Commento su Genesi 23:19

AND AFTER THIS, ABRAHAM BURIED SARAH HIS WIFE IN THE CAVE OF THE FIELD OF MACHPELAH BEFORE MAMRE — THE SAME IS HEBRON — IN THE LAND OF CANAAN. The reason why Scripture reverts to clarify the field, the place and the land is that the whole section mentioned the sons of Heth and Ephron the Hittite. Therefore Scripture mentions at the conclusion that the field was in the land of Canaan which is the land of Israel. And so it said at the beginning of the section: in Kiryath arba — the same is Hebron — in the land of Canaan.⁴⁶Above, Verse 2. All this is to explain that the righteous woman died in the land of Israel, and there she was interred, as the Hittites were of the families of Canaan.⁴⁷Ibid., 10:15.
In my opinion, the reason for the verses is only to mention that this was the land of Canaan, not the land of the Philistines. Having said, And Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days,⁴⁸Ibid., 21:34. and since all his habitats were in that land — in Gerar,⁴⁹Ibid., 20:1. and the valley of Gerar,⁵⁰Further, 26:17-18. and Beer-sheba,⁵¹Above, 22:19. and from there to Hebron and back — Scripture therefore mentioned that Hebron is in the land of the Canaanite who dwelt in that hill country,⁵²Numbers 14:45. not in the land of the Philistines, which is mentioned in connection with Abraham. And in the end Scripture added a phrase to inform us that the cave was in the field of Machpelah before Mamre, for this was the name by which it was known.
This section was written to inform us of G-d’s kindnesses to Abraham, i.e., that in the land in which he came to live he was regarded as a prince of G-d,⁵³Above, Verse 6. and each individual as well as all the people called him “my lord” although he did not tell them that he was a prince and a great man. Also, in his lifetime G-d fulfilled His promise to him: And I will make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.⁵⁴Ibid., 12:2. Moreover, his wife died and was buried in the inheritance of the Eternal.⁵⁵I Samuel 26:19. A reference to the land of Israel. Further, Scripture wanted to inform us of the place of the burial of the patriarchs since we are obligated to honor the burial place of our holy ancestors. Our Rabbis said⁵⁶Sanhedrin 111a. that this also was one of the trials of Abraham: he desired a place to bury Sarah but did not find it until he purchased it, [despite G-d’s promise that the entire land would be given to him].
I do not know a reason for the words of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, who says that the purpose of this section is to let us know the superiority of the land of Israel as regards the living and the dead, and also to fulfill the word of G-d which promised him that the land would be an inheritance of his. But what superiority of the land was thus demonstrated? Abraham would not have carried her to another land to bury her, and the word of G-d to Abraham applied to the whole land, and that was fulfilled only with his seed.

ואחרי כן…ויקם השדה. Afterwards the field stood as burial plot, etc. We need to understand why the Torah had to write the words: "afterwards," something that is obvious. What could be more natural than Abraham burying Sarah at the end of these negotiations? Besides, why did the Torah repeat the words: ויקם השדה, something we read already in verse 17?

ואחרי כן...אל מערת, the preposition אל means the same as the prefix ב, i.e. במערת שדה המכפלה. Compare Exodus 25,21 ואל הארון תתן את העדות instead of בארון.

ואחרי כן קבר, “after (all) this he proceeded to bury, etc.” Rabbi Meir points out that throughout the entire chapter thus far, Avraham had always spoken of burying מתי, “my (singular) dead,” whereas Efron and his townspeople had spoken about Avraham being allowed to bury מתיך, “your dead (plural).” According to this Rabbi the words ואת מתך קבור (verse 15) of Efron, (after the price had been agreed upon), also have to be understood as including other dead family members in the future.

אל מערת המכפלה, nicht ,במערת וגו׳, diese Konstruktion kommt nur noch einmal vor: קברו אותי אל אבתי. Es liegt darin der Gedanke, dass der Ort, welcher für das Begräbnis gewünscht wird, einen besonderen Wert für den zu Begrabenden oder dessen Angehörige habe. Er soll nicht nur begraben, sondern gerade dort begraben werden. Da tritt denn nun die Überlieferung hinzu, dass Saras Leiche nicht die erste dort zu begrabende gewesen. Schon ruhten dort Adam und Eva. Das Elternpaar der Menschheit waren die ersten, die dort begraben, zu ihnen sollte sich das Elternpaar des jüdischen Volkes, dieses geistige Elternpaar der Menschheit, gesellen; darum hatte sich Abraham gerade diese Höhle ersehen.

