Nachal novea; makor chochma -
A flowing river; the source of wisdom (Mish. 18:4)

Parshas Chayei Sara

(Gensis 23:1-25:18)

"And Ephron the Hittite answered Avraham" (Bereshis 23:10)

Contained in the name of Ephron is the Hebrew word for dirt, “afar.” This indicates that Ephron's spiritual nature and essence came from the lowly spiritual elements found in dirt. The spiritual elements in dirt cause a person to be depressed, lazy, and unenthusiastic in serving Hashem. These characteristics are called “the bite of the snake,” for the snake injected man with these negative traits. Dirt is associated with the snake, as in the verse: “The snake--dust shall be his food” (Isaiah 65:25.) Also the snake is told, “and dust shall you [the snake] eat all the days of your life" (Bereshis 3:14.).

The only way to neutralize the negative affects of the evil properties of dirt is to utilize the dirt of holiness. This is the spiritual power derived from faith. As the verse tells us, “dwell in the land [dirt of the land of Israel], and feed [yourself] with faith” (Psalms 37:3). Through holy earth one can be nourished and infused with true life and the holy power of faith. Just as physical earth causes plant-life to grow and flourish, so too does the spiritual power of holy earth, such as the dirt of the land of Israel, allow a person to grow, develop, and flourish spiritually. The spiritual properties contained in holy dirt can enable and assist one’s spiritual growth, if that is the goal a person truly strives to attain.

Therefore, Avraham had to buy the cave of Machpailah from a man specifically like Ephron. Ephron, whose essence came from the lowly spiritual elements found in dirt, had to own the cave of Machpailah prior to Avraham's ownership of the cave, much in the same way that the Canaanites had to possess the land of Israel prior the Jewish conquest of the land. There is a principal in the laws of spirituality that the peel precedes the fruit. This concept means that in order to attain a particular spiritual goal, one must encounter the forces of evil that block the way to that particular spiritual attainment. The spiritual power of the cave of Machpailah contains the highest level of potential for spiritual growth in the entire land of Israel. This is because it is the entranceway for souls to enter Gan Eden, which is the way in which souls come to be bound and united with Hashem. Ephron’s ownership of the cave, which was the ultimate in the negative properties found in dirt, reflects the exact opposite spiritual properties that the cave possessed, and represents the physical manifestation of the peel surrounding the fruit. (The same situation can be seen today, where millions of Arabs surround the holy land, the Kotel area, Yoseph’s grave, and the cave of Machpailah, who try to prevent the Jewish People from reaching these holy areas to attain their spiritual goals.)

So Avraham, due to his spiritual greatness, liberated this holy place from the grip of evil, and eliminated the peel, Ephron, in order to reach the fruit, the cave of Machpailah, the gate to Gan Eden. (Likutei Halachot: Or HaChiam: Hilchot. Tefilin 5:40)

“Avraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpailah [doubles]" (Bereshis 23:19)

The Rabbis say, “The city contained the [burial place] of Adam, Chava, Avraham, Sarah, etc., therefore the city was called Kiryat Arba (four) in commemoration of the four couples [that are buried within the city” (Eravin 23). The four holy men who are buried in the cave, contain the same spiritual Power as the four parsheot, biblical paragraphs, contained in the head tefilin. The head tefilin contain masculine spiritual power, which nourishes the brain of the wearer, from the masculine spiritual powers of the four men buried in the cave. The four holy women who are buried in the cave contain the same spiritual power as the four biblical paragraphs contained in the tefilin of the arm. The arm tefilin contain female spiritual powers, which nourish the soul of the wearer from the female intellectual powers of the four women buried in the cave. The fact that these four very holy couples are introduced to us by the term “Machpailah”, double, teaches us a lesson about the powers of holiness: tzadikim are always adding to and doubling their spiritual attainments throughout their lives. There is no retirement from one’s spiritual quests. According to the teachings of Rabbi Nachman, one must always strive for new spiritual horizons no, matter what great spiritual feats one has attained in the past. Rabbi Nachman himself never stopped trying to reach for the next spiritual level all the days of his life. Even though he had achieved the most awesome spiritual levels, he always said, “who knows what other spiritual levels there are yet to attain, beyond the ones I have already achieved.”

Holiness is always a process of doubling. Tefilin, as mentioned, is one example of a holy item that contains this aspect of doubling in its holy properties. The Torah introduces the mitzvah of lending money to the poor by using the term, “posayach tiftach,” you shall open your hand twice or more and lend money to the needy. The Torah uses a similar term by the requirement to provide a Jewish slave upon his release from slavery with gifts. The verse says, “hanik tanik.” you shall give an abundant amount of gifts. The Torah itself is doubled, as many Torah laws are repeated in Mishna Torah, Devarim. Even spiritual life is doubled. There is the spiritual life one leads in this world and the spiritual life one experiences in the after-life.

