Sunday, November 1, 2026
Chayei Sara 1
This first part of Chayei Sarah covers Bereshis 23:1–11: Sarah's death at 127, Avraham's mourning, and the start of his negotiation with the children of Ches and Ephron for the Machpelah cave. Much of the time goes to the unusual wording of the first verse, which opens a discussion of whether Sarah lived out her full allotted years or died early. Two ideas keep coming back. The first is humility: the small letters and plural years that point to the humble, a mourner who stays small, and a "prince of God in our midst" who never set himself above anyone. The second is Avraham's wisdom in dealing with people, seen in how he won the cave without anyone noticing what it was worth.
The pesukim
- Bereshis 23:1
וַיִּהְיוּ֙ חַיֵּ֣י שָׂרָ֔ה מֵאָ֥ה שָׁנָ֛ה וְעֶשְׂרִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה וְשֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֑ים שְׁנֵ֖י חַיֵּ֥י שָׂרָֽה׃
Sarah had lived to be 127 years old. [These were] the years of Sarah's life.
- Sarah lived 127 years, and the verse closes with "these were the years of Sarah's life" (shnei chayei Sarah). It already opened with "the life of Sarah", so the phrase is said twice. According to Rabbi Moshe ibn Chaviv, the repetition teaches that Sarah lived exactly as long as she was meant to and not a day less. The shock of the Akeidah (the binding of Yitzchak) was what caused her death, but it came at the very moment her life was set to end. Hashem lets a righteous person live out their allotted time and doesn't take away even one day.
- Bereshis 23:2
וַתָּ֣מׇת שָׂרָ֗ה בְּקִרְיַ֥ת אַרְבַּ֛ע הִ֥וא חֶבְר֖וֹן בְּאֶ֣רֶץ כְּנָ֑עַן וַיָּבֹא֙ אַבְרָהָ֔ם לִסְפֹּ֥ד לְשָׂרָ֖ה וְלִבְכֹּתָֽהּ׃
Sarah died in Kiryath Arba, also known as Hebron, in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to eulogize Sarah and to weep for her.
- Sarah died in Kiryas Arba, also called Chevron, in the land of Canaan, and Avraham came to eulogize her and weep for her. Avraham had plenty of reasons to cry: she was his wife, she never saw Yitzchak married or met his children, and Avraham wasn't with her when she died. So why does the Torah need to tell us he grieved? It does so to teach how great a thing it is to eulogize a righteous person and shed a tear for them, knowing what the world has lost. Failing to shed a tear when a great person dies is not a good thing.
- Bereshis 23:3–4
וַיָּ֙קׇם֙ אַבְרָהָ֔ם מֵעַ֖ל פְּנֵ֣י מֵת֑וֹ וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר אֶל־בְּנֵי־חֵ֖ת לֵאמֹֽר׃
Abraham rose from beside his dead, and he spoke to the children of Heth.
גֵּר־וְתוֹשָׁ֥ב אָנֹכִ֖י עִמָּכֶ֑ם תְּנ֨וּ לִ֤י אֲחֻזַּת־קֶ֙בֶר֙ עִמָּכֶ֔ם וְאֶקְבְּרָ֥ה מֵתִ֖י מִלְּפָנָֽי׃
"I am an immigrant and a resident among you," he said. "Sell me property for a burial place with you so that I can bury my dead, [and not have her here] right in front of me."
- Avraham got up from beside his dead and told the children of Ches, "I am a foreigner and a resident among you (ger v'toshav anochi imachem). Sell me a burial plot so I can bury my dead." The two words make up a two-sided offer. If they accept him as a foreigner, he will deal with them on their terms. If they don't, he is a resident, because Hashem already gave the land to his descendants and he now has a son, Yitzchak. Even so, he chose to ask rather than take.
- Bereshis 23:5–6
וַיַּעֲנ֧וּ בְנֵי־חֵ֛ת אֶת־אַבְרָהָ֖ם לֵאמֹ֥ר לֽוֹ׃
The children of Heth replied to Abraham, saying to him,
שְׁמָעֵ֣נוּ ׀ אֲדֹנִ֗י נְשִׂ֨יא אֱלֹהִ֤ים אַתָּה֙ בְּתוֹכֵ֔נוּ בְּמִבְחַ֣ר קְבָרֵ֔ינוּ קְבֹ֖ר אֶת־מֵתֶ֑ךָ אִ֣ישׁ מִמֶּ֔נּוּ אֶת־קִבְר֛וֹ לֹֽא־יִכְלֶ֥ה מִמְּךָ֖ מִקְּבֹ֥ר מֵתֶֽךָ׃
"Listen to us, Sir. You are a prince of God in our midst. Take our best burial site to bury your dead. No one among us will deny you his burial site to bury your dead."
