Commentaire de citation sur La Genèse 23:10

When they improved (מטיבין) her appearance. This is similar to the expression מטיבין את הנרות. It means this because טֹבֹת conveys that they just now became fair, similar to ועפרון ישֵׁב (23:10), conveying that Ephron just now sat. Furthermore, טבת without a vav is a singular expression, implying that not all women were fair, only individual women — the beautified brides. But if it were written טובות, a plural expression, it would imply that the women were always fair, i.e., beautified.

Yehuda ben Tabai says, "Do not make yourself like the judges' advisers (orkhei)": He means to say a head, as it is stated in Bereshit Rabbah 23:10, "'And Efron was sitting among the children of Chet' (Genesis 23:10) - on that very day, they appointed him arkhi," meaning to say the head of the judges. And also in the section of "Yaakov sent messengers" (Parshat Vayishlach, Bereshit Rabbah 75:3), "arkhi" is the head of the thieves. And also in Arukh, you will find that arkhi is explained like this there. And the explanation of this is, do not make yourself like the judge's advisers, that [people] should ask you and you tell them the laws; and after they hear it from you, they go to other judges for judgment and they say to them, "The head of the judges has already told us that this is the law." Do not make yourself like them. And from Rambam there is another explanation: "Do not make yourself like the judges' advisers" - He did (not) speak here about someone who teaches false claims to his friend and how to present them, since such a person is completely evil. And it is not necessary to say that a person not do this on account that they will suspect him and speak badly about him, as this is a great sin [and nothing more need be said about it]. Rather, [it is one] that organizes the claims [of someone] and arranges the laws and reveals the verdict [of a case] to an individual - as it is not fitting to do this since they will suspect him and speak badly about him. This [is] like that story of Rabbi Yochanan in Tractate Ketuvot 52b, wherein at the beginning he reasoned, "do not ignore your flesh" (Isaiah 58:7), and at the end he reasoned, it is different with an important man.

“All those who went out of the gate of his town were circumcised” [34:24]. All the men who went out of the city circumcised themselves. Hizkuni writes here. Why does the verse say, “All those who went out of the gate of the city”? This means, all those who went out of the city. With regards to Sarah it is written, “All who came into the gate of the city” [Genesis, 23:10]. This means, those who came into the city. The explanation is that here, Hamor and Shechem did not want to allow anyone out of the city. They first had to circumcise themselves, but they did it by force. Therefore, it is written, “All those who went out of the gate of his city.” However, with Sarah, they all came to do an act of grace with Sarah, to accompany her, out of good will.⁸⁴Hizkuni, Genesis, 34:24.