The following verses illustrate the double aspects of the properties of holiness: "that He [Hashem] would declare to you [Iyov] the secrets of wisdom [the Torah]; for it is double" (Iyov 11:6). "Therefore in their [the Jews] land [land of Israel] shall they possess a double [portion]" (Isaiah 61:7:).

"For its the cave of Machpailah full worth he [Ephron] shall give it to me [Avraham]" (Bereshis 23:9)

Why did Avraham insist in paying for the cave of Machpailah and not accept it as a free gift as Ephron had offered? Due to the cave’s awesome holiness, and the fact that Ephron--a man literally connected to evil--owned the cave, very powerful evil forces had been very firmly entrenched at the perimeter of the cave. This fact, that the forces of evil were strongly attached to the cave, prevented Avraham from taking the cave as a gift. If he was ever to rid the cave of the evil forces that attached themselves to it and elevate the cave’s extreme holiness, he had to pay the cave's full value. He paid the sum of 400 shekels of silver which alludes to the 416 words of holy desire which the righteous enjoy, as mentioned in the Zohar HaKodesh. The money owned by Avraham was extremely holy. It contained the spiritual lights of the 416 worlds of holy desire in which the righteous are given the joys of spiritual ecstasy, which is to quench their spiritual yearnings by experiencing the greatness of the Creator. All money contains these spiritual lights. That is why money has the tremendous power it does in this world and why everyone desires to attain as much money as possible.
As a side point Rabbi Nachman teaches that the spiritual essence of money and the Jewish soul comes from the same exact exalted place in Heaven. This is why only when a Jew owns money do the spiritual lights in the money shine brightly. This is why Gentiles have a tremendous lust to obtain Jewish-owned money. A Jew activates the spiritual lights contained in money, for the Jew is connected to the spiritual lights that emanate from money, and the money receives this light when it is in the possession of a Jew. However, as soon as a Gentile obtains money once owned by a Jew, the bright spiritual lights emanating from the money become dull. Then the excessive lust for this money dissipates.

Money contains the power of the greatness of Hashem within it and therefore has the power to chase away even the strongest forces of evil. Avraham’s purchase of the cave, using the immense spiritual power of money, activated the holiness of the power of Hashem to vanquish all the evil forces attached to the cave.

King David also did not want to accept the future site of the Holy Temple as a free gift either. It was impossible to free the Temple-site of the powerful forces of evil attached to it without having money of holiness, as explained above by the purchase of the cave of Machpailah. (Lekutai Halachot: Choshen Mishpat, Hilchot Matana 4:11)

“And Avraham was old, well stricken with age.” (Bereshis 24:1)

The word in our verse, "bah bayamim", literally means that Avraham came (to Olam Habah) with all his days. What does this verse mean to teach us? It is telling us the true definition of arechas yomim, length of days. Contrary to what most Jews think, arechas yamim does not mean physical long life. Arechas yomim means quality time spent in this world doing Hashem’s will, not quantity time. For example, a person could have lived one hundred physical years in this world while his entire quality time spent in serving Hashem may only add up to a few months. Therefore, he didn't truly live one hundred years, but only a few months of true life. When a person like this comes to the next world he takes with himself only a few months of true life to subsist on in the future world. However, Avraham was so careful in using his time wisely, he only expended his time in serving Hashem. He came to Olam Habah with all his days of 175 years completely filled with the service of Hashem.

The true definition of arechas yomim, length of days, is that each person must lengthen each physical day one is allotted. When a physical day starts off, it is very short because it doesn't contain any service to Hashem in it as yet, and therefore is limited only to time, which stays in this world. When a day is wasted by not using one's time to serve Hashem, the day is lost forever never to be used again, since the person didn’t deposit and store his allotted time in this world in a place which is not subject to the rules of time. This stored time could be used forever in Olam Habah. However, if one lengthens his day by using the time allotted him in the service of Hashem, that day is stored away forever to be used later in Olam Habah. Olam Habah is called, "yom shekulo tov,” one long day that is completely good, that never ends. There were many great tzadikim who had short physical lives, such as Yonason ben Uziel, the greatest student of Hillel, Rabbah of the Talmud, the holy Ari, the Ramah of the Shulchan Aruch, the Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chayim Luzzoto), and Rabbi Nachman (who lived only until 38). All these great tzadikim had short physical lives; however, in their short lives, they accomplished more than an average person could accomplish in many lifetimes. Their lives were truly called living a full and long life. They came to Olam Habah with many more years than they actually had on this earth, because they did mitzvot and taught Torah to the public. For example, if a person is learning Torah in a class containing one hundred people for one hour, he may have learnt one physical hour, but he gets credit for learning one hundred hours. Why is this so? Each persons presence caused a greater revelation of the Divine Presence, as mentioned in Gemmorah Brachos. This causes an expansion of the mental capability of everyone’s mind in the class. This allowed everyone in the class to better understand the Torah lesson. Therefore everyone’s presence in the class contributed to a better understanding of the lesson and therefore everyone is given credit for the learning of everybody else in the class. Doing public mitzvoth is the best way to add a tremendous amount of extra time to one’s service of Hashem. The Ari HaKodesh says that for learning one hour on Shabbas, one is given credit for as if he learnt 100 hours because of the extreme holiness of the day.

