Edited and adapted from Ari’s Grill & Torah – Nov. 25, 2016
There are hundreds of thousands of people making their way to Hebron right now. They’ll be spending Shabbat there, on the week when Avraham Avinu buried his wife Sarah in Ma’arat HaMachpela (the Cave of the Patriarchs).
We’re going to be talking about this week’s parsha, and we’re going to be talking about current events in Israel.
Israel is facing a wave of arson attacks. More than 250 fires have broken out across the country, and according to the police and fire department, many of them were deliberately set.
Here in Gush Etzion, volunteers and security personnel are guarding vulnerable areas around the clock, even on Shabbat, because this is a matter of life and death. In Haifa, fires have devastated neighborhoods, and near Ariel, terrorists have been caught on video setting fires.
This isn’t simply arson. It’s terrorism. People are deliberately trying to burn down Jewish communities, and the consequences can be deadly.
But there’s something about these attacks that connects directly to this week’s parsha.
Why Did Avraham Buy Ma’arat HaMachpela?
This week’s parsha is an interesting one. Avraham Avinu buries his wife Sarah, and later, he also dies. They’re both buried in Ma’arat HaMachpela, in Hebron.
What’s interesting is that Avraham Avinu buys this cave for full money, for a very expensive price, according to the Jewish sages who talk about this.
And the question is why? This is in the Land of Israel. Why did Avraham buy it?
According to the Jewish sages, Avraham bought it because they wanted no dispute. They didn’t want the people of the land to say, “Hey, you stole this. You occupied it from us.”
Avraham would turn around and say, “No, no, no. I bought it with full money, and here’s the receipt.”
Or at least, that was the plan.
There are actually three areas in the Land of Israel that were bought with money. One is the Temple Mount, one is the Cave of Joseph in Shechem, and the other one is Ma’arat HaMachpela in Hebron.
Those three places were bought with money so that when the nations come and say to us, “You stole it from us,” we’ll say, “No, no, no. It was bought with money.”
Unfortunately, it’s not working.
So I always ask myself, what happened? Why isn’t it working? We bought that land. How could anyone possibly dispute that land purchase we made so many years ago?
No one denies it. The Christian Bible writes it. The Islamic Quran writes it very clearly, that the Land of Israel belongs to the children of Israel, the children of Jacob, as well as to the nation of Moses.
So what happened?
I think what happened is that it’s not a matter of the nations not admitting it. It’s about us. It’s about us not claiming things. It’s about us not saying, “Hey, buddy, wait a second. No way. We bought this. It was our money. We bought this with money.”
And it’s clear that it was bought with money.
The problem is really not the Arabs. And again, when I say Arabs, I don’t mean all Arabs.
For those of you who don’t know, I have a friend from Jordan named Sultan, and I’m proud to call him a friend. I’m happy to call him a friend.
When I say Arabs, or even Muslims, it’s got to be clear that I’m not talking about all of them. We’re talking about the people we have a problem with.
We don’t have a problem with people because they’re Arab or Muslim. We have a problem with people who are terrorizing, shooting, murdering, and starting fires with the goal of killing people. That’s what we have a problem with, and that should be very, very clear.
I always correct people who say, “All Muslims,” or “All Arabs.”
Again, I don’t know the numbers, and it’s totally irrelevant, but people like Sultan, and people I know from my area, who are behaving themselves and who don’t want war, deserve our respect and protection.
Those we have a problem with, of course, deserve our fist, and that’s a different story.
The Parsha Without Wars
What’s really interesting about this parsha is that although Sarah dies at the beginning and Avraham dies at the end, there’s around 38 years between their deaths. And there’s something very unique about this parsha: there are no wars!
Look at the parshas before and after. They’re full of conflicts. Kayin killed Hevel, Esav and Yaakov fight, and last week we had Yishmael being kicked out of the house because Sarah said that he could not live with her son Yitzchak. Avraham didn’t want to listen, but God told him that Sarah was correct.
Yet in this week’s parsha, it’s exactly the opposite. People are actually getting along. Avraham buys Ma’arat HaMachpela, buries Sarah, and there are no conflicts.
And to really drive this point home, at the end of the parsha, when Avraham is buried, the Torah tells us that Yitzchak and Yishmael buried him together.
That’s shocking, because Yishmael had been kicked out of the house. Why would he come home to bury the father who sent him away?
According to the Jewish sages, Yishmael had changed his ways. And what’s interesting is that the Torah specifically names Yitzchak before Yishmael, even though Yishmael was the older brother.
