Parshas Chayei Sarah
1. On the verse "ויתן לי את מערת המכפלה וגו׳" ("That he may give me the cave of Machpelah..."),1 Rashi pauses on the word "המכפלה" ("HaMachpelah") and explains: "בית ועלייה על גביו" ("A house with an upper story above it").2 At first glance, the meaning of his explanation is that the cave is called "Machpelah" because it is double: it consists of two caves, one on top of the other.
According to this, however, it is not understood:
a) The description "the cave of Machpelah" indicates only that this is a twofold cave; but there is no proof from the description that these two caves are one on top of the other. One could just as well interpret that they are "זה לפנים מזה" ("one within the other").3 From where does Rashi derive that "HaMachpelah" means "a house with an upper story above it"?
b) The term "Machpelah" fits to describe one thing that contains a doubleness within itself, but not two separate things that have nothing in common. Accordingly, it would seemingly be more reasonable to say that the two caves are "one within the other," since precisely in that manner there is a unifying connection between the two caves [since one is dependent on the other — one cannot enter the inner cave except through the outer cave], and it is therefore understood why the two caves are called by the single, unified name "the cave of Machpelah" — one double cave. Whereas according to the explanation that the two caves are one on top of the other, they have no connection between them that would make them like one unit (for since a cave is in the ground, the upper cave does not need the lower one, and it can stand even when there is no cave beneath it — on the contrary, it is then stronger, not having a hollow beneath it).4 So how does Rashi learn that "Machpelah" means "a house with an upper story above it"?
c) "Bayis" (house) and "me'arah" (cave) are not merely two different concepts, but even opposite ones: a bayis is a house built on the ground, and a me'arah is a hollow in the ground. Rashi, in explaining the doubleness of the caves, should therefore have said "מערה ועלייה על גבה" ("a cave with an upper story above it"),5 and not "a house with an upper story above it"?
2. Rashi further continues in his explanation of "HaMachpelah": "דבר אחר שכפולה בזוגות" ("Another explanation: that it is doubled with couples")6 — that there is another explanation of why the cave is called "Machpelah": because it was doubled with several couples, as Rashi says earlier — on "בקרית ארבע" ("in Kiryas Arba") — that four couples were buried there: Adam and Chavah, Avraham and Sarah, Yitzchak and Rivkah, Yaakov and Leah.
This too is not understood: the words "the cave of Machpelah" in our verse are [not a name by which the verse calls the cave, as with "ותמת שרה בקרית ארבע" ("And Sarah died in Kiryas Arba"), where the verse designates the city by the name "Kiryas Arba" — and in a verse a name can also be given on account of the future7 — but they are] the expression that Avraham used in his words to the children of Ches, that they should ask Ephron to give him the cave of Machpelah. And they — the children of Ches and Ephron — certainly did not know that four couples would later lie in this cave.
[And it is reasonable8 that they did not even know that Adam and Chavah lay in it — for had Ephron known of it, he would not have agreed to sell the field for only four hundred shekels — the value of the field itself9 — since he could then surely have imagined how tremendously precious the cave was to Avraham, and would have exploited this to raise its price far higher; and he certainly would not have offered earlier to give away the cave entirely for free. This is especially so since among all the nations Adam HaRishon was held in importance, as we find that he feared: "לאחר מותי יקחו אותי ואת עצמותי ויעשו להם דמות ע״ג" ("After my death they will take me and my bones and make of them an idolatrous image").10]
So what kind of sign did Avraham give the children of Ches and Ephron by saying that they should give him this cave which is "doubled with couples"?
Some commentators11 explain that the cave was then called by the name "HaMachpelah — that it is doubled with couples" because there was room in it for four couples.
But this is still not understood: the size of the cave's area is indicated by the total number of people who can lie in it. Accordingly, the cave should have been called by a name signifying that it can hold eight people. Why was it called "HaMachpelah," which signifies only doubleness? And even if one says that the doubleness must be in some doubled matter (from the noun form of the word "Machpelah"12) — namely couples — that still makes four people, not eight. Furthermore, what relevance to our matter is it that they are couples?13 Regarding the amount of space, it makes no difference whether the eight people are four couples or eight separate individuals.