אל מערת המכפלה, “literally: “to” the cave of Machpelah; actually the word: אל here appears in lieu of the prefix ב. We find similar instances of the word אל being used in lieu of the prefix ב, in Exodus 25,16, and Numbers 19,6, as well as in Numbers 19,17.

ואחרי כן קבר אברהם את שרה אשתו אל מערת המכפלה...היא חברון בארץ כנען. “After this, Avraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of Machpelah. which is in Chevron in the land of Canaan.” The Torah goes to great lengths to describe the location of this field and its adjacent cave in great detail. The reason is that throughout the inhabitants of that land had been described as members of the tribe known as Hittites, a major tribe of the Canaanite nation, Whenever “the land of Canaan” is mentioned, the Torah, by implication, reminds us of the loving Providence of G’d Who gave this ancestral land to the Jewish nation. Although Avraham had only come to that land as a stranger with no claim on any part of that land, he had risen to be a highly respected member of that society, so much so that the people ceded a little of their ancestral land to have him use it as his in perpetuity. An additional reason for describing this location in such detail was so that we should be aware of where our patriarchs have been buried, in order to honour their memory on the occasions when we are obligated to honour the dead of our people who had led sainted lives .by visiting their graves.

The Torah wanted to confirm that the transaction complied with all and every legal form of acquisition. The words "afterwards" mean that once Abraham had weighed the money for Efron the latter had foregone all claim to that property in perpetuity. Maimonides explains it thus in chapter one of Hilchot Zechiyah Umatanah: "A Gentile loses his right to formerly owned property the moment he accepts the money as compensation for it. A Jew, on the other hand, does not acquire title to his new property until he has a written document. Once this has occurred the property in question is like land in the desert which anyone can stake a claim to." In other words, once the Gentile has accepted the money he loses all former claims. Had Abraham buried Sarah before giving the money to Efron, the fact that he gave the money to Efron afterwards would not have made a full acquisition, seeing that the act of possession expressed by his burying Sarah would not have been performed on land owned by him at the time.

Die Örtlichkeit, von welcher die Höhle den Namen trägt, hieß: מכפלה, und weist dieser Name von כפל, doppelt, auf eine gepaarte räumliche Gestaltung hin. Es scheint, dass die Örtlichkeit aus paarweise geschichteten Höhlen bestand, die sich also von selbst der Bestattung von im Tode wie im Leben vereinten Gattenpaaren darbot, wie ja denn dort Adam und Eva, Abraham und Sara, Jizchak und Rebekka, Jakob und Lea ruhen. Der erste Besitz, den der jüdische Stamm an seinem Lande erhielt, waren Gräberpaare, die der erste Jude für sich und demnächst auch für sich und seine Kinder und Enkel mit ihren Frauen erkaufte. Der Gedanke an den Wert der Familien- bande, die dem Manne sein Weib und den Kindern ihre Eltern ans Herz knüpfen, war fortan unzertrennlich mit dem jüdischen Boden verknüpft, bildete fortan den Grundzug in dem Charakter des Juden, und befähigte ihn, das zu werden, was er geworden. Vielleicht stammt hiervon auch der Name Chebron, der fortan dem Orte beigelegt wurde. חברון heißt ja: der innige Aneinanderschluss, der bezeichnendste Name für die Innigkeit, welche den jüdischen Mann und das jüdische Weib als Gatte und Gattin, als Vater und Mutter im Leben und durchs Leben gleichsam in eins zusammenwachsen lässt. Noch in der nationalen Blüte der späteren Jahrhunderte stieg kein Tagesopfer auf der Moriahöhe in Jeruschalaim empor, bevor nicht der Priesterherold von des Tempels Zinne den Morgenstrahl über die Gräber der Väter und Mütter zu Chebron leuchten gesehen — כבוד אב ואם ist dem Juden die Vorbedingung und Wurzel für כבוד המקום. —

