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This week's Parasha-Page has been dedicated anonymously by a yeshiva student in Israel, towards meriting a Refuah-Shlemah (complete and speedy recovery) for Sarah bas Hadasah and Adi Lior ben Ilana.
Parashat Chayyei Sarah 5756THEMES IN THE HEBREW ALPHABET
Ephron answered Avraham saying, "My lord, listen to me! What is a four hundred silver shekel piece of land, between you and me? Just take it and bury your dead!" Avraham heard Ephron and weighed out to Ephron the amount of money he had mentioned ... four hundred silver shekels of tradable currency. "Between me and you" -- That is, "Between two good friends like us, why should this be important?" "Avraham weighed out to Ephron" -- Ephron's name is written here without the letter "Vav," because he said a lot (i.e. he offered to give the land for free) but did nothing (he ended up taking its full value). Not only that, but he took four hundred large Shekalim -- "centenaria" -- as it says, "tradable currency." The shekels were of such high quality that they were acceptable as shekels anywhere in the world.The beginning of this week's Parasha discusses Avraham's purchase of the Cave of Machpela in Chevron from Ephron the Hittite. Our Sages point out that the unusual spelling of Ephron's name in the verse that discusses the sale, indicates a lack of sincerity and generosity on Ephron's part. While he had originally claimed that he was not interested in taking money for the Cave of Machpela, subsequently, he gladly accepted even more money than the field was worth. How is this inferred from the missing Vav? The most obvious explanation is that if Ephron's name is written "lacking," it demonstrates that he himself was "lacking." He was not sincere when he made his magnanimous offer. We find a similar theme in Rashi's comments (Bereishit 26:24 and 38:27) on the strange spelling of the world Te'omim [=twins] in Parashat Toldot. When the Torah speaks of the birth of Yaakov and Esav, the word "Te'omim" is spelled without the letter Aleph ("Tumim"). In describing the birth of Yehudah's twins, Zerach and Peretz, the word "Te'omim" is spelled with an Aleph. Rashi explains that in the latter case, both of the twins became righteous men. That is why their birth is described with the "full" word, Te'omim. In the former case, however, one of them was the wicked Esav. Since one of the twins was evil and "lacked" completion, the word describing their birth has a letter lacking -- it is spelled Tomim. We can derive from this the following principle. In a situation where something is, in a sense, lacking, the word describing it may be spelled without one of its letters. According to this understanding, the particular letter that is dropped is of no consequence. II
Perhaps, then, there is a reason that this particular letter was left out of Ephron's name. Ephron's Vav was omitted in order to show the lack of "connection," or endearment, between himself and Avraham. He had just boasted that he and Avraham were such good friends and that money need not pass between them. But by taking the full price of the field -- and then some -- he showed that in fact he felt no friendship at all for Avraham. "He said a lot (about friendship) but did nothing." In reality, as the lack of Vav shows, there was no connection between them at all. Following Rav Blinder's line of reasoning, we may explain the other example that we mentioned of a word that is "lacking." The word for twins is spelled with the letter "Aleph" lacking, when referring to Yaakov and Esav, to show that one of the twins would be wicked and would not serve his Creator. Perhaps the Aleph was chosen to be dropped because the letter Aleph represents Hashem, the Creator, as we find in many Midrashim (Yerushalmi Chagiga 2:1 quoted by Beit Yosef to Orach Chayim 36, letter Beit; Midrash Otiot D'Rebbi Akiva, letter Aleph. See also Chagiga 16a, "Aluph always means Hashem, as it says in Yirmiyah 3:4 'You are the Aluph of my youth' "; Breishit Rabba 20:2 and Rashi Mishlei 16:28 where Hashem is reffered to as "*Alupho* shel Olam"). III
Avraham sent his faithful servant Eliezer out of Israel to find a bride for his beloved son Yitzchak. Eliezer goes, and succeeds in his mission. While at the bride's house, Eliezer tells her and her family the entire story of how he accepted his mission and accomplished it. In passing, he mentions that when he was originally presented with the mission he had asked Avraham, "Perhaps I will find a suitable bride, but she will not be willing to follow me back to Israel. What should I do then?" The word for "perhaps" in Eliezer's query ("Ulai") is spelled without its usual Vav. Rashi, quoting the Midrash, explains: The word Ulai is written here without a Vav so that it may also be read as "Elai" [=to me]. Eliezer had a daughter, and he had hoped that, if all else failed, Avraham would allow him to marry off his daughter to Isaac. But Avraham said to him, "My son is blessed, and your daughter is cursed (see Bereishit 9:25). A cursed person cannot be joined together with a blessed person."It is interesting to note that when the Torah first recounts Avraham's appointment of Eliezer to his mission, it also records Eliezer's query. Over there, however, the word Ulai is spelled in the normal way, with the Vav (Bereishit 24:5). It is only when Eliezer repeats his conversation with Avraham to the parents of the bride that the word is spelled with a Vav missing. This may be understood in light of Rabbi Blinder's suggestion. The missing Vav in the bride's house is hinting that Eliezer, after having heard and accepted Avraham's answer to his query, understood that he was trying to connect two people who were inherently apart from each other -- the cursed and the blessed could never be joined together. It is to stress this lack of possible connection between the two parties that the word "Ulai" is written here without the Vav. This is how Chazal infer that Eliezer had attempted to "connect" himself to Avraham, and Avraham had refused the connection. We may add that Rav Blinder's idea can help us gain a better understanding of some other statements of Chazal as well. (2) In Vayikra 26:42 ("I will remember My covenant with Yaakov") the name Yaakov is spelled with an *extra* Vav. Rashi explains this as follows: Yaakov has a Vav added to his name in five places, because Yaakov took a Vav from the name of Eliyahu (which is spelled with a missing Vav in five places) as a "security" to guarantee that he (Eliyahu) would come to announce the dawn of the Messianic era to his (Yaakov's) descendants.Why did Yaakov specifically choose this letter to take from Eliyahu and append it to his own name? Eliyahu is supposed to be the one who will usher in the era of *peace* when the Messiah will rule -- "the herald ascending the mountains announcing peace" (Yeshaiah 52:7). In the words of the Mishnah, "Eliyahu's mission will only be to bring peace to the world" (Mishna, end of Eduyot). Since we have shown that a Vav represents a connection between people, we may suggest that the Vav that Yaakov took from Eliyahu denotes that he wanted to ensure that Eliyahu would indeed come to instill brotherhood and mutual friendship (=a connection between people) among mankind. (3) QUOTE: One should read the names of the evil Haman's ten sons in one breath, to indicate that they were all hanged at one time. One should lengthen the Vav written in the name of Vaizata (one of Haman's sons), to indicate that all the ten sons were hanged on the same pole.Once again we see that the letter Vav represents a connection. The long Vav in Vaizata's name hints that the sons of Haman were hanged at once, and on the same pole.
IV
This (physical) world was created by Hashem with the letter Heh; the (spiritual) World To Come was created with the letter Yud.The letter Yud is used in Hebrew as a prefix to indicate the future tense of a verb. The reason that this specific letter is used may be connected to the fact that it was the letter Yud that was used to create the world of the future, the World to Come. The Maharal suggests a related idea to explain another prefix used in Hebrew. The letter Heh is attached to a word to show that the word refers to a specific item, an object that is already known to the reader. (It corresponds to the definite article -- the word "the" in English.) Why is this particular letter used for this purpose? Since Heh was the letter that was used to bring all physical, tangible things into existence in the world at the time of creation, the Maharal explains, it is most appropriate that it be the letter which describes a known, concrete item -- an item that has already been recognized and identified in the past! | ||||||
