Synagogue Sermon
Don't Underestimate Yourself (1952)
This week’s Sidra tells of the first business deal recorded in History. It involves a not-too-complicated affair, but the transaction is nevertheless an interesting one. Sarah had died, and Abraham was looking for a plot of ground where he could bury her. He approached the bnei cheiss, the Hittites, and asked them to sell him the me’oras hamachpelah, that sepulchre which has been so highly revered in Jewish Tradition as the burial ground of the Patriarchs of Israel. Ephron, who was chief of the am ha’aretz, the technical name for the Hittite National Council, was, in fact, very gracious with this dignified stranger, Abraham. Indeed, Ephron sounds anxious to satisfy Abraham and get rid of the real estate. When Abraham offers Ephron 400 silver shekels, Ephron replies: אדני שמעני ארבע מאות שקל כסף ביני ובינך מה היא – “Listen here, sir, a parcel of real estate worth a mere $400 – what is that between people like you and me?” Ephron was certainly noble about the entire deal, and we can rightly expect the Torah – and the Rabbis and Tradition – to give Ephron due credit for his kindness. If anything, the verdict of History should be that Ephron was a “good goy,” a fine fellow.And yet, surprisingly, our Rabbis thought the exact opposite. We are almost inclined to feel that Tradition was unfair to Ephron when the Rabbis bitingly applied to him the verse from Proverbs: נבהל להון איש רע עין – “It is a man who has an evil eye who hastens after riches.” So that our Sages, who usually are blessed with such penetrating insight into human character and personality, suspected Ephron of having an “evil eye” and decided that he was no gentleman after all, but that he was a profiteer, a nivhal la’hon, a man who had no values other than money and profit. And we ask why, why did chazal malign this man Ephron, who was willing to sell to our Father Abraham the meeras hamachpelah without haggling about details, and why did they think him a nivhal lahon, a profiteer, and an ish ra ayin, a m…
