When Sarah, Abraham’s beloved wife passed away he needed to purchase a burial plot.Ephron seemed to have the best piece of land for a graveside in Hevron. He charged Abraham an outrageous price for the small plot of land and Abraham paid what he asked. Ramban adds that “Abraham paid with the generosity of his heart.”
For Abraham there was no better place to bury Sarah but the cave of Machpela in Hevron together with Adam and Eve that were also buried in this place. The fact that Ephron was taking advantage of him, for Abraham meant nothing. This is the land he wanted and he was not going to take chances.
How often does it happen to us that we need something that is necessary in our lives, yet it is hard for us to part from our money, we just don’t want the other person to make a profit from us.
The following story explains this a little better. There was a man that paid one dollar to a miser, so that he could gaze momentarily at the man’s immense treasure.Staring at the piles of gold and precious gems, he turned to the miser and said:”Now I am as wealthy as you are. All the enjoyment you derive from your money is from looking. You never spend it, you don’t allow others to benefit from your money. You are not aware of its real value because you never make use of it.”
Abraham teaches us the value of money in this pasuk, Money is H”S gift to us for one purpose: to fulfill His mitzvotz. Therefore spending money in judiciously is wasting H”S gift. We must recognize also that wealth is not measured by how much money we have in the bank or by the size of our stock portafolio, the barometer of wealth, it’s value is in the good deeds we perform with it.
On a side note the purchasing of the Caver of Machpela is registered in our Torah with every detail, even telling us the amount that Abraham paid for it.
This is the proof that Machpelah belongs to the Jews. Also it is the place where our forefathers Abraham,Isaac, and Jacob are buried and our foremothers Sarah,Rivkah, and Leah too.
Excerpts taken from “Peninim on The Torah” by Rabbi A.L. Scheinbaum
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