period on the Land. This is the beginning of
of time in which Avraham’s descen-
While some Jews take pride in their dants would be a political minority in ownership of the Land of Israel, which
business savvy, Avraham’s negotia- the Land that would eventually belong will last forever. Sarah’s burial was,
tion skills seem to have been sorely to them, and not a period of 400 years figuratively and literally, the act that
lacking. He overpays for something of oppression and enslavement. planted the roots of the Jewish people
he could have procured for free. To – and Avraham would not allow this
make matters even worse, Avraham Avraham had a very clear understand- act to be based on the on-again-off-
had been promised this entire land as ing of the promise G-d had made to again largesse of the local Canaanite
his inheritance. Why did he insist on him; in fact, he made reference to it population.
paying for something that G-d Him- in his negotiations with the locals: “I Ephron must have thought he had
self would eventually deliver to him am a stranger (or foreigner) and a res- hoodwinked Avraham, taking from
on a silver platter? ident among you,” he said. “Allot for
me a burial place among you so that him 400 silver shekels for a burial
Avraham had not forgotten that this I can bury my dead” (Bereishit 23:4). plot, but Avraham was sure he had
Land would eventually belong to Avraham understood his political sit- made a wonderful deal. For a mere
him; in fact, G-d’s promise was pre- uation and acknowledged his current 400 coins of silver, he had made the
cisely the reason Avraham behaved position as less-than-equal among the first acquisition in the Land of Israel,
so strangely in this negotiation. Part lords of the land. He echoed G-d’s use placing a down payment on the Land
and parcel of G-d’s promise that of the word ger to describe his status that would be inherited by his descen-
Avraham would inherit the Land of as an outsider among the locals, dants 400 years later.
Israel was a “price” to be paid: “Know indicating that despite his absolute
with certainty that your descendants conviction that this Land would even-
will be strangers in a land that is not tually belong to his descendants, he
theirs and they will be enslaved and and his children, grandchildren and
oppressed, for 400 years” (Bereishit great-grandchildren would continue
15:13). to be “strangers” for 400 years – first
in Canaan, then in the house of
The standard translation of this verse Lavan, and finally in Egypt. The local
presents us with a much-debated Canaanite population will continue
problem. The Jews were not enslaved to control politics, commerce and Rabbi Ari Kahn is Director of the Overseas
in Egypt for 400 years. However, if the the military until the full price for the Student Program at Bar-Ilan University,
verse is read while taking into account Land of Israel is paid and G-d’s prom- where he is a senior lecturer in Jewish
the cantillation symbols that serve ise comes to fruition. Studies.

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