Parshat Chayye Sarah
The Torah uses a word for Avraham’s passing we see elsewhere, without easy parallel in English, va-yigva. Sefaria’s translations settle on “expired” or “breathed his last,” leaving unclear why it wouldn’t have been enough to say “and so and so died,” as the verse always does.
A Quick, Painless Death
Ibn Ezra, 25;8, thinks the word clarifies how the person died. In his view, gevi’ah refers to the spirit leaving the body in one moment, without suffering or delay. Ya’akov, 49;3, arranges his legs on the bed, gevi’ah comes, and he passes. It is but an instant, without the usual pain of soul separating from body.
Since every gevi’ah includes death, Ibn Ezra needs to explain why the Torah always adds that the person died. He suggests the Torah wants us to know Avraham passed away be-seivah tovah, at a ripe and satisfied old age. After a live well-lived, with plenty to be happy about, he moved on to the next world without trouble.
For the next idea in the verse, “he was gathered to his fathers,” Ibn Ezra enters mystical mode. He suggests the phrase refers to where the individual’s soul was joined in honor to the nation [that is what he says; I recognize how cryptic it is. I think he either means there’s some national soul, with the deceased contributing to it as they join, or that this great soul provides honor to the nation as a whole once it is no longer in its original body].
Or, he concedes another possibility, it’s just the language, the person went the way of his forefathers. Either way, for Ibn Ezra, Avraham leave us in a moment, with no protracted dying.
[It occurred to me that the Torah uses this word for the deaths of all flesh during the Flood, 7;21. Ibn Ezra there says only it means they all died, points us here for a fuller understanding. That verse doesn’t mention death, so he might think gevi’ah without another word for death indicates ordinary death; or he might think God was good to them, let them die instantly, without suffering.]
Eliezer’s Doubts, Avraham’s Trust
After Avraham asks Eliezer to find Yitzchak a wife in Charan, Eliezer worries the woman will refuse to come, 24;5. Sforno seems to have wondered why it should bother him—if she wouldn’t come, he would keep looking! Sforno claims Eliezer anticipated a scenario where the woman would refuse to come after he had committed Yitzchak to the usual spousal support. Yitzchak would then have to either return to Charan, or renege on his commitments to his new wife.
[Note the assumption the wife might make the agreement, refuse to fulfill her part by moving to Cana’an, and yet Yitzchak would feel obligated to do his part. Unless Sforno thought Eliezer would forget to mention the need to go to Cana’an, which I find unlikely. I think it shows that moral people often feel obligated to keep to their word despite another person’s perfidy. Here, it would put Yitzchak right where Avraham didn’t want him.]
Where 24;7 seems to have Avraham assert that God would send an angel to help, Sforno reads a prayer (in Lech Lecha, too, Sforno saw a prayer where others thought Hagar was naming God), Hashem Who took Avraham out of Charan, Who can arrange events at will, will make it such that Yitzchak need not go.
He picks up steam as he goes, in Sforno’s reading. “That He spoke to me” refers to the promise Yitzchak would be his continuity, “that He swore to me” shows it was irrevocable, a guarantee.
Eliezer could see a future where Yitzchak had to go back to Charan, Avraham trusted Hashem to work it out as he wanted.
To Avoid Shenanigans
Avraham first asks the Hittites to speak to Efron, to have him give (ve-yiten) the Cave of Machpelah, 23;9, a gift, when we know Avraham will insist on paying full price. Or HaChayyim sees cleverness, Avraham’s anticipatory efforts to ensure Efron cannot later go back on his word.
He quotes a Zohar, Efron had only seen darkness and confusion in the cave, could claim he didn’t know the value of what he was selling. With a wrong enough price, the sale becomes fraudulent, and could be reversed at any time, a possibility Avraham wants to forestall.
(Or HaChayyim pauses to note Avraham would want to buy the property even according to the view of Tosafot Kiddushin 42b, based on a Yerushalmi, land sold for more than double or less than half its price counts as ona’ah, mispriced enough to nullify the sale. We might dismiss such comments as anachronistic—in what world was Avraham aware of a view in Tosafot?--but centuries of commentators read the Torah this way. Earlier in the parsha, in a comment I did not choose for this week, Or HaChayyim thought Avraham’s words, I am a ger and toshav among you, referred to the halachic version of those ideas as well.)
Price aside, others could negate the sale because they were neighbors and had rights of first refusal, or had lent money to Efron and had the right to collect from his sold properties [two more halachic ideas Or HaChayyim is sure would have operated in Avraham’s sale as well].
Avraham therefore spoke of a sale with a gift. The only sale that is also a gift is chalipin, a sort of barter where price does not matter [we often do chalipin with a handkerchief, regardless of the value of the item being bought; it is like a gift, therefore, in that it ignores value]. Chalipin does not work with currency, though, as Efron gave Avraham. Or HaChayyim is on top of the issue, reminds us of Bechorot 50a, where R. Chanina singles out Efron’s shekel, says they were a much larger coin, with merchandise qualities.
Avraham bought the field and received it as a gift, used coins that allowed for chalipin, all to be sure Efron could not dispute the sale after the fact. Since we say ma’aseh avot siman le-banim, the actions of our Patriarchs prefigured what would happen to us, we can hope to one day soon see the time when the Hittites around us, whatever form they currently take, concede the Land belongs to us, whether because we bought it or because God gave it to us.
Avraham leaves the world gently and quickly, trusts Hashem to find Yitzchak a wife who will move to Cana’an, and buys the Cave of Machpelah and surrounding field successfully and without room to object.