The sages explain that Yishmael had repented. He accepted Yitzchak’s precedence and put him first. For the first time, there was real peace between them.
We always say in Judaism, Ma’aseh Avot Siman LaBanim, the actions of the fathers are a sign for the children.
So how do we get to that point again? How do we reach a situation where Yitzchak and Yishmael can stand together in peace?
The answer is that Yishmael accepted what was true and right. He put Yitzchak first. That doesn’t mean that Yitzchak put him down. But Yishmael accepted reality, and therefore there was peace, and they buried Avraham together.
The Two Mothers and Shlomo HaMelech
So how do we work on that today?
With what’s going on in Israel right now, it reminds me of the court case of Shlomo HaMelech.
Two women come before King Solomon. One woman has a dead baby, another woman has a live baby, and they’re both claiming the live baby is theirs.
Shlomo HaMelech, in his wisdom, says, “Okay, well, we’re going to cut the live baby in half.”
The real mother of that live baby says, “No, no, no, no. Don’t cut this baby in half. Give the baby to the lying mother, even though she’s lying, because I’d rather he live with her and not die.”
And of course, the mother who’s lying, who’s really the mother of the dead baby and is trying to steal the live baby, says, “Yeah, cut him in half. Go ahead.”
Because she has an attitude of, “If I can’t have it, no one can have it.”
We see that clearly happening in Israel today.
You just don’t burn down the country that you say you love. You don’t burn down the country that you say is yours.
I can’t imagine a time when Jews would possibly burn down the Land of Israel for any reason whatsoever.
And we saw this as well in America with people who are demonstrating. You don’t burn down your own towns to prove your loyalty and to prove your love for your country.
You just don’t do that.
Why Did They Destroy Avraham’s Wells?
It reminded me of one other thing which, all my life, boggled my mind a little bit.
I’m talking about the shepherds who ruined the wells that Avraham dug.
Avraham Avinu dug wells, and the shepherds took them and destroyed them. It always bothered me. Why would shepherds destroy wells in the Middle East, where water is so scarce and there was no water purification back then? Why didn’t they simply use the water?
It made no sense to me until right now.
Because I was thinking logically. They needed water, so naturally, I assumed they would use the wells. But they weren’t acting logically. They were acting out of hatred, hatred so powerful that it overtakes everything else, even the love of their own children.
Golda Meir once said, if I have the quote correctly, and if I don’t, please correct me, “I could forgive the Arabs for killing my children, but I cannot forgive them for making us kill theirs.”
And that is the issue here. Their hatred is sometimes so strong that it becomes more important in their eyes than their love for their own people.
We’ve seen this over and over. I’ve seen this in war. I’ve seen this in Lebanon. I’ve seen it in Jenin. I’ve seen it in different areas where I was while in the army, and it’s truly horrendous.
So now I understand why the shepherds were ruining the wells that Avraham dug, when they could have used them.
And I’ve seen it right here.
I live right next door to Bethlehem. I actually have people I’ve known there for 20, 25 years.
In Bethlehem, we have Solomon’s Pools. Those are pools from the First Temple. Years ago, before Oslo, I actually used to go there, walk there without a problem.
Unfortunately, after 1994, things got a little bit dangerous following the peace process.
I know it sounds ridiculous, but that’s exactly the point. The peace process, quote-unquote, didn’t do anything good for anyone, not for the Arabs and not for the Jews.
But the point is that the PA actually built a gas station on top of Solomon’s Pools, and they have become totally and completely polluted, unfortunately.
Again, why don’t they use it? Why are they destroying it?
It doesn’t make any sense if you’re thinking logically. But they’re not thinking with logic. They’re thinking with total and complete hatred.
And that is exactly the point.
The Road to Peace
At the end of the parsha, the Jewish sages say that Yishmael repented. And the reason they say he repented is that he put Yitzchak first, because he accepted reality.
So what’s the solution here?
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a thousand times. The road to peace is really, really simple.
The second that they stop trying, desiring, dreaming, and attempting to destroy Israel, whether it be by buses blowing up, by starting fires to burn down Jewish villages and towns, or by gunfire or missile fire, whatever it is, when they stop trying to destroy Israel, peace will be instantaneous.
There is no one in Israel, the right or the left, who wants war. War has always been forced upon us. As Jews, we never want war.
But certainly in Israel, even if we were warmongers, we have six million Jews in Israel, and there are around 450 million Muslims around us. We don’t want war. It’s absolutely ridiculous to say that.
