Shabbat Parashat Chayei Sarah - 5784

Shabbat Parashat Chayei Sarah - 5784

Rabbi Hal Miller

Sarah died in Kiryat Arba, which is Chevron in the land of Canaan, and Avraham

came to eulogize Sarah and to bewail her. [Bereishit 23:2]

And after that, Avraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah

facing Mamre, which is Chevron, in the land of Canaan. [Bereishit 23:19]

The place that Sarah died and was buried seems to have a lot of names. We see this

again in parashat Vayishach [Bereishit 35:27], "Yaakov came to Yitzchak his father at

Mamre, Kiryat Arba, that is Chevron, where Avraham and Yitzchak journeyed" as well

as other places. Why did the Torah give us all these names and what do they mean?

Kiryat Arba means the city of four. Rashi says it was "named after four giants who were

there, Ahiman, Sheshai, Talmai and their father", which seems to be based on the verse

in Bamidbar [13:22]. But then Rashi adds, "alternatively it is named after four couples

who were buried there, man and wife: Adam and Chavah, Avraham and Sarah, Yitzchak

and Rivkah, Yaakov and Leah." Onkelos lists both of these alternatives. Radak and

Rashbam mention the giants, Rashbam adding that the giant who founded the town was

named Arba, father of the other three listed. Rav Moshe Feinstein also notes the giants.

But in the Gemora [Eruvin 53a, Sotah 13a] we see "R'Yitzchak said, the city of the four

couples". Rav Yosef Soloveitchik takes this approach, adding that it demonstrates a tie

between human dignity and Jewish sanctity. He also says that the repetition in 23:19 is to

direct that a Jew be buried in a Jewish cemetery rather than mixed in with non-Jews. Rav

Hirsch says that the "name of the place was Machpelah, referring to the doubleness (cafal)

of the married couples buried there. The name Chevron was added here because it means

'intimate union'."

But there are other opinions about the naming. Or HaChayim says that it refers to the four

basic elements, since death is a decomposition of whatever was made of those four. The

addition of Chevron, a word based on chibor, or joining, refers to the righteous who do not

decompose in the same way, but remain existing for the future.

Bereishit Rabbah [58:4] says that the place had four names: Eshcol, Mamre, Kiryat Arba

and Chevron. Instead of giants, though, the Midrash says that Kiryat Arba refers to four

righteous men who lived there, Aner, Eshcol, Mamre and Avraham. It gives a few other

'fours' as well.

Why does the Torah feel a need to tell us that the place was Chevron in the land of Canaan?

Rav Moshe notes that we already know that Chevron is in Canaan. Ramban explains this

is to note that this was in the land of Canaan and not the land of the Plishtim." The various

references are to tell us that the righteous returned to the holy land for burial.