Parashat Chayei Sarah: A Prince Who Bows

At the opening of this week’s parashah, Abraham mourns Sarah in Hebron and asks the local Hittites for a burial site. “Then Abraham rose from beside his dead, and spoke to the Hittites, saying, ‘I am a resident alien among you; sell me a burial site among you, that I may remove my dead for burial.’ And the Hittites replied to Abraham, saying to him, ‘Hear us, my lord: you are the prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places; none of us will withhold his burial place from you for burying your dead.’ Thereupon Abraham bowed low to the people of the land, the Hittites.” (Genesis 23:3-7)

Abraham is a wealthy and well-known figure, yet he calls himself a resident alien. The locals answer as befits his standing, addressing him as “my lord” and offering him any plot he wishes. Abraham bows. Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar (1696–1743), in his eighteenth-century Torah commentary Or HaChaim, explains that Abraham was signaling the reverse of what the Hittites assumed: he did not regard himself as their prince, but considered them more deserving of honor than himself.

Buying, not taking

Ephron then offers to give Abraham the field and the cave within it for free: “No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field and I give you the cave that is in it; I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead” (Genesis 23:11). Abraham bows again, and then insists on paying the full price.

Many people of power today, from politicians and executives to religious leaders, come to feel like lords of the land and tell themselves they deserve every perk. Abraham, the man to whom the land was promised, refuses that status. He pays for the plot he receives and bows before the people around him.

Rashi, reading the passage closely, hears a sharper edge in Abraham’s politeness. Following Midrash Aggadah, he suggests that Abraham was saying: sell me the land and I will pay as a stranger; refuse, and I will claim it as a settler by right of God’s promise. Rashi’s sensitivity to this claim is clear from his commentary on the first verse of the Torah, where he cites Rabbi Isaac: the entire earth belongs to God, who gives it to whomever He pleases.

Ownership with humility

Abraham offers another model, one without lordliness. The land was promised to him and his descendants, yet the Torah insists that we also remain strangers in it. God says: “But the land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me” (Leviticus 25:23). King David echoes this humility: “For we are strangers before You, and sojourners, as were all our fathers” (1 Chronicles 29:15). Abraham shows us a form of ownership that holds humility within it. He teaches us how to be a prince who bows.

Lior Tal Sadeh is an educator, writer, and author of “What Is Above, What Is Below” (Carmel, 2022). He hosts the daily “Source of Inspiration” podcast, produced by Beit Avi Chai.

For more insights into Parashat Chayei Sarah, listen to “Source of Inspiration” (in Hebrew).

Translation of most Hebrew texts sourced from Sefaria.org

Main Photo: Abraham and Sarah\ Wikipedia