- The children of Ches answered, "You are a prince of God in our midst. Bury your dead in our choicest grave, and none of us will refuse you." The wording is exact. They didn't call him a prince of God over us. They said in our midst. For all his greatness, Avraham never acted above them and made himself one of them, and that humility is what made them feel all the more bound to honor him and let him choose any plot.
- Bereshis 23:7
וַיָּ֧קׇם אַבְרָהָ֛ם וַיִּשְׁתַּ֥חוּ לְעַם־הָאָ֖רֶץ לִבְנֵי־חֵֽת׃
Abraham rose, and he bowed down to the local people, the children of Heth.
- Avraham got up and bowed to the local people, the children of Ches. They thought he was bowing to them. In truth he was bowing to Hashem, thanking Him that these people had agreed so quickly to give a foreigner a piece of land.
- Bereshis 23:8–9
וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר אִתָּ֖ם לֵאמֹ֑ר אִם־יֵ֣שׁ אֶֽת־נַפְשְׁכֶ֗ם לִקְבֹּ֤ר אֶת־מֵתִי֙ מִלְּפָנַ֔י שְׁמָע֕וּנִי וּפִגְעוּ־לִ֖י בְּעֶפְר֥וֹן בֶּן־צֹֽחַר׃
He spoke to them and said, "If you really want to help me bury my dead and [put her out of] my presence, listen to me, and speak up for me to Ephron son of Tzohar.
וְיִתֶּן־לִ֗י אֶת־מְעָרַ֤ת הַמַּכְפֵּלָה֙ אֲשֶׁר־ל֔וֹ אֲשֶׁ֖ר בִּקְצֵ֣ה שָׂדֵ֑הוּ בְּכֶ֨סֶף מָלֵ֜א יִתְּנֶ֥נָּה לִּ֛י בְּתוֹכְכֶ֖ם לַאֲחֻזַּת־קָֽבֶר׃
Let him sell me the Makhpelah Cave, which belongs to him, at the edge of his field. Let him sell it to me in your presence for its full price, as a burial property."
- Avraham didn't take up their offer of any plot. He asked them to speak for him to Ephron son of Tzochar and have him sell the Machpelah cave at the edge of his field for its full price. He knew they would give it to him for free, but he didn't want to accept a gift, so he insisted on paying whatever was asked. Machpelah comes from kaful, "double": the cave had two levels, as Rashi says, and others say it was a cave within a cave. Either way it was a safe place, fitting for a tomb.
- Bereshis 23:10–11
וְעֶפְר֥וֹן יֹשֵׁ֖ב בְּת֣וֹךְ בְּנֵי־חֵ֑ת וַיַּ֩עַן֩ עֶפְר֨וֹן הַחִתִּ֤י אֶת־אַבְרָהָם֙ בְּאׇזְנֵ֣י בְנֵי־חֵ֔ת לְכֹ֛ל בָּאֵ֥י שַֽׁעַר־עִיר֖וֹ לֵאמֹֽר׃
Ephron was then sitting among the children of Heth. Ephron the Hittite replied to Abraham in the presence of the children of Heth, so that all who came to the city gate could hear.
לֹֽא־אֲדֹנִ֣י שְׁמָעֵ֔נִי הַשָּׂדֶה֙ נָתַ֣תִּי לָ֔ךְ וְהַמְּעָרָ֥ה אֲשֶׁר־בּ֖וֹ לְךָ֣ נְתַתִּ֑יהָ לְעֵינֵ֧י בְנֵי־עַמִּ֛י נְתַתִּ֥יהָ לָּ֖ךְ קְבֹ֥ר מֵתֶֽךָ׃
"No, my lord," he said." "Listen to me. I have already given you the field. I have [also] given you the cave that is there. Here, in the presence of my countrymen, I have given it to you. Bury your dead."
