Ramah Nyack - D'var Torah - Parshat Chayei Sarah
Friday, November 21st
Jessica Feiwus is spending the year volunteering in the French Hill Section of
Jerusalem. She is a long time member of the tzevet and worked last summer as
Rosh Mada. Jess brings a sense of excitement and enthusiasm to everything in life.
She can be reached at [email protected]
Dear Tzevet Member:
I have the fortune to be spending this year volunteering at The Frankel School in
French Hill, Jerusalem. Every Sunday morning, my week begins with a school-wide
assembly featuring news updates, results of student achievements, various
acknowledgments, and much more. As the principal stood in front of the community
this past Sunday, she engaged the students and me immediately by conveying how
wonderful and lucky everyone is that they are living and studying at a school in Eretz
Yisrael. This lead into a discussion about this weeks parsha, Chayei Sarah and the
first real estate deal ever made in Israel.
Although Chayei Sarah translates to the life of Sarah, it is really not about her life. In
the first sentence, it discusses her death. It highlights Sarah's existence after her
death through a number of ways, one being Abraham's journey to find a burial site
for her. Calling himself a 'resident alien', it is explained in the parsha that Abraham
approaches the Hittites and asks the Hittites to sell him a piece of land that could be
used as a burial site for Sarah. The Hittites respond to Abraham saying, "You are the
elect of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places; none of
us will withhold this burial place from you for burying your dead" (Bereshit 23:13:6).
Abraham turns to Ephron, the Hittite for the Cave of Machpelah, and he generously
offers Abraham the cave at no expense and in addition, even throws in the plot of
land where the cave is located.
While Abraham could have accepted this piece of land for free, he instead insisted on
purchasing it at its full value of 400 silver shekels. This amount was said to represent
an extremely exorbitant amount of money. In any case, Abraham's purchase only
portrayed his seriousness in wanting to have a claim to the land.
Last fall, I studied in Prague where I learned about early Zionists who went through
similar land negotiations to those that Abraham went through. They also wanted to
have a legitimate claim to property located in former Palestine during the early 20th
century. Just as Abraham wanted to declare ownership to the Cave of Machpelah,
early Jewish settlers were also looking to purchase land. They wanted to ensure that
they had a legal right to it and that they didn't just move in, take it over, and push
other people out.
The debate over legitimate ownership of the land in Israel is ever present today.
There are many ongoing political and religious discussions regarding the land and
what parcel rightfully belongs to whom. This Shabbat, many will be traveling to
Chevron, the site where the Cave of Machpelah is located. World opinion over the
rightful claim to this land has never been resolved and the dispute continues today,
just as it does in other areas in Israel such as the Golan. Israel is constantly working
towards convincing the world of its legitimate right to the land.
As Jews, we know that HaShem promised the land of Israel to us. Both Abraham and
the early Zionists had a desire to obtain the land in a legal and legitimate way, and
purchased it accordingly. They did so to establish proper ownership so that the land
could be passed down to future generations today. We must cherish what our
ancestors did for us. For over two thousand years, this ongoing battle has ensued.
Though it continues today, we must hope and pray that peace will come to the
people of Israel and to Eretz Yisrael.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jess
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To volunteer to write an upcoming D'var Torah, please contact Ami Hersh at
[email protected]. The greater the number of volunteer teachers we
have, the richer our community will become.