By David Kroll
SAN DIEGO — This week’s parsha was Chayey Sarah, the life of Sarah, a text which actually begins following the time of her death. As compared with other parshas which involve a great many subjects and topics, Chayey Sarah deals with only three: The negotiation between Abraham and Efron the Hittite for the purchase by Abraham of the cave of the Machpelah as Sarah’s burial place, and ultimately at the end of the parsha, his burial place as well. –The lengthy story of Abraham sending his servant to find a wife for Isaac and the details of how he did so and brought Rebecca back for Isaac to delightedly marry; – and the listing of Abraham’s and his son Ishmael’s lineage.
The topic I would like to discuss is the first theme, the financial bargaining for purchase of the Machpelah. Three things synchronously occurred for me over the last two weeks, the
third of which was my undertaking to deliver a dvar Torah on Chayey Sarah. The first
two were:
– At a Chavurah get-together, a member related a question asked her in an interview by a high school student. The question was: “Are all Jews rich?”
– Last week at services, a visitor, Kyle, told me that he was attending in preparation for a paper he is writing for his college class on religion. The assignment was to test by attending services whether common stereotypes regarding religions have any basis in what actually goes on. I asked him
what stereotypes he had in mind for Jews, and his answer included that one of the chief stereotypes was that Jews were penny-pinchers and money lovers.
As may be seen, the common theme of all three occurrences is: Jews and money.
Here are my own observations:
There are a number of answers to the question, “Are all Jews rich?” Each one seemingly results in a back-and-forth game of discussion-tennis:
– My first answer is to forthrightly acknowledge, as a gigantic generalization, that compared to all of the rest of the people in the world, Jews certainly are rich – or at least financially well off.
– Which answer immediately compels the return volley that Jews run the gamut on the financial scale; – that it depends upon which group or individual person you are referring to:– Jews from Russia, from Ethiopia, from Arab lands – that it depends on which generation of immigrants the wandering Jew belongs to – (both of my parents were dirt poor as children of immigrants to the USA, and their four sons are now a doctor, two lawyers and an insurance agent): – That the majority of Jews in Israel
have to work very hard to make ends meet. – That there are people in need among all peoples and cultures.
– Which answer then compels the response that Jews have always, in all circumstances, considered themselves responsible for the welfare of all other Jews, setting up vast and varied social networks to take care of everyone: – that Jews have always been in the forefront of social responsibility and social action movements; – that one of the chief values in Judaism is Tzadakah, which combines – as one – the concepts of righteousness and charity – that even the poorest Jewish households had a Pushke, a little box, to collect coins for those who were even poorer – that Jews have a history of providing collectively, for the Jewish community and larger community – that Jews who have done well financially almost always contribute back to the community as benefactors of great hospitals, museums, and for scientific and medical research.
– Which answer then compels the response that self-improvement and individual responsibility are key values in Judaism: – that if Jews are indeed rich, we are rich in that we understand the value of education, study, setting short and long term goals: – that debate, discussion, classes, forums, schools, colleges and continuous life-long inquiry are our riches – that we are rich in that we have learned how to survive in often terribly hostile circumstances.
It is interesting to note that in Abraham’s bargaining with the Hittites, he paid a very high price for the land and burial site, and that Efron can be considered the winner in the negotiation in that he extracted from Abraham the very top shekel, paid on the barrel-head in silver. Abraham, however, was the true winner… in that he purchased permanence; something for the future, … for the ages. It is also interesting to note that dealing with money has been a talent developed historically by the Jews in that we were, since the destruction of the Second Temple, almost always denied that most basic source of financial security and value, ownership of land, … and were forced to survive by our wits in areas and occupations into which the larger population did not see fit to enter. We became lenders and tax collectors because those were the only jobs available to us in those countries in those times. The true sources of basic wealth throughout the history of the last two thousand years, through the present day: land ownership with its resulting riches of timber, building materials, minerals and oil; aristocratic succession; the building and construction professions; and more recently, the manufacturing, automobile and aviation industries, and the insurance industry, – were by and large closed to Jews.
So my answer to my friend Kyle and to the inquiring student and to all who invoke a stereotype of Jews as people to whom money is important, I say: Money to Jews has never been anything more than a means to survival as outsiders. Our true riches are our ingrained values of education, family,
community, tzedakah, individual responsibility and self-betterment, social welfare and tikkun olam.
May we be known by our works.
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Kroll is a member of Congregation Beth Israel and a long-time leader of the Lawrence Family JCC.