- Ephron was sitting among the children of Ches. In front of everyone at the city gate he answered, "No, my lord. I have given you the field, and the cave in it. Bury your dead." The word for "sitting" (yoshev) is written without its vav, so it can be read yashav, "he sat down", which hints that something had just happened. As with Lot, who sat at the gate of Sodom on the day he was made chief judge, Ephron had been appointed governor that very day. Speaking as the new governor in front of witnesses, he offered the cave and the whole field as a gift, saying that a man as great as Avraham shouldn't own a small corner of someone else's field.
English from The Living Torah by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, used with the permission of the Kaplan family. Hebrew: Miqra according to the Masorah (CC BY-SA).
Takeaways
- Every person has a set time, and Hashem gives the righteous every day of it.
- Be careful about calling down Heaven's judgment on someone else, because whoever asks for judgment is judged first.
- Whoever is small and humble in this world is the one honored in the next.
- Shed a tear when a righteous person dies, then mourn within the limits the Torah sets and trust that Hashem has a plan.
- Greatness that stays "in our midst" instead of standing above people earns real respect, and a wise person gets things done without making anyone feel passed over.
Going deeper— the stories, Kabbalah and the reasons behind the reasons
Where last week's parsha left off
- At the Akeidah Hashem tested Avraham by telling him to bring Yitzchak as an offering. At the last moment an angel called out to stop him, because Hashem only wanted to see how deep his faith was.
- Avraham offered a ram in Yitzchak's place, and Hashem blessed him with descendants like the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore.
- The parsha ended with the birth of Rivka, daughter of Besuel and granddaughter of Avraham's brother Nachor.
Three questions on the first verse
- The verse reads: Vayihyu chayei Sarah me'ah shanah v'esrim shanah v'sheva shanim, shnei chayei Sarah.
- First, why does it say "the life of Sarah" twice?
- Second, why does it switch between the singular shanah (year) for 100 and 20 and the plural shanim (years) for 7?
- Third, why break the number into 100 year, 20 year and 7 years instead of just saying 127 years?
How the Satan caused Sarah's death
- Sarah died right after the Akeidah. Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer, which Rashi brings, tells how it happened. The Satan had failed to turn Avraham or Yitzchak back on the way to the mountain, so he went to Sarah instead.
- He came to her in Be'er Sheva disguised as an old man on a camel and told her that Avraham had bound Yitzchak and sacrificed him, and that Yitzchak had begged for mercy and got none.
- Sarah cried bitterly and wandered toward Chevron, asking everyone she met whether they had seen an old man with young men. In Chevron she met the giants Achiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the same giants the spies would see centuries later. They told her they had seen a boy bound on a mountain and an old man holding a knife, and then a cloud covered everything.
- The Satan then came back in a different disguise and told her the first old man was a known liar and that Yitzchak was alive and well. Going straight from the deepest grief to overwhelming joy was such a shock that she died on the spot.
King David's fixed day of death
- The Gemara in Shabbos 30 shows that Hashem sets each person's day of death exactly, and it comes no earlier and no later. King David asked, "Let me know my end, Hashem" (Tehillim 39:5). Hashem answered that no person may know, but he would die on a Shabbos.
- David asked to die on Sunday instead, so that people could honor and eulogize him. On Shabbos no one may touch the body, so he would be buried without a eulogy. Hashem refused, because Shlomo's reign would begin that Sunday, and one king's reign can't overlap another's by even a hairbreadth.
- David then asked to die on Friday. Hashem refused again, quoting "a day in Your courtyards is better than a thousand" (Tehillim 84:11): one day of David's Torah learning was dearer to Him than the thousand offerings Shlomo would bring.
- The angel of death has no power over someone learning Torah, so every Shabbos David learned without stopping. On his last Shabbos the angel shook the trees behind the palace. David went out and climbed up to look, still reciting by heart. The Satan had loosened a rung, it broke under him, and in that moment of interruption he died.
- A person has an expiration date, and when it arrives, that's it. The same applies to Sarah: the repetition of "the life of Sarah" shows she filled exactly the time she was given.
Measure for measure: Sarah's denial
- The Me'am Loez brings the Pa'aneach Raza, who explains that Hashem judges the righteous down to a hairbreadth, so even a small fault needs cleansing.
