The Paradigm of Jewish Land Purchase

And Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, accepted by the merchant.                                    Genesis 23:16

        The opening chapter of Parashat Ḥayye Sarah presents in detail the negotiations between Abraham and the sons of Heth for the purchase of the Machpela Cave, the first land purchase in Israel by a Jew, including the purchase price.

            When Jacob instructed his son Joseph to bury him in the Land of Israel, Jacob did not merely mention that the burial place must be the Machpela Cave, but added the information “This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.” [Genesis 49:30] As well, the description of Joseph’s execution of his father’s request includes the information that the place was purchased by Abraham, with the name of the seller and the purchase price again stated explicitly:

They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite.                             Genesis 50:3

            Similarly, we find the verse specifying the price paid for the parcel of land in Shechem purchased by Jacob:

He bought the section of the field where he pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for one hundred qesitahs.                    Genesis 33:19

Here, as well, when the parcel of land is mentioned again (as the burial place of Joseph) the verse again specifically notes the purchase price and the seller’s name:

Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the parcel of land Jacob had purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for one hundred qesitahs .It was an inheritance for Joseph's descendants.     Joshua 24:32

            There is a third land purchase for which the Bible details the purchase price and the seller’s name: the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, which is the Temple Mount:

The king answered Araunah, "No, I insist on buying it from you for a fair price, for I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost (me) nothing." David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. II Samuel 24:24

            We may note that in King David’s purchase of the threshing floor of Araunah, as Abraham’s purchase of the Machpela Cave, the Jewish buyer refused to accept the land for free.

            Also concerning the purchase of the site which became the capital of the Kingdom of Israel during the reign of Omri, we read details of the seller and the purchase price:

He purchased the hill Samaria from Shemer for the price of two talents of silver, and he built a town on the hill, naming it Samaria, after Shemer the (previous) owner of the hill.                   I Kings 16:24

            Thus, our parasha presents the paradigm of Jewish land purchase in the Land of Israel.

            Rashi, in his first comment on Ḥumash, quotes the comment of Rabbi Yitzḥak (whose source is Midrash Tanḥuma), according to which the right of the Nation of Israel to its Land rests upon the Divine will to give us the Desired Land. However, we find a Midrash which states:

There are three places (in the Land) which the nations of the world cannot deceive Israel and claim they are stolen, and these are they: the Machpela Cave, the Temple and Joseph’s Tomb.          Breishit Rabba 79:7

That is, our rights to these three places rest upon their legal purchase by our fathers and our king.

            Clearly, there is no contradiction. Rabbi Yitzḥak’s words are addressed to the Nation of Israel internally. We must understand and appreciate that our claim to the Promised Land flows exclusively from God’s will that His nation be in His Land. However, we cannot expect the nations of the world to understand and accept this truth. Therefore, Breishit Rabba presents a claim to which the nations can relate: our rights stem from our ancestors’ purchases. It is for this reason that the Bible stresses the details of these purchases: the buyer the seller and the sale price. In essence, this information serves as the purchase deed which confirms our property rights.

            Ultimately, the comments of Rabbi Yitzḥak quoted by Rashi presents the basic condition for our property claims. It is perfectly obvious that if we, the Nation of Israel, do not understand and accept that the Land was given by God to us and only to us, the nations of the world will not accept our claim.

            This perhaps explains the irony of our current reality in Israel. In a sense the three most hotly contested areas of the country are those “Which the nations cannot claim are stolen by Israel” My rabbi, Rabbi Yaakov Wahrhaftig, explained that the intent of the Midrash is that if the Nation of Israel fully understood the truth that these three places belong to us exclusively, no one could have the audacity to claim otherwise. Since this is not the case, we ourselves have given the nations the possibility of claiming we have stolen the Land.

This Dvar Torah is based upon a lesson of Rabbi Amnon Bazak.