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Friday 3 Kislev 5787

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A Lesson for the RoadShorts AreaFemale LessonParashat HashavuaSeriesLibraryPiskei Din (Hebrew)Test Yourself
"Ma'aseh Avot, Siman L'Banim." The examples we set, the lessons we teach, filter down to our descendants & serve to assist them throughout their lives. Avraham loved all peoples, & he went out of his way to pro-actively do good things for others. Welcoming strangers to his open tent, rushing to save his errant nephew Lot, taking pity on Yishmael even when Sara wanted him banished, teaching G-d to the whole planet. Now, you might think that such a "nice guy" like Avraham was an easy mark for con-men, a "freier" that could easily be taken advantage of. And so, in our parsha, it appears that Efron & the Hittites (no, they were not an early rock band!) see Avraham as a juicy "mark" to be swindled. At first, they seem to welcome him with open arms; "You're a Prince of G-d!" they say, "take the choicest of our plots in which to bury your beloved Sara! None of us would ever even think of denying you!" But then, when it comes to actually making the deal, Efron presents a bill for what amounts to 1,000,000 nis! And Avraham goes right ahead & dutifully counts out the money & hands it to him. Is he a sucker, or what?! Let me digress for a moment. On my first trip to the Arab souk in Yerushalayim, when I was a teenager, I saw a very pretty sheis-beish game that I wanted. I already knew that you had to hondle & so I started to bargain back & forth with the store owner, until we finally agreed on what I thought was a fair price. I paid & I took the game; I was quite proud of myself. And then, I took the wrapping off the box. "Hey," I said, "Hang on; where are all the pieces?! The dice, the discs?!" "Oh, you want those, too?" he said, smirking. And we went right back to the bargaining table to finish the deal. So was Avraham duped by Efron, & taken for a fool? The answer is No. The Hittites had cleverly told Avraham, "Choose for yourself the choicest of OUR plots – "K'vareynu" – implying that they, not him, would remain the actual owners of the land; Avraham would just be the tenant. But Avraham insisted that he hold full title. Avraham knew full well that the price he was paying seemed outrageous. But he was not just buying Sara's burial place; he was buying the future; he was putting Am Yisrael's stake down in the Holy Land, forever & ever. And he understood for that, no price is too high. Not the price he paid, & not the price we all continue to pay. ASK THE RABBI: WHY DO WE VENERATE MA'ARAT HA-MACHPELA, BUT NOT HAR SINAI OR MT. ARARAT? Of late, there has been a flurry of interest in Mt. Ararat, where the Torah says the Ark came to rest after the Flood. There is even an attempt to carbon-date some of the wood found there. But while this is historically interesting, it has no spiritual value for us; perhaps the place was even kept hidden to prevent people from worshipping the Ark. The same is true for Har Sinai: a momentous event took place there, but when it was over, it was over. We moved on, and that mountain did not retain any kedusha once the event was over. Thus there was even little, if any interest at all, in documenting on just what mountain in the desert the giving of the Torah took place. But Ma'arat HaMachpela, as the burial site of the Avot & Imahot (minus Rachel) holds eternal significance because it is one of 3 sites in Eretz Yisrael (along with Shechem & Har HaBayit) that we acquired in antiquity & because the burial place of Tzadikim represents a connector between Heaven & Earth, Hashem & Am Yisrael.
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