Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Abraham rose up from before his dead and spoke to the children of Heth, saying, “I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.””
(Genesis 23:3-4)

Abraham had lived in this region of the world a VERY long time at this point. He had never owned even a little piece of it. God had promised him possession, but he had never tried to force the issue. Never tried to make it happen in his time. Abraham and Sarah weren’t perfect in their walk with God, but they never tried to jump the gun on this issue. Ever. It was only when he had lost his wife and wanted to honour her with a proper burial that Abraham sought to purchase some land. To buy the bare minimum in order to do the right thing. It was a lovely gesture.

Heth was the grandson of Ham and the great-grandson of Noah (Genesis 9:18; 10:15).

Abraham didn’t stop living when Sarah died. He continued on for thirty-nine (39) more years. He loved her. He mourned her. But he didn’t give up. He didn’t stop living. He continued. It is the choice we all have when a loved one dies. Grief is normal, but it is not meant to overshadow our lives (Psalm 30:5). God can heal us from the intense pain and help us more forward. But we have to choose to let Him. We have to choose to keep going. We can crawl into the grave with our loved ones or we can live our lives. God wants us to live. It is the right thing to do.

The sage Sforno writes: ‘מעל פני מתו, וידבר אל בני חת. As long as he had not buried Sarah he was not yet a mourner in the technical meaning of the word. He was therefore able to leave his house and assemble the people of the town. גר ותושב, because I used to be a stranger here, I do not possess an ancestral burial ground. The word is used in this sense by Isaiah 22,16 ומי לך פה כי חצבת לך פה קבר, “whom have you here that you have hewn out a tomb for yourself here?” תנו לי אחוזת קבר, “be agreeable to that I should possess a burial plot among you.”’

The sage Or HaChaim writes: ‘וידבר אל בני חת לאמור. He spoke to the Hittites, to say. The word לאמור is to counteract the impression that Abraham asked for something gratis when he said: תנו לי, “give me permanent possession, etc!” Abraham would not be satisfied with just any gift the Hittites were willing to give him, but this was only an introduction to negotiations leading to the acquisition of the cave of Machpelah. Furthermore, the Torah wanted to explain why Abraham needed to speak to the Hittites, when the land in question belonged to one man only, and the whole transaction should have been simple and uncomplicated. A cave, unlike a field, could not be worked like a field, was not useful to its owner to build on, etc.; therefore normal proof of ownership might be difficult to establish by his heirs in the future. This is why Abraham wanted everybody present as witnesses. The purchase would be fully valid and would not ever be contested after all these preconditions had been met. Abraham also wanted to refute any suggestion that he wanted something for nothing. By saying לאמור, he indicated that he would negotiate (establish a price) for this acquisiton.’

The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 4. גור ,גר, to be landless, not to be on one’s own land. גר ותושב: I have no right to your land, but I have lived amongst you for a long time. אחוזה: If this word is usually taken to designate property, because “the object is grasped” (from אחז) the explanation hardly fits the case. For אחוזה occurs exclusively referring to landed property which is just what can not be grasped. It is never used in connection with mobile property. Further when אחז is used for taking into possession, it is always expressed in the Niphal, והאחזו בה (Gen. 34,10), ויאחזו בה (ibid XLVI,27), ונאחזו בתוככם (Numb. 32,30). So that the object is not gripped by the owner, but the owner is gripped and held fast by the object, and that in fact is the case with the possession of land. Land holds its owner, he is chained to it, which is also why land can be a guarantee for its owner, and also probably why אין נשבעין על הקרקעות. By an oath a person sets himself and all that he possesses, all that can be considered as part and parcel of himself, under the punishing jurisdiction of God, if what he says is not true, or if he does not do what he swears to do. But only mobile possessions are really held by him, are at his disposal to be destroyed. Immobile possessions outlive their owner, he is considered as being held by them rather than the reverse. Hence he can not pledge the existence of the soil for the truth of his word. So that the underlying idea of אחוזה is being settled, the act of permanent settling. Abraham does not ask for permission just to bury his wife. He wants his wife to rest in her permanent everlasting possession of her resting-place, that is why he first asks for the right to acquire a piece of land as freehold property for the purpose of a sepulchre. He had tarried for many years as an alien in the country and had never tried to acquire a single foot of land in it. For wandering was his calling. The necessity for burying his wife was the first cause that brought him the need to acquire the possession of land in the country. His wife’s grave was to be the first bond that attaches him to the land, the place that draws him to it and holds him: אחוזה’