From: ajb@access.digex.com (Alan J. Broder)
Subject: Hamaayan / The Torah Spring: Parashat Chayei Sarah
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, Maryland USA
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 02:07:05 GMT


[NOTE: This week's Hamaayan has been entered using OCR from hardcopy 
provided by Shlomo Katz. Every effort is being made to ensure the 
continued accuracy of the posting. Please let us know if you find
any typographical errors.]

[   HaMaayan is published weekly for the edification and enjoyment
of the reader who is lacking the time or ability to study the
weekly Parasha on his own. HaMaayan's goal is to acquaint the reader 
with the broadest spectrum of traditional Torah commentary, from 
the "rationalism" of Rambam (Maimonides) and Abarbanel to the 
"mysticism" of Alshich and the Chassidic Masters.

While the editors hope these brief "snippets" will engender further
discussion of Torah topics ("L'Hagdil Torah U'L'Ha'adirah"), they
unfortunately lack the time to respond to lengthy questions.

Shabbat Shalom. ]


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                    Hamaayan/The Torah Spring
                      Edited by Shlomo Katz

                      Parashat Chayei Sarah
                   Volume VII, Number 5 (292)
              25 Marcheshvan 5753/November 21, 1992


   Why does the Torah devote so much space to the purchase of the
"Me'arat haMachpelah"?  Ibn Ezra offers two answers, one of which
is that it demonstrates the fulfillment of Hashem's promise that
Avraham would acquire the land of Eretz Yisrael.

   Was this Hashem's promise?  asks R' Chaim David haLevi (the
Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv), shlita.  Avraham paid a fortune
in silver coins to purchase Sarah's burial plot!

   With hindsight, and keeping in mind the lesson of "Ma'aseh Avot
Siman laBanim" -- that which befell the patriarchs foreshadows that
which will befall their descendants -- we can appreciate Ibn Ezra's
explanation.  The current resettlement of Eretz Yisrael began, like
Avraham's settlement before it, not with military conquest, but
with the purchase of land at often inflated prices.

   The Midrash notes that there were three sites in Eretz Yisrael
which our ancestors purchased at or above full market value:  the
burial place of the patriarchs in Chevron (by Avraham), the burial
place of Yosef in Shechem (by Yaakov), and the site of the Bet
haMikdash in Yerushalayim (by David).  What is the importance of
this fact? It is significant because of the Halacha that military
conquest cannot extinguish private property rights.  [Note how the
Halacha "knew" thousands of years ago that which is only now coming
to be accepted in international law.l  Hashem knew, of course, that
in our day these three sites -- Yerushalayim, Chevron, and Shechem
-- would be inhabited by non-Jews who would call us thieves, and He
therefore caused our ancestors to buy these three sites for money,
thus sealing forever our claim to them. 

                                        (Aseh Lecha Rav IV p.82) 

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   "And Sarah's life vas one hundred years and twenty years and
seven years..." (23:1)

   Rashi notes the repetition of the word "years," and explains
that the Torah is comparing all of Sarah's years to each other. She
was as beautiful in her old age as she was in her youth, and as
righteous in her youth as she was in her old age.

   Regarding this explanation, Ramban comments:  To the contrary,
the word "years" seems to separate each number from the others,
suggesting that they were different from each other!
   R' Eliezer M. Shach suggests the following resolution to
Ramban's question:  Indeed, as Rashi writes, Sarah was righteous
and beautiful at every stage of her life.  In that sense, the years
may be compared to each other.  However, by emphasizing this point
in a way which separates the different stages, the Torah informs us
that at each stage of her life Sarah possessed the righteousness
and beauty appropriate for a person of that age (be it seven,
twenty, or one hundred).  In the words of Chazal, "The minds of
Torah scholars become more settled as they age [i.e. they continue
to add wisdom commensurate with their level (Bartenura)]." Sarah
was beautiful -- even when she was seven years old -- in the sense
that a person's deeds are beautiful when they cause those who are
aware of that person's stature to praise him or her. This is the
Torah's praise of Sarah - that she was aware of the level which was
expected of her and she rose to it appropriately. 

                                    (Michtavim u'Ma'amarim p.62) 

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   Rashi says that Sarah died upon hearing about the "Akeidah"
(Avraham's sacrifice of Yitzchak).  Was Sarah, who was a greater
prophetess than Avraham, less willing than her husband to heed
Hashem's command?  Why then did she die?

   R' Moshe Sternbuch, shlita, explains:  It is recorded in the
work Maggid Mesharim that an angel told R' Yosef Karo (the author
of the Shulchan Aruch) that he would merit to be killed for the
sanctification of G-d's name.  In his old age, R' Yosef Karo was
disappointed that he had apparently lost that great merit, until an
angel explained to him that he had done even better:  he had lived
a life which had sanctified G-d's name.