- Sarah's fault was that she laughed when told she would have a son, and then denied laughing.
- Hashem punishes measure for measure. The Satan killed her through a denial of his own: first he said Yitzchak was slaughtered, then he denied his own words, and the shock killed her. Her death mirrored her denial.
Judged first for "Let Hashem judge between me and you"
- Another opinion, in the Gemara in Bava Kamma 93a and in Bereishis Rabbah, holds that Sarah did die early. When Hagar became pregnant she began to look down on Sarah, and Sarah rebuked Avraham for not praying for her: "Let Hashem judge between me and you."
- Prayer and judgment work the same way. If you pray for someone else who needs the same thing you need, you are answered first. If you ask Hashem to judge someone else, you are judged first.
- Sarah should have brought her complaint to the court of Shem and Ever instead of calling on Hashem's judgment against Avraham.
- Because she asked for judgment, she was judged first. She was meant to live longer and not die before Avraham. He lived to 175 and she to 127: she lived 48 years less than he did and, being ten years younger, died 58 years before him.
The Zohar on the singular and plural years
- The Zohar reads closely here. The numbers above ten, 100 and 20, which look big, take the small singular word shanah. The number seven, below ten and small, takes the plural shanim.
- The lesson: whoever is big at the beginning is small at the end. Someone who makes himself look great in this world is really small in the next.
- Someone small and humble in this world will be greatly honored in the World to Come.
Rashi: why 100, 20 and 7 are counted separately
- Rashi says each number describes Sarah. At 100 she was like a 20-year-old when it came to sin, and at 20 she was like a 7-year-old in beauty.
- A person isn't punished by Heaven for sin before age 20. At 100 Sarah was as free of sin as someone that age.
- Sarah was one of the most beautiful women, and at 20 her beauty was as pure as a 7-year-old's.
Avraham's journey to Chevron
- After the Akeidah Avraham went to Be'er Sheva to find Sarah. He didn't find her there and was told she had gone to Chevron to look for Yitzchak.
- By the time he reached Chevron she had already died.
Another view: Sarah heard it from Yitzchak
- According to the Midrash in Vayikra Rabbah, Yitzchak came back and told his mother that if an angel hadn't called down from heaven, he would have been killed. Hearing that is what killed her.
- Sarah was righteous enough to accept Hashem's command as fully as Avraham did, so that wasn't what pained her.
- What pained her was that Avraham hadn't told her. Once she understood it was only a test, she thought that something so irreversible should have been looked into carefully, and that by acting so quickly without discussing it he might have killed Yitzchak for nothing.
What the wording of the eulogy teaches
- The verse doesn't say Avraham came and eulogized her. It says he came to eulogize her, which hints that the people held off the funeral until he arrived so that Avraham himself could eulogize her.
- Sarah died in Tishrei of the year 2085, at 127, in Chevron.
- The verse could have said Avraham came to eulogize "her" or "his wife". It says "to eulogize Sarah" because she deserved Avraham's eulogy in her own right for her righteousness, not just because she was his wife.
Why weep for a good person
- Hashem counts a tear shed at the death of a virtuous person and puts it in His treasury, and the one who shed it is amply rewarded (Shabbos 105b). Someone who neglects the funeral of a rabbi, or even of a good Jew, can have his life shortened.
- A whole nation can pay for this. When Yehoshua died, an earthquake threatened to kill many because they didn't mourn him properly. In King David's time a famine and a plague came because Shaul wasn't properly mourned.
- So when you hear that a good person died, even someone you didn't know, realize that he brought good to the world. Grieve and honor him, and a Torah scholar above all.
- The saint himself loses nothing, since he goes to a higher level. A diamond stays a diamond wherever it is, yet its owner grieves its loss. The survivors have lost someone who could intercede for them.
- The Talmud says a saint doesn't die until a replacement is born (Kiddushin 72b). We still weep. Each person received his own portion of the Torah at Sinai, and his teachings go with him. The new saint may be born far away, and even one born nearby takes many years to mature, and meanwhile the people have no protector.
The king and the general
- The Olelos Ephraim tells of a great king whose distant hometown had a general who never lost a battle. When an alliance of kings marched on the city, the citizens begged for a large army. Instead the king called the general back to his palace.
