Comentário sobre Gênesis 49:32

מקנה השדה והמערה אשר בו, The purchase of the field and the cave which is in it, etc. After Jacob had alluded to the acquisition of the cave as something that was his exclusively, he repeated a particular detail which could possibly form the basis of a claim by the Hittites in the future. This was the law known in the Talmud as בר מצרא, that when a field is up for sale a person owning an adjoining field enjoys a privileged status as a potential buyer. This status is so strong that such a neighbour can force a deal which had been concluded already to be reversed in his favour.

מאת בני חת, “from the Hittites.” Yaakov repeats this although he had already spelled out that the individual from whom his grandfather purchased this field was Efron the Hittite, as Efron himself was no longer alive to confirm his claim. Seeing that Joseph also had not been present at the time when this transaction had taken place, he went into great detail so that he would know how to answer anyone of Efron’s heirs if he would dare to dispute his father’s claim.

Even though this law applies only when said field has been purchased by a Jew- as explained in Baba Metzia 108,- and the reason is that the Jewish purchaser can argue that his neighbour should be happy that he no longer has a Gentile as a neighbour, the reason given is not true. Were it true, the Gentiles could argue the same in reverse and use this law as a pretext to dispossess their Jewish neighbours, in this case the sons of Jacob.

The consideration of the law of בר מצרא is strong enough to override the fact that three generations of Jews had already been buried in that cave. Their argument would be the one described in Maimonides Hilchot Shecheynim chapter 13 that regardless of whether the new owner had dug a hole or built a superstructure on such ground, when the law of בר מצרא is invoked the neighbour who is now being dispossessed must be compensated for any expenses he had incurred while in possession of that field. On the other hand, if the interim owner had caused damage, he has to compensate the neighbour to whom this field should have been sold in the first place.

Jacob therefore made a point of reiterating מקנה השדה, the purchase of the field within which the cave is situated, from the sons of Chet, to make it quite clear that no such considerations as בר מצרא applied. The author refers the reader to what he wrote on this subject in connection with Genesis 23,9.

The reason that the Torah did not mention this detail at the time Abraham purchased the field from Efron is that a purchase from the Hittites is not in the same category as a purchase from Efron the individual from whom Abraham had purchased the field. The only possible connection the בני חת still had with that field was the fact that some of their properties may have been adjoining Abraham's. Inasmuch as any eventual protest by them would not be raised till a later stage, the Torah also reported Jacob's answer to such possible protest only at this time.