“And the young girl Rivka was very beautiful in appearance, a virgin, no man had known her" (Bereshis 24:16)

Rabbi Nachman points out that the words “no man had known her” seem redundant. If the verse says Rivks was a virgin, of course no man had known her. What lesson is this verse trying to teach us? Rabbi Nachman answers that our verse teaches us about dating. Rivka was a virgin in the true sense of the word. Not only was she a virgin, but “no man had known her.” This means that no one had even mentioned her in trying to match her with a potential mate, and she never “dated” anyone. This is the purest form of the state of being a virgin.

Rabbi Nachman explains that their are many different decrees and levels of zivug, uniting the male and female half-souls to forming one complete soul. When two people talk about matching a particular boy with a particular girl, even without the boy and girl ever meeting each other, this is a type of zivug, union. The two people discussing the potential match causes a spiritual union of the half-souls of the boy and girl, similar to what happens in marriage. Even this type of distant union leaves a permanent impression on the souls of the boy and girl. The Ari HaKodesh says that if by accident a boy’s eyes meet and into the eyes of a girl, this is even a closer level of zivug which results in their souls merging. (Note that one shouldn’t intentionally look at strange women lustfully, this is a violation of a negative commandment.) An even stronger level of zivug, which leaves a permanent impression on one’s soul is talking on a date with a woman. Marriage is the strongest bond of zivug of all. Any union, however, which is not according to Halacha causes great spiritual damage to one’s soul. In all the previous mentioned cases there is a partial exchange of souls between the couples involved. The man takes part of the soul of the woman, containing all its spiritual qualities, and the woman receives part of the soul of the man, containing its spiritual qualities.

The same thing happens when two people talk to each other: there is a partial exchange of souls. Each participant of a conversation draws some the spiritual essence from the other person through the medium of speech. Each Jew has a unique soul that no other Jew has; therefore, Rabbi Nachman taught, that one should be careful to talk on a regular basis about spiritual topics, which will increase yiras shamayim, to one's friends and fellow Jews. By doing this one draws to oneself the spiritual qualities that one’s fellow Jew has that is in oneself.

This is why even if a date doesn’t work out lead to marriage, it wasn’t a waste. The boy and girl who dated received the good spiritual qualities it from each other’s soul s, which heaven arranged and determined to be necessary for the nourishment of their soul s. This provides a soul with spiritual growth. A the many different people that a person encounters in their dating career is partially due to what we just explained.

It is important to have many Jewish friends, so a person can give and receive the various good spiritual qualities found in each different Jewish soul among the people he meets. The Baal Shem Tov said that it is critical to have friends in order to be able to serve Hashem. This is what goes on in a minyan, a quorum of 10 Jewish male adults. All the spiritual good points of every member of the minyan merge together in the chazan, the minyan representative. The chazan elevates all the good points of each member of the minyan to point to heaven, which builds spiritual structures in heaven, which has a good effect on the world.

Rabbi Nachman teaches in, Likutei Morahan 12:1, that when a person learns any holy book one's soul becomes merged with the tzadik who wrote that book. This is called neshekim, the kissing of one soul to another. This brings great joy to the tzadik who taught that teaching, since the tzadik (if he is niftar) is now living in both worlds at the same time. The tzadik, only enjoys this experience if the person learning his teachings is learning for the right reasons. If a person is learning the tzadik's teachings to gain respect, this causes pain to the tzadik who taught that teaching.

King David prayed, “Let me dwell in your tent forever” (Psalms 61:5). The word for forever in the verse is “olamim,” which also can mean the plural for worlds. This word “olamim” indicates there are two worlds. The Talmud asks, “Can a person live in two worlds at the same time [as this verse in psalms implies]? The Talmud answers, “King David prayed that people should learn his teachings in his name, in this world, so it would always be as if he were still alive" (Yevamos 97A.) Thus a person by learning a tzadik’s teachings, even after he has long since passed away, can merge his soul with that tzadik.

This is the concept behind the verse, “"And Yaakov kissed Rachel" (Bereshis 29:11). This doesn't mean Yaakov actually kissed Rachel physically, but rather relates that their souls merged in the manner described above, as a detached zivug with soul kissing soul, but without physical contact being made (Likutei Morahan I, 12:1).

May we all merit to true arechas yomim and to be merged with the holy and be, connected with the truly righteous Amen'.

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