- An old sage explained it to the terrified people. The king knew they were excellent fighters who had grown lazy, going from feast to feast and leaning on the general until they forgot the art of war. With him there they would have left everything to him and been wiped out. So they trained, made a strategy and won.
- The king is Hashem, the faraway city is the physical world, and the general is the saint of the time. Seeing how great he is, people grow complacent, assume his merit will protect them, and stop being careful with mitzvos. So Hashem takes the saint, so that each person does teshuvah and finds his own strength to fight evil.
- Never forget that a person is mortal, and think about your death every day. One who doesn't is no better than a cow that eats and drinks and doesn't know it's headed for the butcher.
The woman named Chagigah
- A scholar knew nothing in the Talmud but tractate Chagigah, which he reviewed all his life until he knew it perfectly by heart. He died old and alone, and no one knew.
- Suddenly a woman appeared in his room, crying loudly until the neighbors came: "Mourn him. He was a saint. He honored me greatly; he never took his mind off me." She went with him until he was buried.
- Asked her name, she said "Chagigah", and on the way back from the cemetery she vanished. She was the spirit of the tractate, and they realized he must have been a great saint for his greatness to be made known this way.
- Everyone is considered a Torah scholar's relative. A lost jewel may be found again, but a scholar is a permanent loss, so mourn him as a father, a brother or a child.
The small kaf and the limits of mourning
- In the word v'livkosah, "and to weep for her", the letter kaf is written smaller than the rest of the word.
- It teaches that a mourner should feel small and humble and think: this person died because of my sins, and I didn't merit to keep them in my life.
- It also teaches that a person shouldn't mourn too much. Loss has to be accepted patiently, without questioning Hashem's judgment.
- The Torah sets the measures: three days for crying, the seven days of shiva for mourning, and thirty days without bodily pleasures such as haircuts and freshly laundered clothes. Mourning beyond that is forbidden, because grieving too much denies that Hashem has a plan and that there is an afterlife.
- There is also a lighter mourning for a parent that lasts twelve months. The judgment of the wicked in Gehinnom lasts twelve months, so Kaddish is said for only eleven, to show we don't consider the person wicked.
- The kaf may also be small because the mourning was short. According to the opinion that the Akeidah took place on Yom Kippur, Sukkos came only days later and cut the mourning short.
- The verse puts eulogizing before weeping, although a person usually weeps first. The Toldos Yitzchak explains that Avraham was still so uplifted after the Akeidah that crying didn't come easily, so he eulogized her first and that brought him to tears.
Burying quickly
- The Ralbag says the sooner a person is buried, the greater their peace. That's why Avraham got up right after eulogizing and weeping to arrange the burial.
- Many people want their relatives to rest in peace and then leave them in a morgue for a week or two. The Jewish way is to bury as fast as possible.
Why Avraham didn't claim the land yet
- Hashem promised to take the land from the Canaanite nations only once their sins reached a certain level of immorality and idol worship.
- In Avraham's time they hadn't reached that level, so it wasn't yet right to drive them out. Avraham wouldn't take possession and asked only for a burial place.
"We are all foreigners here"
- Rabbi Eliyahu ibn Chaim (the Ranach) reads it differently. Imachem literally means "with you", so ger v'toshav anochi imachem can be read as "I am a foreigner along with you": all of us are just passing through this world.
- Everyone ends up in the same place and needs a burial spot eventually. Avraham was thinking ahead about his own grave while asking to bury Sarah now.
Why Avraham bowed to the Hittites
- Avraham also bowed to honor the Hittites of Chevron themselves.
- They came to Sarah's funeral, escorted her to the grave, and closed their businesses that day. Avraham bowed to repay that kindness with respect.
How Avraham knew about the Machpelah cave
- Bereishis Rabbah says Avraham knew Adam and Chava were buried in the cave and that being buried there would be a great merit.
- Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer says how he found it. When the three angels visited him, he went to get cattle for them, one cow ran off, and he chased it all the way into the cave.
- There he saw Adam and Chava buried and smelled a refreshing fragrance. He started praying there every day, and Hashem spoke to him there, so he knew it was a holy place.
- He also didn't want Sarah buried in the Hittites' cemetery, because they were immoral people, so he wanted a separate place.
Avraham the negotiator: using the townspeople as agents
- Avraham didn't go straight to Ephron. He made the townspeople his agents to ask on his behalf.