3. Besides the questions on each of Rashi's two explanations in their own place (and in addition to the difficulty of why Rashi needs to come to two explanations at all), there is a question from what follows:14 a few verses later the verse says: "שדה עפרון אשר במכפלה" ("the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah")15 — so it is clear from this that the entire area in which the field was located was called "Machpelah"16; so seemingly it should follow that the meaning of "מערת המכפלה" ("the cave of Machpelah") in our verse is the same — the cave that is located in "Machpelah." For what reason, then, should Rashi explain here that the cave itself was a double one?
And although from the verse "the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah" there is as yet no contradiction to Rashi's explanation — for one can learn that the very fact that the whole area around the cave is called "Machpelah" is indeed on account of the double cave located there — nevertheless it is not understood:
a) As the Ramban notes, (according to the plain meaning) "אין צורך לבקש טעם לשם המקומות" ("there is no need to seek a reason for the names of places"). This is also Rashi's approach, as is evident from Rashi's not explaining:17 we see in very many places that Rashi does not explain the reason why a place or a person and the like is called by a particular name, even though a reason could be given also according to the plain meaning.18
Moreover: even when Rashi himself gives a reason for a name, he gives it on the verse where it is relevant to the plain meaning of the verse, and not at the earlier verses where the name is mentioned, as we find regarding the name "Avram."19
b) From the expression "מערת שדה המכפלה" ("the cave of the field of Machpelah")20 (and likewise "במערה אשר בשדה המכפלה" ("in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah")21) it is seemingly evident that the area being called "Machpelah" is not on account of the cave within it, but for some other reason. For if the double cave had been the entire reason for calling the field too "the field of Machpelah," the expression "the cave of the field of Machpelah" would not fit, since there the description "Machpelah" belongs primarily to the "field" (and all the more so the expression "in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah" would not have been fitting).
4. The explanation of this is: from the wording of the verse "מערת המכפלה אשר לו אשר בקצה שדהו" ("the cave of Machpelah which is his, which is at the end of his field") — where the verse places the word "HaMachpelah" immediately after the word "cave," before it goes on to mention the field — it is implied that "HaMachpelah" refers expressly to the cave. Therefore Rashi does not want to learn that the description "HaMachpelah" in our verse is the name of the area, as is the word "HaMachpelah" in the subsequent verses.
However, since from the subsequent verses it is nevertheless evident that the entire surrounding area was also called "Machpelah," and that this name of the area did not come directly on account of the cave (as explained above in section 3), Rashi therefore learns "a house with an upper story above it" — meaning that adjacent to, next to, the cave there was a double house, a two-story house.22
And according to this explanation, all the variations in the wording of the verses become understood. The expression "the cave of the field of Machpelah" is correct, telling us that the field's name "Machpelah" was not because of the cave — since the cave was indeed not double, and it was rather the field that bore the name "Machpelah" because of the double house that stood there. And the expression "the cave of Machpelah which is at the end of his field," from which it is evident that "HaMachpelah" relates to the cave, also fits — since this double house was located adjacent to the cave, and because of this the cave received this name primarily.
5. A further explanation of why Rashi learns that next to the cave there was a double house, and not that the cave itself was double: If one were to learn that the cave itself was double, i.e., that it contained two caves, one would then have to say that the two caves were one within the other — not one on top of the other, as explained above in section 1.
But the manner of "one within the other" is also difficult to read into the verse. The verse states that the cave was located "בקצה שדהו" ("at the end of his field"), at the edge of the field; and if the two caves were one within the other — one after the other — they could not both be at the edge of the field; rather, one would be at the edge and the second deeper inside the field.
And even if you were to say (a) that the two caves both stood at the side of the field, and the meaning of "biktzeh" is (not at the edge or corner, but) at the side; or (b) that the cave that was deeper in the field could also be called "at the end of his field" since it is adjacent to the edge of the field —
nevertheless, since Avraham, in saying "which is at the end of his field," was intent, of course, on diminishing the value of the cave,23 it is difficult to say that at that very moment he would call it "HaMachpelah," meaning thereby two caves one within the other, which emphasizes its large area.
Therefore Rashi learns "a house with an upper story above it": that the cave was called "the cave of Machpelah" because it was located next to a double house, as explained above.
