Six of the best – Chayyei Sarah
It cost Abaraham money, time, effort and nervous energy to acquire Machpelah as a burial place for Sarah. The property was owned by Ephron the Hittite, who had to be flattered, honoured and negotiated with. The purchase price agreed upon was 400 shekels of silver, and Abraham duly weighed the money before handing it to Ephron.
There is a strange feature about the way the Torah tells the story. The verse recording the weighing of the money spells Ephron’s name defectively, without the letter vav.
The numerical value of vav is six, and the Talmud says that whoever supports the poor is blessed with six blessings (Bava Batra 9b; the source is Isaiah 58:7 and the blessings are enumerated in verses 8 and 9). Ephron, however, was mean in attitude and deed. For him, being gracious and generous were almost unthinkable. That is why he gave Abraham a hard time and set such a high price. It is not that Abraham could not find the money to pay him, but dealing with meanmindedness was no pleasure.
Because of his attitude, Ephron is one of the least admired Biblical personages. The Torah’s judgment in implied in the missing vav. The Jewish ideal is that a person should deal with others with a generous heart, hard and eye. Not that one has to suffer a pecuniary loss, but whatever the situation one should behave with niceness and not nastiness.