- He could have made the deal without them. But then they would have had a claim: they owned the neighboring fields, so they should have had the first chance to buy the cave. Because he consulted them and made them his agents, they felt included, no quarrels broke out, and he didn't have to worry that they would later challenge the purchase.
- He showed the same skill in the last parsha, when he bargained Hashem down from fifty righteous people to ten to save Sodom. If you can negotiate with Hashem, you can negotiate with anyone.
Why the verse says "saying" (leimor)
- The word leimor, "saying", always means a message is being passed along. So when the verse says it here, Ephron is answering through the agents.
- Avraham also spoke through an interpreter, so each statement went through someone else before it reached the other side.
The Zohar on Avraham's strategy
- The Zohar points out that Avraham wanted this cave badly but never opened by asking for it. If he had, everyone would have concluded it was valuable and kept it or refused to sell.
- Instead he asked in neutral terms for a burial spot "with you", as if any place in their cemetery would do, even though he never meant to bury Sarah among the Hittites.
- He knew they would answer that a prince of God deserves the choicest grave, which put them in the position of offering him something special.
- Only then did he casually mention Ephron's field. Ephron saw no other use for the cave, so why not?
- The lesson for business: get the other side to propose the deal you want, and you'll get a good price. Show you want something specific, and everyone assumes it's worth a lot.
Why Ephron didn't see what Avraham saw
- The Sifsei Kohen says that had Ephron known Adam and Chava were buried there, he wouldn't have sold it for all the money in the world. When he explored it, though, all he saw was a deep, dark, worthless cave, so he was happy to give it away.
- According to another tradition, whenever Ephron tried to enter the cave he saw a man ready to kill him, so he wanted nothing to do with it.
- Adam buried Chava there. He built the two levels so he could be hidden in the lower one and not be worshipped as an idol. He smelled Gan Eden in the cave and wanted to enlarge it, but a heavenly voice told him not to.
- The Zohar says Sheis buried Adam there and the cave stayed hidden until Avraham. One tradition says Avraham heard angels singing that this was the burial place of Adam and Chava, and of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov.
- The Zohar also says others did know about the cave, but the angels let no one else be buried there. Whenever anyone tried to enter, flames burst out and drove them away.
- Whichever view you take, Ephron didn't value the cave, and Avraham's careful approach got it for him. Next comes his counteroffer, since he refuses to take it as a gift.
Review questions
- What three questions does the wording of Bereshis 23:1 raise, and how do the Zohar and Rashi answer the last two?
- How did the Satan cause Sarah's death, and how does the Pa'aneach Raza see it as measure for measure?
- Why couldn't King David die on a Sunday or a Friday, and what does that story teach about Sarah?
- What do the small kaf in v'livkosah and the Torah's set mourning periods teach a mourner?
- What did the children of Ches mean by calling Avraham a prince of God "in our midst" rather than "over us"?
- How did Avraham get the Machpelah cave without letting on how much he wanted it, and why did he use the townspeople as agents?
Sources
- Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer — the Satan's deception that led to Sarah's death (also in Rashi); Avraham finding the cave by chasing the cow
- Rabbi Moshe ibn Chaviv — the repeated "life of Sarah" means she lived her full allotted years
- Talmud Shabbos 30 — King David's fixed day of death on Shabbos
- Tehillim 39:5 and 84:11 — David asking to know his end; a day of learning is better than a thousand offerings
- Pa'aneach Raza — Sarah's death as measure for measure for denying that she laughed
- Talmud Bava Kamma 93a and Bereishis Rabbah — Sarah judged first for "let Hashem judge between me and you"
- Zohar — singular and plural years and humility; Avraham's negotiation strategy; traditions about the cave
- Rashi — at 100 like 20 in sin, at 20 like 7 in beauty; Machpelah as a cave with two levels
- Vayikra Rabbah — Sarah died on hearing from Yitzchak how close he came to death
- Toldos Yitzchak — why Avraham eulogized before he wept
- Ralbag — the sooner the burial, the greater the peace
- Rabbi Eliyahu ibn Chaim (the Ranach) — we are all foreigners in this world
- Bereishis Rabbah — Avraham knew Adam and Chava were buried in the Machpelah
- Sifsei Kohen — what Ephron saw in the cave
- Me'am Loez — the running commentary throughout