6. Rashi, however, is not satisfied with this explanation and brings another one, because according to the explanation "a house with an upper story above it" it is not understood: why did Avraham need to give two signs for the cave — that it is located next to the double house, and also that it is at the end of his field? Therefore Rashi must come to the second explanation, "doubled with couples," which means that the cave was double [not with a specific number of couples' graves (for this is not evident from the word "HaMachpelah" — see above, end of section 2), but] in that its graves are — each one of them — "couples": doubled, twofold graves for a person together with his spouse — husband and wife.24
According to this it is understood why Avraham needed to add the word "HaMachpelah": with this addition he clarified the reason why he wanted specifically this cave. The children of Ches had told him "במבחר קברינו קבור את מתך גו׳" ("In the choicest of our graves bury your dead..."); so why does he demand that they ask, on his behalf, specifically for Ephron's cave? Therefore he added "HaMachpelah," thereby making clear why he does not want to accept the offer of the children of Ches, "In the choicest of our graves bury your dead" (to take from them a place to bury Sarah),25 but wants to bury Sarah specifically in Ephron's cave — because in it every grave is a double place, also for her spouse (Avraham).
This, however, is not sufficient (and therefore it also does not say "מערת הכפל" ("the cave of the double") and the like), for the children of Ches could easily have dismissed this by offering to give him a double place — for two graves. So Avraham said "Machpelah — doubled with couples": that he does not want the grave of a couple to be among strangers, but in a place that is doubled with couples — that it should be a burial ground for his family.26
According to this explanation, however, there is a contradiction in the style of Avraham's continuing words. He begins, in the language of a request: "וישתחו לעם הארץ גו׳ וידבר גו׳ אם יש את נפשכם גו׳" ("And he bowed down to the people of the land... and he spoke... if it is your will..."), and what does he ask? "לקבור את מתי" ("to bury my dead") (in the singular) "מלפני" ("from before me") (a great sorrow, which he asks to be rid of as soon as possible, and therefore) "ויתן לי גו׳ המכפלה" ("that he may give me... the Machpelah") — no fewer than eight graves!
Further, and most importantly: the simple meaning of "Machpelah" (with the mem vocalized with a patach) is from the term "makpil" (like "ma'achil," etc.) — that which makes27 double (as "ma'achil" means that which makes one eat, etc.), which seemingly has no connection with "doubled with couples." Therefore the first explanation is the main one: "a house with an upper story above it" — the house holds up the upper story, as explained above.
And the difficulty mentioned above regarding the explanation "a house with an upper story above it" is not so strong — for we find in other places too that two signs are given for one thing.
7. Rashi's commentary also contains the "יינה של תורה" ("wine of Torah").28
It says in the Zohar29 that "HaMachpelah" — "ה׳ מכפלה" ("a doubled hei") — refers to the two letters hei in the Name Havayah. And with this the Tzemach Tzedek explains30 Rashi's explanation "a house with an upper story above it": the "house" is the level of the lower hei, and the "upper story" — the level of the upper hei.
What is the connection between the two letters hei of the Name Havayah, which are alluded to in the word "HaMachpelah," and the cave of Machpelah in its plain sense? One of the explanations of this is:
The purpose of the soul's descent below is that through its service here below it should attain teshuvah. The soul as it is above, before it descends below, is in the state of a tzaddik; and through its service below it comes to the state of a baal teshuvah.31
Since the soul's service below is in order that it attain teshuvah, it is understood that as long as the soul has not yet completed its service in this world, it has not yet attained the perfection of teshuvah. Only at the time of "ותמת שרה בקרית ארבע גו׳" ("And Sarah died in Kiryas Arba...")32 — when the soul separates from the body and completes its service "in the land of Canaan" (from the term33 for commerce), in this world, the land of commerce, where the soul "trades" in the highest elevations34 — only then does it come to the perfection of teshuvah.35
And this is the connection between "the cave of Machpelah" in its plain sense — to which the Patriarchs and Matriarchs came after completing their service, when they had attained the perfection of teshuvah36 — and the two letters hei (the lower hei and the upper hei) that are alluded to in "the cave of Machpelah": the general matter of teshuvah consists of two levels — lower teshuvah, "תשוב ה׳ תתאה" ("returning the lower hei"), and upper teshuvah, "תשוב ה׳ עילאה" ("returning the upper hei").37
8. Although in general there are only two levels of teshuvah — lower teshuvah and upper teshuvah — it says in Likkutei Torah38 that in detail there are four levels in teshuvah. For in each of the two levels, lower teshuvah and upper teshuvah, there are two modes: ascent (ha'alaah) and drawing down (hamshachah).39 In lower teshuvah there is the mode in which the lower hei ascends to the vav, and the mode in which the vav is drawn down to the hei; and likewise in upper teshuvah there are two modes: the upper hei ascending to the yud, and the yud being drawn down to the hei.
