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CHAYEI SARAH READING

Rabbi Ari Kahn

Negotiations and Acquisitions

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

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