The answer is very simple. Just stop wanting war. Stop trying to kill. Stop trying to destroy Israel, and live.
But with the fires going on in Israel right now, we see how far we are from that reality, from them realizing that they can actually have a life and enjoy life without trying to destroy Israel.
Unfortunately, the arson attacks are terrible. It’s heartbreaking. People have lost their houses and their livelihoods. Haifa has been up in flames.
And what’s really crazy about Haifa is that it’s a city known for coexistence between Arabs and Jews. It’s a very left-wing city, and there’s really no excuse for what happened there.
You want to say, “Oh, they have a reason to do it,” I don’t know, in Shechem or somewhere else. Fine. But Haifa is one of the biggest cities of coexistence between Arabs and Jews in Israel. There’s truly no reason for them to do such a thing.
So we’re talking about something much deeper than when they say it’s because of occupation or something else.
It’s all baloney. It’s pure hatred.
And the sad thing is that they hate their own people. I say it all the time. Their hatred for Israel is stronger than their love for their own people.
And that is where the source of the problem is.
They don’t want peace. They want Israel.
It’s the sad truth.
If they wanted to build a state, if they wanted to build a country, from 1948 through 1967 all the disputed areas were under Arab control. We’re talking about Jerusalem, Samaria, Judea, the Golan Heights, and Gaza.
It was all under Arab control, and they didn’t build a country. In fact, the Arab leaders were calling for the annihilation of Israel in 1965, when there were no settlements.
So it’s just got to stop. It’s not about land.
And the truth of the matter is, for the innocents out there, and there are some out there, okay? I’m not giving numbers. I don’t know how many there are, but there are. They’re victims just as much. Again, they’re not dying from this, but they’re victims just as much because they can’t live a normal life.
So I would say, as a very far-right-wing Israeli, loyal to Israel and wanting to live my life according to the Jewish way, to those who are on the other side of the line, let’s call it, and want to live peacefully:
Come live. Come live peacefully.
Peace has nothing to do with land. No negotiations. We don’t need Washington. We don’t need the UN. We don’t need any of that junk. They’re the ones causing more of the conflict than they are fixing it.
We need one thing.
We need Israel’s enemies to stop trying to destroy us.
Hebron, King David, and Jewish History
The Haftarah, which we read after we finish the Torah reading, is about Melech David, King David, who is giving over the kingship to Shlomo HaMelech, King Solomon.
And again, here we’re talking about Avraham and Sarah being buried in Hebron.
Whose city is Hebron?
The Muslims say it’s a Muslim place. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
Avraham, yes, was also the father of Yishmael, but that’s it. Sarah kicked Yishmael out.
After that, Yitzchak, who was promised the rest of the promises from God, it would be Yitzchak and Rivka, and then after that Yaakov, and so on.
It has nothing to do with the Muslims. Nothing to do with the Muslims.
And again, this is so typical of them taking over an area and then claiming it’s Islamic, that it’s a Muslim place. It’s just such a fabrication of history, and it’s such a horrible thing.
In Hebron, I’ve also been to the cave of Avner Ben-Ner, King David’s captain in the army.
I was there. The road is closed for Jews except for twice a week.
And I hear people talking about lack of freedom of movement, and I laugh at that because I’ve been to Hebron and I know what it’s like there.
Yes, there are roads that are closed for Jews. You can’t go there for security reasons. And there are roads that are closed for Arabs for security reasons. You can’t go there.
It has nothing to do with apartheid or anything like that.
In any case, the Haftarah this week talks about King David giving over his kingship to Solomon.
And again, listen to this reading.
We’re reading about Avraham and Sarah in Hebron, in Ma’arat HaMachpela.
King David, by the way, I know most of you don’t know this, did not start his kingdom in Jerusalem. That came later on.
He started his kingdom in Hebron.
It’s the same story.
And that’s what I keep on saying. Our whole history, our entire history, our entire culture, everything we know, has to do with the Land of Israel.
And as soon as our enemies realize that history is on our side, on the Jewish side, and they say they want to live in peace, peace will be instantaneous.
Shabbat shalom, everyone.
And of course, everyone, please take a minute this Shabbat, or whenever, to say a prayer for the firefighters who are out there. It’s quite freezing, but it’s dry, and that’s making it very difficult to fight these fires.
Let’s wish our firefighters safety, as well as the security personnel who are out there trying to catch these arsonists. Let’s hope they catch them and come home safely.
Shabbat shalom.