“and the field and the cave which is in it ‘rose.’” Bereshis 23,20
The Torah appears to repeat itself as we had been told already in verses 17-18 that the field and the cave passed from the possession of Efron to that of Avraham and the Torah specified its precise location. However, verses 17-18 speak about what happened to the field and the cave before Sarah was buried in there. At that time the property passed to the hands of Avraham only as a מקנה, a “purchase.” Now that Sarah had been buried in the cave of Machpelah the Torah speaks of it becoming an אחוזה, an inalienable piece of property. By burying Sarah in that cave Avraham had performed an act of permanent acquisition. The reason the Torah again stresses מאת בני חת, as if the sellers had been a whole group of people instead of merely Efron is of crucial importance. The Torah wants to forestall anyone ever raising any objection against this sale. Thus, the Torah repeats the story of the acquisition of this piece of property again at the end of the Book of Genesis (49,32) prior to Yaakov being buried there.
The Torah speaks about this transaction no fewer than eight times in this portion, and twice more at a later date, making a total of ten references to what should be viewed as a simple transaction.
Our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 58,8 have already foreseen such spurious counterclaims when they wrote: “how much ink has been spilled, how many styluses have been broken merely in order to write the words בני חת, ‘the Hittites.’” Ten times did the Torah repeat its reference to the Hittites. The Torah did so in order that anyone who acknowledges our title to the cave of Machpelah be considered as if he had observed the Ten Commandments.”
One of the moral lessons to be derived from our chapter is that even if man may conquer the whole of the inhabited part of the earth during his lifetime, in the end, when it is time to be buried, all he will own are the four cubits where he has been laid to rest. Avraham had been given the entire earth as a gift from G’d and what he had acquired by paying for it was only the cave of Machpelah in the “city of four, i.e. in Chevron.” Even though the Israelites conquered the whole of the land of Canaan by the sword, we find that three locations in that country are distinguished especially. This was so because they had not been acquired by force of arms but by legal tender, the previous owners having willingly forfeited their claim to these properties. They are Chevron, Mount Gerizim and Mout Eyval, and Mount Moriah. The Torah has documented our claim to Chevron in this portion. Mount Gerizim and Mount Eyval were the mountains where G’d concluded a covenant with the Jewish people (the generation which had not been of age or had not been born at the time of the Exodus). This area had already been bought by Yaakov when the Torah reported in Genesis 33,19: “Yaakov bought the piece of land, etc.” Mount Moriah’s purchase has been documented in Chronicles I chapter 21,
“she fell off the camel.” Bereshis 24,64
Rivkah did not fall off the camel she was riding on when she saw Yitzchak; rather, she inclined her head as one does prior to falling off an animal.” This interpretation is supported by the choice of the word מעל in our verse. Had she really fallen off, the Torah would have written: ותפול מהגמל. This is also why Onkelos translates these words as ואתרכנית, the same expression he used when he translated what Eliezer was going to say to Rivkah at the well, where the Torah wrote הטי נא כדך, “please incline your jug” (24,14). We have a similar example in Kings II 5,21 where Jeremiah wrote of Naaman ויראה נעמן רץ אחריו ויפול מעל המרכבה לקראתו, “when Naaman saw him (Gechazi) run after him, “he fell” from the chariot toward him, etc.” There too the meaning clearly is not that the general Naaman literally fell out of his chariot because he saw Gechazi running. The meaning is that he bent down, inquiring why Gechazi had run after him, etc.
Ibn Ezra interprets ותפול literally, adding that she fell down deliberately, i.e. on her face and prostrated herself. It is similar to Numbers 16,4 where it says of Moses ויפול על פניו, “he ‘fell’ on his face.” Moses did not fall against his will, but he prostrated himself deliberately. When the Torah here continues with: ותאמר אל העבד, “she said to the servant,” we must understand this as what she said prior to prostrating herself.
