Parshat Chaye Sarah
Two Tracks and the Third Rail

Our mother Sarah died in Hebron, and Avraham came to be "maspid," to eulogize, her and to weep over her passing. I believe that this is the first mention in the Bible of the idea of eulogy for the departed, and also the first mention of weeping as a human response to personal tragedy.

Avraham is offered a burial plot, by Ephron HaChiti, its present owner, as a gift. But Avraham refuses to accept it on those terms, knowing full well that his claim to the Land in the eyes of the world will have no hope of being recognized as valid unless he purchases it. He pays four hundred silver shekels, an exorbitant price, to Ephron, thus affirming his faith in the promise by G-d to give the Land of Israel to the Jewish People.

Similarly, King David purchases the Place of the Altar, though he is also offered it as a gift, from Arnon HaYevusi, for fifty silver shekels, as recounted in Shmuel Beit (24:24). Subsequently, he collects fifty gold shekels from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and purchases with those six hundred gold shekels the entire city of Yerushalayim, causing the Holy City to become the common property of the People of Israel.

Thus, we see that the mechanism of purchase of land is one "track," or method, which the Jewish People used in ancient times, and which was used as well in modern times, at the time of the establishment of the State of Israel, to establish possession of the land.

Another "track" is diplomacy, accomplishing goals by persuasion; by logic, rather than by force. This sounds wonderful, in principle. The only problem is that it doesn't work. King David tried it three thousand years ago, and his reaction to the experience is conveyed in Chapter 120 of Tehilim:

In our century, diplomacy had some success. Herzl, the reporter turned diplomat, was, to outward appearances, an assimilated Jew. He was therefore a most unlikely source (excepting from the perspective of Rav Kook), for the role which he actually played, which was to unite the sparks which were already burning for a return to Zion.

In 1917, diplomacy achieved the Balfour Declaration by the British, almost immediately rescinded, but too late, for it had accomplished its purpose of giving nascent Zionism the support, if only for a historical "instant," of the then-mighty British Empire. Dr. Chaim Weitzmann prevailed upon President Truman to vote for the partition of Palestine, and Abba Eban argued eloquently in behalf of the State of Israel at the United Nations.

But, on the other hand, we (when I say "we," I mean the Jewish People) sued for peace, fruitlessly, after each of our victorious wars with the Arabs, from the Milchemet HaShichrur (Israel's War of Independence) in 1948, the Sinai Campaign in 1956, the Milchemet Sheshet HaYamim (Six-Day War) in 1967, through the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

Israel sat down for a "Peace Process" with the Palestinians at Oslo, but we found that the experience of King David with the dwellers in the "tents of Kedar," probably the ancestors of our Arab cousins, had repeated itself: "I am for peace! But when I speak, they are for war," tragically, for us.

Just last week, another "drive-by" shooting occurred, in which two Israeli soldiers were victims, and the perpetrators fled into areas of Hebron which had been "turned over" to the Palestinians, placing them out of reach of the Israeli Army.

Hebron! Where all of our Avot and Imahot, except Rachel, in addition to Adam and Chava, Abba and Imma of all of humanity, lie buried. Where King David began his reign, by serving as King for seven and a half years. Where Avner ben Ner, one of the great generals and great men of Davidic times, was buried and eulogized by David.

Hebron! Where, in our century, there was a thriving Jewish community until 1929, when the community was destroyed and many students of the famous Hebron Yeshiva were murdered by Arabs, fathers and grandfathers of our present-day enemies, with the result that the city became nearly empty of Jews. Where, under Arab control, Jewish access to the Meorat HaMachpelah was restricted to the seventh step of an outside staircase.

Hebron! Where now a small community of brave settlers attempts to re-create and re-establish Jewish roots in this ancient Jewish city. Who live with their families, attempting to live "normal lives," educating their children, amidst a hostile sea of Arabs!

Fortunately for us, in addition to the two "tracks" mentioned, there is also, to extend the somewhat crude analogy, a "third rail," charged with transcendent power, the power of the covenant, the "brit," which G-d made with our Avot for their descendants. This "third rail" is charged with the "power of His deeds which He told His people," mentioned in the first RASHI in Bereshit, where this "argument" is used to silence all criticism and debate regarding the title of Eretz Yisrael in this world. For the world was created in its entirety by G-d, Who thereby owns it all, and His allocation of the Land of Israel to the Jewish People is by definition legitimate.

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel

Rabbi Frankel is an Educational Coordinator at the OU