{"id":3570,"date":"2012-11-09T10:54:53","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T16:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=3570"},"modified":"2012-11-09T10:54:53","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T16:54:53","slug":"the-machpeilah-purchase-chayei-sarah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/the-machpeilah-purchase-chayei-sarah\/","title":{"rendered":"The Machpeilah Purchase: CHAYEI SARAH"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By RABBI DAVID POLSKY, Congregation Anshe Sfard<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Polsky_David.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-2898 lazyload\" title=\"Polsky_David\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Polsky_David-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-2898\" title=\"Polsky_David\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Polsky_David-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/noscript><\/a>We would say that the Louisiana Purchase is among the biggest real estate steals in history. But also right up there is Abraham\u2019s purchase of the cave of Machpeilah that we read about in this week\u2019s portion. Avraham pays 400 <em>shekalim<\/em>, which was a considered a hefty sum in those days. Nonetheless, how was he able to purchase such a holy space that has so much sanctity to the Jewish people till this day?<\/p>\n<p>The mystical Zohar teaches that if Efron had realized the cave\u2019s true sanctity and value he never would have sold it. But all he sees is a dark cave, for which he couldn\u2019t see any purpose. Only Abraham is spiritually developed enough to notice its true sanctity, making him desire it enough to pay a pretty shekel for it.<\/p>\n<p>This narrative forces us to ask ourselves whether we\u2019d be able to notice people, places, and things that are spiritually valuable. Or, are we like Efron, who fails to notice what is really good and holy?<\/p>\n<p>Finding a real estate steal may be worth millions of dollars, but finding and appreciating what is truly meaningful is priceless.<\/p>\n<p><em>Rabbi David Polsky is the rabbi of the Anshe Sfard Synagogue of New Orleans, and can be reached at <a href=\"mailto:rabbi@anshesfard.org\">rabbi-AT-anshesfard-DOT-org<\/a>. He tweets under the Twitter handle @BigEasyRabbi.<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"The%20Machpeilah%20Purchase%3A%20CHAYEI%20SARAH\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[1146,8790,8795,8788,560,591,859],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3570"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3570"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3572,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3570\/revisions\/3572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}