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Kahane on the Parsha
Rabbi Binyamin Kahane- Parshat Chayeh
Sarah
LOGIC MAKE NO IMPRESSION ON THEM
"Rabbi Yudan bar
Simon said, '[Concerning] three places the nations of the world will not be
able to castigate Israel by claiming, 'You are thieves': Me'arat HaMachpela,
Har HaBayit, and Kever Yosef.
"Me'arat HaMachpela, as it is
written: 'And Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver...'; Har HaBayit, as it is
written, 'So David gave Arnan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site'; and
Kever Yosef, as it is written, 'And [Jacob] bought the parcel of ground...at
the hand of the children of Chamor, the father of Shechem'" (Bereishit
Rabba 79:7)
Two questions arise from this Midrash:
1) Is it only about these three places
that the nations can't say we are thieves? Isn't this claim baseless regarding
the ENTIRE land (as Rashi states in his commentary to the very first verse of
the Torah)?
2) What does the Midrash mean by
"the nations of the world will not be able"? We see that they are
quite able to challenge our claim to these three places! Indeed, it is
precisely these three places on which they concentrate their struggle!
The key to answering these questions is
a rule that we should etch in our souls: It is not important what GENTILES SAY;
what's important is what JEWS THINK. The Torah knew that when the gentiles
would eventually accuse the Jews of being "thieves" and
"occupiers" and "conquerors," the Jews would feel
uncomfortable, even a little guilty. Perhaps the gentiles are right that we
stole their land. perhaps they have an ethical argument.
And so the Rabbis tell us: There are
three places about which the gentiles cannot open their mouths even according
to simple logic since these places were legally purchased with money. And yet,
logic makes no impression on them. On the contrary, it is precisely these three
places that they place at the heart of their fight against us! What does this
teach us? That it isn't justice or ethics which motivates them, nor is our
struggle a dispute over property that can be resolves. Rather, it is a
national-religious fight.
Therefore, the Rabbis teach us: Just
like you know that their claim to these three places is not justified, by the
same token don't get excited about their claims to other parts of the land
since "the entire world belongs to Hashem; He created it and gave it to
whomever He saw fit" (Rashi to Genesis 1:1).
Darka Shel Torah, 1995
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