Comentario sobre Génesis 23:18

בכל באי שער עירו BEFORE ALL THAT CAME IN AT THE GATE OF HIS CITY — In the midst of all them, and with all of them standing by he gave him legal possession of it.

לאברהם למקנה, “it arose” after Avraham had paid the money, a normal procedure which we are familiar with from the (misquote) in Erchin 33 ונתן הבסף וקם לו. The purchase was concluded in verse 18, i.e. the field became a מקנה for Avraham. It became an ancestral piece of property only after Sarah had actually been buried there, i.e. after the purpose of the transaction had been carried out (verse 20)

לעיני בני חת. He weighed the money for Efron in the presence of all the assembled people, so that Efron sold the cave and the field to Avraham also in the presence of all his townspeople. He also handed Avraham a document confirming the sale.

And in the presence of all, he gave him possession. [The prefix] ב usually denotes “within.” But since “within” or “inside” does not fit here, Rashi says: “In the presence of all.” Rashi did not wish to explain here as in v. 10, that everyone left their work, because then Scripture should have written לכל, as it does there. Why is it written בכל, implying he was amongst them? Perforce, it is to be interpreted as “in the presence of all.”

בכל באי שער עירו. While all the people of his town were present. The expressions בכל, לכל (compare verse 10) mean basically the same. We find similar formulations in Exodus 27,19 where the two expressions occur in the same verse, i.e. לכל כלי המשכן בכל עבודתו.