And this is the explanation, in the inner dimension of the matters, of Rashi's two explanations of "HaMachpelah."
In the first explanation, Rashi states the general two levels of teshuvah: "house" — lower teshuvah, and "upper story" — upper teshuvah. (And Rashi adds "above it": that the "upper story" rests specifically upon the "house" — because the order of service is that first there must be lower teshuvah, and only then can one come to upper teshuvah.40 And even when it is in the manner of upper teshuvah, there must be "וחטאתי נגדי תמיד" ("and my sin is ever before me").41)
And in his second explanation — "doubled with couples," meaning doubled in the matter of couples, husband and wife (as explained above in section 4) — he explains the two modes of ascent and drawing down that exist both in the "house" (lower teshuvah) and in the "upper story" (upper teshuvah). As is known, "woman" indicates service in the manner of ascent from below to above, and "man" — drawing down from above to below.
(From the sicha of Shabbos Parshas Chayei Sarah 5729)
Notes
1) Our parsha, 23:9.
2) As in Tractate Eruvin (53a).
3) As the explanation — indeed the first one — in Eruvin there; and as the explanation of the Ibn Ezra here. And so it is in the holy Zohar, 129a. And although the Gemara there raises a difficulty on this explanation, "But according to the one who says two houses one within the other, what is 'Machpelah'?" — that is because according to the Gemara's mode of learning, "doubled" means specifically "with two ceilings" (Rashi there, s.v. "bayis"). But according to the plain meaning, there is no hint at all in the word "HaMachpelah" that the doubling is specifically in ceilings.* Note that the Radak here writes "And some say a cave within a cave" — even though the Gemara there rejects this view in explaining the word Machpelah, and the plain sense of his wording "And some say" implies that he means it according to the explanation of our Sages.
*) The Sifsei Chachamim here explains that since it is written "מערת" (the cave of [Machpelah]) with the construct tav, it means a cave of something (a building, or couples) that is doubled. Accordingly, the explanation "a cave within a cave" is ruled out (for then it should have said "a double cave"). But according to this, Rashi should have written his explanation on the words "מערת המכפלה" ("the cave of Machpelah").
4) One may say that for this reason the Ibn Ezra (who is among the elucidators of the plain meaning of Scripture) explains here only according to this explanation.
5) And although this ("house") is the wording of the Gemara there — it is Rashi's way, even when he quotes the Midrashim of our Sages, to change the wording so that the explanation will be understood even by a five-year-old beginning to study Scripture. (Note also the (Ibn Ezra and) Radak here, who change from "house" to "cave.")
6) Our parsha, 23:2. (From Eruvin there.)
7) See Rashi, Bereishis 2:14: "And Scripture wrote it on account of the future." And earlier in Rashi (2:3).
8) As stated explicitly in Zohar I (127b); but also according to the plain meaning it is simple, as in the text.
9) See Ramban here: Ephron sold him everything for the price of the field, believing that there was no grave there.
10) Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer, end of ch. 20. Note also Avodah Zarah (8a): "Adam HaRishon... made them, etc., and they established them, etc."
11) See Gur Aryeh here.
12) See Rashi, Vayeira 22:6, the first explanation.
13) And see the Maharsha's Chiddushei Aggados (Eruvin there): two of the graves are of those "whom a person is obligated to bury, for whom a kohen becomes impure"; thus four of them are not couples.
14) See Zohar I, 128b, and the glosses there.
15) 23:17.
16) Rashbam, Ramban, Radak and Sforno here.
17) Such matters — and especially general rules in Rashi's commentary — can be learned from Rashi's "silence" in his commentary (from his not explaining a verse or a word). For it is obvious that it is not his way, in his commentary on the Torah, to rely on other commentators; and where he does rely on them, he says so explicitly, as in "כתרגומו פירושו" ("its meaning is as its Targum") (Bereishis 4:7).
18) Such as "Eden" (Bereishis 2:8), and more. Note also "יפת אלקים ליפת" ("May G‑d enlarge Yefes") (Noach 9:27).
19) Rashi, Lech Lecha 17:5.
20) Our parsha, 23:19; Vayechi 50:13.
21) Vayechi 49:30.
