When Avraham received the terrible news that Sarah had died in Hebron, he traveled there from Be’er Sheva (see Rashi, Bereishis 23:2) to eulogize and mourn her.
How come Avraham and Sarah were in different cities, days apart, when she died?
There are two possible explanations. According to the first, which is based on a Midrash, when Sarah heard that Yitzchak was about to be offered up as a sacrifice, she rushed from Be’er Sheva, where Avraham and Sarah lived at that time (Bereishit 21:33 and 34), to Yerushlayim to try and save her son. On the way to Yerushalayim she passed Hebron and that is where she died. Since in those days, a woman had to be buried immediately in the place where she died, Avraham had to travel from Be’er Sheva to Hebron to bury her there.
According to a second explanation, Avraham and Sarah were still living in Hebron immediately before the Akeidah. As he left for Yershalayim to perform the Akeidah, Avraham, who did not tell Sarah where he was about to go and what he was about to do, grew concerned that word of the Akeidah would reach her and she would die from shock. Avraham knew that Sarah would be buried in the Me’aras HaMachpelah in Kiryat Arba, because he himself had previously picked out that location for her burial. He wanted the burial place of Adam and Eve. He also knew that the angel of death could only kill Sarah if she happened to be in Hebron, the place where she was destined to die and be buried, but he would have no power to kill her in any other place. So, to protect her, he arranged with her that she should pack up the household in Hebron and move to Be’er Sheva, where they would meet after Avraham would return from the Akeidah. That way, she would be in Be’er Sheva rather than in Hebron and would be safe from the scythe of the angel of death.
But Avraham’s plan to outwit the angel of death did not work and for some reason Sarah tarried in Hebron, perhaps packing up the household in preparation of the move, and that is where the angel of death met her.
A similar story is found in the Gemara (Sukkah 53a). The angel of death was sitting near Shlomoh HaMelech and looking despondent. “Why are you so downcast?” asked Shlomo. “Because I am meant to pick up two people today and transport them to the next world, but they are not in the place where they are destined to die, so I cannot perform my mission.”
In an effort to save these two prospective victims, Shlomo arranged for demons to fly them to Luz, a place which was out of bounds for the angel of death. The next day, when the angel of death came to visit Shlomo, he looked happy. “Why are you happy today?” asked Shlomo. “Because you helped me,” answered the angel of death. “You see, these two people were destined to die at the entrance to Luz, and you transported them there on time and so I was able to take them.” Like Avraham who was unable to save Sarah, Shlomo too was unable to save these two people from the fate of their destiny.
So, having been foiled by the angel of death, Avraham now must bury Sarah in the Me’aras HaMachpelah in Kiryat Arba, which is Hebron.
But there is a problem. First, the land of Canaan does not belong to Avraham yet and so the only way he can access the burial space is by buying it from its Canaanite owner. Second, the Canaanites, by law, cannot sell land to a foreigner. So, Avraham asks them to gift him the Me’aras HaMachpelah. “Ger v’toshav anochi imachem; tenu li achuzas kever imachem…” (23:4). But this was not a solution either, because a foreigner cannot own land in Canaan, irrespective of whether he bought it or it was given to him free of charge. The way the Bnei Ches solved this problem was by acknowledging the fact that Avraham was the spiritual ruler of the entire world – “nasi Elokim atah b’socheinu” (23:6) – and as such, he is a citizen of the world, including a citizen of Canaan and deserves a free plot to bury his dead like any other citizen of Canaan.
Having heard that he is entitled to a free burial plot, Avraham now tells the Bnei Ches that he wants the Me’aras HaMachpelah which is situated in the land that belongs to Ephron. In order to incentivize Ephron to donate the land to Avraham, the Bnei Ches appointed him to the position of a judge. Ordinarily, this position would have cost Ephron a lot of campaign money. But in return for this free appointment, the people of Ches expected Ephron to give the land to Avraham free of charge.
Ostensibly, Ephron agrees and announces this publicly so that he cannot retract the gift, “l’einei Bnei Ches n’sati’ah lach” (23:11). However, neither Ephron nor Avraham are content with this. Ephron wants money for his land and Avraham wants to pay for it, so that Ephron should never be able to challenge the sale in the future. And so, unknown to the Bnei Ches, Avraham and Ephron enter into a side deal in which Avraham slips him 400 silver Shekel in liquid currency.
We are then told (23:19) that after these negotiations, Avraham buried Sarah in the Me’aras HaMachpelah in Hebron, in the land of Canaan. Why does the Torah tell us that Hebron is in the land of Canaan? We know that already. The point that the Torah is making is that even though G-d promised Avraham that the land of Canaan would be his, right now it still belonged to Canaan, and so he still had to pay for land that would ultimately be his. And he did not complain. He did not question G-d’s ways.
According to Rabbeinu Yonah, this was the most difficult of all the tests that Avraham endured, more difficult even than the Akeidah. Rabbeinu Yonah probably bases this on a Gemara which relates a conversation between Satan and G-d, in which Satan complains that G-d is favoring Iyov, even though he has not tested Iyov as arduously as he tested Avraham. And the test that the Satan mentions as being the ultimate test is Avraham having to pay so much money for the Me’aras HaMachpelah, money that he could have used to fend for himself in his old age. Yet, Avraham did not complain.
Eliezer, who is sent by Avraham to the town of Nachor to find a wife for Yitzchak, devises an elaborate plan to succeed in his mission. Why did Eliezer have to go to such trouble? After all, Avraham told him that Hashem would send his angel in front of Eliezer to aid him (24:7). Eliezer could just as well have sat back and waited for it all to happen.
But Eliezer understood that waiting for G-d’s direct intervention without exerting any effort of his own was going to be too costly for Avraham. G-d wants the world to be run in accordance with the natural order of events, where people do their best to make things happen and only then does G-d take over. If we rely on miracles, we are in fact asking G-d to change the way he created the world, and that is a costly ask. G-d may do it, but he will deduct the cost of this over-budget request from any credit we may have on deposit with Him.
That is why in his prayer to G-d before he embarks on his mission, Eliezer says, “Hakrei na lifanai hayom, va’asei chesed im adoni Avraham” (24: 12). The word “hakrei” can be spelled with the letter hei like it is spelled here, or it can be spelled with an alef which is the way it is usually spelled. When spelled with a hei it denotes that something will happen, like a mikreh – the way things naturally happen in this world. When it is spelled with an alef at the end it means that G-d has ordered it to happen. Eliezer does not want Avraham to be charged with the cost of a miracle, and therefore he asks G-d to let Eliezer plan to the best of his human ability a way to find the right person for Yitzchak and then G-d will take it from there.
Eliezer puts two bracelets on Rivka’s hand, “shnei tzemidim al yade’ah” (24:22). We know that bracelets are worn on the hand, so why mention it? But these bracelets were special; they would only fit a person who was worthy of marrying Yitzhcak, just like the crown used in David’s time would only fit the person who had the qualities to be king. The two bracelets signified the two tablets of the law that Rivka’s descendants would receive. Eliezer also gave her a nose ring, which signifies the restraints that the Torah would later place on her descendants who were to be known as az ba’umos, the most defiant of all nations and who would therefore need 613 mitzvot to keep them in check.
