Torah Study Blog

Archaeologist have discovered evidence of human burial rituals from 15,000 year ago. The act of burying beloved family members might have been the earliest form of religious impulse.

In biblical times, the ideal would have been for a family to own a cave in which to bury their dead. Typically, a body would be left in the cave for a year to decompose then someone would enter the cave to collect the bones and put them in a container, called an ossuary, and move them to the side to make room for the next dead.

Recall that, at the bidding of God, Abraham left his home to travel to Canaan. After many adventures where Abraham and Sarah substantially increased their wealth, Sarah reached the age of 127 and passed away. Abraham needed a place to bury Sarah and part of this week’s Torah portion, Genesis 23, tells the story of Abraham securing a burial cave for his family.

Abraham and Sarah were residing in an area known as Hebron. The Hittite townspeople were familiar with Abraham and had a great deal of respect for him. The Hittites offered that Abraham could bury his dead in any burial place of his choosing. But Abraham politely insisted that he must own his burial land.

Abraham indicated a cave surrounded by fields in an area called Machpelah as his desired location. The land was owned by Ephron, who offered to give Abraham the land for free. Abraham insisted that he wanted to purchase the land. Ephron set a very high price of 400 shekels, to which Abraham readily agreed, then the transacted the transfer of property in front of many witnesses, making it legally binding.

Our group tried to get a better understanding of what 400 shekels might be worth. A shekel is a unit of weight, so the price represents a particular amount of silver. The Abraham story is set in the 14th century BCE. In 2 Samuel 24 there is a 10th century story of King David purchasing an area to build an altar, the same area that the Temple in Jerusalem will eventually

be built upon (although we don’t know that in this story). David only spent 50 shekels of silver for the property he wanted. This gives us an idea that Abraham spent big bucks!

The book of Chronicles is a 3rd century BCE retelling of the history of the Jewish people. In this retelling, the same story suffers from a major case of inflation. We are told that David spent 600 shekels of gold in order to buy the property! That inflation likely reflects that fact that the story was re- written hundreds of years later and the purchase was for the important land that the Temple would sit upon. If the land was purchased on the cheap, it would not speak well of our ancestors. The writers of Chronicles increased the price to something that would be worthy of the property for the Temple.

But back to Abraham: It is a human impulse to want to know that the bones of our loved ones will not be disturbed. Abraham was sure to own the land outright. He (or the writers) did not want the possibility of later people to say, “you don’t own the land,” or “you still owe us for the land.” A substantial monetary transaction is recorded in the Bible to be clear that this land belongs to the Jewish people.

Tradition tells us that the remains of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah are all in the Tomb of the Patriarchs at Machpelah, which is located in the West Bank. Today, the location has both a mosque and a synagogue.

Rabbi Jaech pointed out to us that the Israeli government subsidizes living costs for Jews who are willing to live in the West Bank. Many West Bank settlers live there, not for ideological reasons, but due to the economic incentives provided by the government. However, there are also Jews who live in the city of Hebron, near Machpelah, and they are likely there for ideological reasons. Sadly, in 1994 a Jewish extremist murdered 29 Muslims while they were worshipping. The area remains a place where tensions are high and it is not safe for tourism at this time.

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misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Jaech taught us are the responsibility of Tara Keiter