   When Sarah heard that her son was to die "Al Kiddush Hashem" --
for the sanctification of G-d's name -- she was disappointed. Why
did he not merit to live "Al Kiddush Hashem"? 

   This may explain why Avraham did not tell Sarah about the
impending Akeidah.  He wished to perform Hashem's commandment
without second-guessing; Sarah, he feared, would pray that Yitzchak
be allowed the chance to serve Hashem in life. 

                                                 (Ta'am vaDa'at) 

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   "And Avraham was old, coming along in days, and Hashem blessed
him 'baKol' (with everything)." (24:1)

   "And [Yitzchak] said, 'Who then trapped this food and brought it
to me, and I ate "miKol" (from everything)?'"  (27:33)

   "Please take my offering which was brought to you, for Hashem
has been kind to me [Yaakov] and I have 'Kol' (everything)."
(33:11)

   Ramban writes:  Some see in these verses a deep idea, a secret
from among the secrets of the Torah, i.e. that Hashem has an
attribute called "Kol" which is the source of everything, as it is
written (Yishayahu 44:24), "I am Hashem who makes 'Kol
(everything)."

   R' Shneur Kotler (1918-1982), zatzal, elaborates on this idea:
Everything in the world comes from one source (i.e. Hashem's
creation), yet there appear to be infinite variations to the forms
which things take.  Similarly, a person should be capable of
responding to every type of situation, but should always be guided
by one, and only one, force.

   In Moreh Nevochim, Rambam demonstrates the application of this
idea, writing that concentration and focus are important
prerequisites to serving G-d.  Esav, like Yaakov, was a person of
great spiritual potential, but he was a man of the field" --his
mind and his talents were spread over an "area" as vast as the
outdoors.  Yaakov, on the other hand, possessed the ability to
concentrate; he was "a complete person, residing is a tent" -- an
enclosed area. (Noam Siach p.16)

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   Onkelos (the Aramaic translation of the Torah) states: "Yitzchak
brought Rivka into the house and he saw that her deeds were as fine
as those of Sarah, his mother, and he married her" (24:67). 

   How many miracles befell Eliezer in his search for Rivka?  The
road shortened under him, Rivka came out to the well just as
Eliezer had prayed for, and Betuel (Rivka's father) who opposed
Eliezer died, to name just a few.  Yet all of this, notes R'
Yitzchak Ze'ev Soloveitchik (1887-1959), zatzal, was not the reason
that Yitzchak married Rivka. Rather, he did so because he saw that
her deeds emulated those of the righteous Sarah. (Chiddushei haCriz
[stencil] p.9)

              ************************************

   June, 1942.  Palestine, along with the rest of the Middle East
trembled before the advancing armies of Erwin Rommel, the German
Field Marshal nicknamed, "The Desert Fox."  Although the 17th of
Tamuz had not yet arrived, the Jews of the Holy Land already felt
as if Tisha b'Av was upon them.

   Amidst all of this, R' Yosef Kahaneman (the "Ponovezher Rav"),
zatzal (1886-1969) informed R' Betzalel Zolti (the then-future Rav
of Yerushalayim), zatzal (1920-1983) that he had borrowed 500
pounds and bought land in Bnei Brak on which to build a Yeshiva. R'
Betzalel was astounded. "Today, of all days, you spend money to buy
land in Eretz Yisrael?  With the Jewish people in such danger, how
can you even think of building now?!"
   The Ponovezher Rav smiled and answered, "The precedent for my
actions is found in the Book of Yirmiyahu (ch.32), where Hashem
commanded Yirmiyahu, in the days just preceding the Temple's
destruction, to buy land that would be offered to him for sale.
Chazal teach that there were millions of prophets, but only the
words of those 55 men and women who taught lasting messages were
recorded in Tanach. Yirmiyahu's prophecy teaches us that even when
our situation appears darkest we must not forsake the future which
we have in Eretz Yisrael."  

                        (condensed from The Maggid Speaks, p.185)

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           The learning schedule for this Shabbat is:

                          Mikavot 3:3-4

                          O.C. 514:6-8

                           Ketubot 25

                      Yerushalmi - Niddah 2

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            The hard copy distribution of this week's
                    Hamaayan is sponsored by:

                       The Parness family
                  in memory of Max Parness A"H

              ************************************

            Donations to Hamaayan are tax deductible


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Posted by Alan Broder, ajb@digex.com (uunet!digex!ajb), who 
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