Land Deal By Rabbi Joshua (arguably known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
This week's parsaha describes the purchase of the field and cave of Machpelah by Avraham to bury his wife Sarah and to serve as a burial area for his descendants. . The Torah presents us with a long description of the discussion that took place between Avraham, the people of Cheis and their leader Ephron, and concludes with the finalization of the sale; " And Ephron's field, that was in Machpelah, that was facing Mamreh stood- the field and the cave within it and al the trees in the field , within its entire boundary all around- as Avraham's as a purchase in the view of the children of Cheis with al that came to the gate of the city" ( Bereishis, 23, 17-18. The midrash Rabbah points out that much ink was spilled and many reeds broken to write this episode in the torah, to indicate that whoever helps clarify the purchase of a tzadik- a righteous person- is considered as if he fulfilled the five books of the torah. The midrash also notes that the term ' bnei Cheis'- the children of Cheis- is written ten times, corresponding to the 'ten sayings,' or the Decalogue, to indicate that whoever establishes the purchase of a tzadik is considered as if he fulfilled the ten sayings of the Decalogue. What is the connection between this purchase and the fulfillment of the Torah?
Rabbi Reuven Katz, in his Dudaei Reuven to our parsha, explains that the purchase serves as a proof to our hold on Eretz Yisroel, and, consequently, to the truth of the Torah He notes that Avraham told the bnei Cheis, "I am a sojourner (ger) and a resident (toshav) among you; grant me a holding for a grave with you, that I may bury my dead from before me" (Bereishis, 23, 13). Rash, in explaining the double appellation of ger and toshav that Avraham applied to himself, cites a midrash, that Avraham was saying that if they accede to his request, he will remain a ger among them. However, if they don't grant him the burial area, he would take it by right, because God had told him, "To your offspring I will give this land" (Bereishis, 12, 7). Rabbi Katz explains that Avraham was saying, in the long run, his people will acquire the land one way or the other. They can either capture it all now, or wait until the future. If they decide to wait, however, they need to at least have title to the Machpelah plot, in order to demonstrate thee validity of their claim to the entire land. The nations of the world, says Rabbi Katz, have, in fact, always recognized Machpelah as the burial place of our patriarchs. This admission to our connection with the land, says Rabbi Katz, also constitutes an admission to the validity of the entire Torah. I would like to elaborate on why this last point, in a different way than that presented by Rabbi Katz.
Rashi, in the beginning of his commentary to the Torah, cites a midrash which asks why the Torah begins with an account of the creation of the world and the subsequent events recorded in the book of Bereishis, rather than with the first mitzvah commanded to the Jewish nation. The idea behind this question is that the Torah is primarily a book of divine instruction, teaching the Jewish nation God's commands, and it would therefore seem to be appropriate to begin with the fist command given to them. The midrash answers that the Torah needed to establish the validity of the Jewish people's claim to Eretz Yisroel. Therefore, it recorded that God created the world, and can give the land to whomever He wishes. Although he originally gave he land to the people of Cannan, He later took it from them and gave it to the nation of Israel. As we pointed out in Netvort to parshas Bereishis, 5760 (see Torahheights.com); it is difficult to understand how this answer relates to the original question of how the contents of the book of Bereishis are connected to the main purpose of the Torah, which is to teach the commandments to the nation. I believe that the two explanations we presented, which actually merge into one, can help explain the midrash regarding the purchase of the field of Machpelah by Avraham, as well The Ramban, in his commentary to parshas Acharei Mos, writes that the mitzvos are meant to be performed mainly in the land of Israel. This applies, according to the Ramban, not only to agricultural mitzvos such as terumah and ma'aser which relate specifically to the soil of Eretz Yisroel, but even to mitzvos such as tefillin and tzitzis, which are mitzvos that relate primarily to the person. Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch explained that even though, in turns of our obligation to perform these mitzvos, there is no difference between the land of Israel and the lands outside of it, in terms of the effect that the mitzvos have on those who perform them there is a difference. Since God's presence is more intense and evident in Eretz Yisroel, the effect that the mitzvos performed there have upon us is also greater. Thus, since all the mitzvos are enhanced when performed in Eretz Yisroel, it seem appropriate that before the mitzvos are commanded to the Jewish people, its claim to the land, which is the natural place for those mitzvos to be performed, be clarified.
Another explanation is given by Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntshitz found in the Keli Yakar. He writes that our claim to Eretz Yisroel needs to be clarified because otherwise the nations of the world would challenge the Torah itself. How, they could claim, can Moshe tell the Jews in Egypt to avoid theft and take a lamb of their own to serve as the Passover sacrifice, when He did not care that the Israelites were going to rob other nations of their land? In order to show that God's laws are based on justice, the claim of the people to the land needed to be clarified and firmly established. For this reason, the Torah begins with the book of Bereishis to demonstrate that the land if Israel does, indeed, belong to the Israelite nation.
I believe that these two are complementary to each other. Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, of blessed memory, has pointed out that any unauthorized use of God's world on our part constitutes theft. God created the world, and it belongs to Him. Man is allowed to make use of that world only on the condition that he follows God's rules in doing so. If man sins, then his use of the world constitutes theft. The Torah, then, is the Jewish people's guide to the proper use of God's universe, instructing it how to avoid any misappropriation of it. Within this context, it is important to demonstrate that the Jewish people has not misappropriated the land of Israel, the optimum location for the performance of the mitzvos .Thus, when the bnei Cheis assisted Avraham in purchasing the filed and cave of Machpelah and thereby helped establish the Jewish nation's claim to Eretz Yisroel, they were, in effect, also assisting the nation in fulfilling the five books of the Torah and the Ten Commandments , which, as the Midrash Rabbah to parshas Naso points out, contain within them all of the six hundred thirteen mitzvos.