We need to examine if the act of חזקה, i.e. using the land for one's own purpose, is actually legally valid when the act of such חזקה is performed on land previously owned by a Gentile. In chapter two of the above-mentioned tractate of Maimonides, he writes as follows: "In the case of formerly ownerless property, or property formerly owned by a proselyte, the fact that the squatter (Jewish) has eaten the proceeds of such land for a number of years does not constitute an act of acquisition of either tree or the land itself until such time as the squatter has performed an act on the body of the land itself. What kind of activity would qualify in such an event? In the case of a Jew having taken over the house of a proselyte or an abandoned house, if he whitewashed it or added a moulding about 60 centimeters high this would constitute a valid act of acquisition. If he took earth from high ground and transferred it to fill lower ground in the same piece of land this would be considered as an improvement of the earth and would qualify as an act of acquisition." It is clear therefore that if the squatter merely shifted some earth without specific intent to effect an improvement on that soil- even though he thereby levelled the ground,- this would not be enough to qualify under the heading of קנין, acquisition. Maggid Mishneh (a commentator on Maimonides) writes that if the squatter spread mats on the ground in order to be able to sit on it in comfort and to enjoy this, this would count as a valid act of קנין, acquisition. An alternative cited by the above commentator suggests that even spreading the mats merely in order to improve the appearance of the ground in question suffices. Rabbi lbn Migosh concurs with the latter example. Thus far the quotation from Hilchot Zechiyah Umatanah. Granted that according to the first example cited by the Maggid Mishneh anyone who benefits from an act performed on the land he squats on performs a valid act of חזקה, Abraham benefited by having buried Sarah on that land and thereby performed an act of acquisition; however, according to the opinion of Rabbi lbn Migosh that an actual improvement of the land has to take place, Sarah's burial would not have constituted such an improvement. How then did Abraham acquire that land (even though Efron had forfeited it)?

ואחרי כן erst nachdem der Ort mit der ganzen Umgebung sein bleibendes Eigentum geworden, begrub Abraham seine Sara. Der Jude treibt kein Götzentum und keinen Prunk mit seinen Gefühlen. Er baut keine Kirchen und Mausoleen an seine Gräber, noch schmückt er sie zu Gärten um. Dagegen kennt er auch keine "Ruhejahre". Die Stätte, wo seine Toten ruhen, bleibt ihm für immer heilig. Ihm ist eine Anschauung fremd, die die Kinder der Eltern Grab mit Marmor und Immortellen verherrlichen und die Enkel es aufwühlen und die Gebeine zu namenlosen Haufen gedanken- und gefühllos hinauswerfen lässt. —

Perhaps the superstructure erected around the grave, and especially the sepulchral chambers dug within the earth which was customary at the time, constituted such an improvement in the field under discussion. These sepulchral chambers were probably white-washed with lime to prevent the earth around them from crumbling. Now we can understand the reason the Torah repeated the words ויקם השדה. It means that after Abraham had buried Sarah the acquisition of that field by Abraham became complete.

Zwei Bemerkungen mögen hier noch eine Stätte finden. Dem jüdischen Volke wird nichts so sehr vorgeworfen, als der Hang zu Kauf und Verkauf, zum Handel, zum Geschäft. Da ists denn eigentümlich: wenn unsere Gesetzeswissenschaft sich nach einem Beispiel im heiligen Worte umsieht, um daran die Form eines Kaufs und Verkaufs zu veranschaulichen, findet sie nur den Kauf eines Grabes hier — שדה עפרון — und den Kauf eines Feldes, das der Prophet — Jirmija — zur Bekräftigung der Zukunftszuversicht kaufen musste, als bereits die babylonische Macht den Untergang des Staates vor Jerusalems Toren vorbereitete, also vor dem Anfang und dem Ende unseres volkstümlichen Daseins.

Die Form jüdischer Eheschließungen knüpft ebenfalls an den Erwerbakt des Feldes Efrons an. "Der Jude kauft sein Weib!" spricht eine gedankenlose Zeit vorwerfend. Ja wohl kauft er sein Weib, aber dafür bleibt sie denn auch die Seine, und verehrt er in ihr sein höchstes irdisches Gut. Und wohl uns, wenn alle unsere Ehen durch diese Erinnerung gleichsam an Saras Grabstätte eingegangen werden und von dem Geiste einer Ehe durchweht bleiben, wie sie die Erinnerung an Abraham und Sara vergegenwärtigt, und die ihren letzten und bleibenden Ausdruck in dem "Kauf der Höhle zu Machpela" fand. —