22) But not a house within a house, because: a) Since "HaMachpelah" indicates one entity (as explained above in section 1), it is more reasonable that the connection between the two houses lies in their very existence — that the upper story exists by virtue of the house (whereas the connection between one within the other is only in the matter of entry). This also clarifies why Rashi adds (after explaining "a house and an upper story") "above it," which is seemingly superfluous — to emphasize that the upper story's entire existence rests specifically upon the house. b) Most, if not all, houses have several rooms (see Mikeitz 43:24-30), and there is no great novelty in a house within a house that it should be called "Machpelah" on account of the house; this is not so with a house with an upper story. c) In a dwelling within a dwelling there is no great novelty (or distinguishing sign), for this is possible even in a tent (many lived in tents) — this is not so with one on top of the other.
23) See Ramban and Sforno here.
24) See Rashi, s.v. "shekfulah" (Eruvin there).
25) See Radak, 23:6.
26) This follows Rashi's comment above (23:4), "for a burial ground."
27) See Rashi, Vayeira (22:6), cited above — the second explanation.
28) HaYom Yom, p. 24.
29) On our parsha, 129a.
30) Ohr HaTorah, our parsha, 118a. See also there, 114b.
31) Likkutei Torah, Balak 73a. (And it says there that this is "the true answer" to why the soul descended below.)
32) See Midrash HaNe'elam, our parsha, 122b: "'And Sarah died' — this is the body; 'in Kiryas Arba' — these are the four elements, etc."
33) Tanchuma, Masei 9; Tanchuma Buber there, 7; Bamidbar Rabbah 23:10.
34) See Torah Or, beginning of Parshas Vayeishev; Sefer HaMaamarim (Yiddish), p. 91, on the verse "And Sarah died... in the land of Canaan."
35) See Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres (92b), that Moshe Rabbeinu, peace be upon him, attained the level of teshuvah specifically before his passing.
36) Similarly, the "rising" that the field had when it entered Avraham's possession (Rashi on our parsha, 23:17): through having first been in Ephron's hands, it acquired a greater advantage (Ohr HaTorah, our parsha, 115b) — similar to the elevation of the soul after completing its service specifically in this world.
37) Iggeres HaTeshuvah, ch. 7 ff. The connection of "HaMachpelah — a doubled hei" (including the (returning of the) upper hei) to "And Sarah died in Kiryas Arba..." in each and every person (see Midrash HaNe'elam there, 122a-b), even in those who return (even close to their passing) only with lower teshuvah, is understood according to what is explained in "Biurim l'Iggeres HaTeshuvah," section 52,* that even lower teshuvah — even when it is only out of fear of punishment — in its inwardness and truth is "והרוח תשוב אל האלקים אשר נתנה" ("and the spirit returns to G‑d Who gave it"), the level of upper teshuvah. See there at length. See also Iggeres HaKodesh, sec. 5 (107b): "And behold, although, etc."
*) Printed in Iggeres HaTeshuvah with a collection of commentaries, etc. (pp. 188-189). — The publisher.
38) End of Parshas Balak. See also "Biurim l'Iggeres HaTeshuvah," sec. 14,** that every level of teshuvah, even the very lowest, includes all four levels. See there.
**) Printed there, p. 82. — The publisher.
39) See Ohr HaTorah there (118b), on the explanation of "his reward is doubled and redoubled," which refers to the two levels of Gan Eden — the higher Gan Eden and the lower Gan Eden (the upper hei and the lower hei) — in each of which there is a doubling: from below to above and from above to below. Accordingly, one can explain what is written in Iggeres HaTeshuvah, ch. 9, regarding teshuvah, that "in the place of the knot it is doubled and redoubled": the general matter of teshuvah is "doubled" — lower teshuvah and upper teshuvah — and in each of them there are the two modes of ascent and drawing down — "redoubled."
40) Iggeres HaTeshuvah, end of ch. 8. Lower teshuvah prepares for, and ultimately brings one to, upper teshuvah — in keeping with the explanation (in the text) of "Machpelah" as that which doubles, etc. And according to what is written in Iggeres HaKodesh there, the first hei also "doubles" the final hei; as cited in many places regarding the filling of the hei within the first hei (Torah Or, beginning of our parsha; Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 92, end of col. c; Ohr HaTorah, our parsha, 118a).
41) See Iggeres HaTeshuvah, end of ch. 1.
Key Lesson
The soul descends into this world in order to reach teshuvah, and it attains the full perfection of teshuvah only when it has completed its mission here — as alluded to in the "doubled hei" of the cave of Machpelah. Lower teshuvah must come first and serve as the foundation on which upper teshuvah rests, and in each of them a person must both rise upward from below and draw G‑dliness downward from above.