The Mishnah laconically describes Abraham’s unbounded love for G-d: “Abraham our father was tested with ten tests and he passed them all, which shows how great was Abraham our father’s love [for G-d]” (Pirkei Avot 5:3). However it does not tell us what these tests were.
Various commentators offer various opinions; but almost all agree that the Akeidah, the Binding of Isaac in last week’s parashah (Genesis 22), was the last of these tests.
Rabbeinu Yonah of Gerona, however, disagrees: according to him the Akeidah was the ninth test, and the tenth test was the burial of Sarah and Abraham’s having to buy the Machpela Cave, with which Parashat Chaye Sarah opens.
On a superficial level, this seems easy to understand: being forced to buy the Machpela Cave from the Hittites, who had only recently invaded the Land, must have been terribly demoralizing for Abraham. Just as the command to sacrifice Isaac cast a doubt over the very future existence of his offspring, so too being forced to buy his own land from a foreign invader could have cast a doubt over G-d’s fundamental promise that this Land was his.
And the anguish of having to buy a burial site for his beloved wife while she was yet lying dead before him must have been a horribly harrowing experience for Abraham: he couldn’t even mourn his dead wife in peace without Ephron the devious Hittite haggling over the price of the field.
But I suggest that Rabbeinu Yonah’s message goes far deeper than this superficial reading.
Rabbeinu Yonah, one of the greatest rabbis in the mediæval world, is best known for his monumental works שַׁעֲרֵי תְּשׁוּבָה, The Gates of Repentance; אִגֶּרֶת הַתְּשׁוּבָה, Epistle on Repentance; and סֵפֶר הַיִּרְאָה, The Book of Fear of G-d, which rank among the most important books of Jewish ethics ever written.
Rabbeinu Yonah was a master of the topic of repentance. In the Maimonidæan Controversy he was one of the leaders of the opposition to the Rambam, going so far as to support (and maybe even instigate) the public burning of the Rambam’s writings in Paris in 1233.
But nine years later, when the Church burned twenty-four wagon-loads of the Talmud in the same place where the Rambam’s books had been destroyed, Rabbeinu Yonah saw this as Divine retribution and publicly confessed in the Synagogue of Montpellier that he had been wrong to oppose the Rambam.
As an act of teshuvah he vowed to travel to Israel, there to prostrate himself on the Rambam’s grave and implore his pardon in the presence of ten men for seven consecutive days. He began his journey but never reached Israel, dying of a mysterious illness in Toledo, Spain, on 28th Marcheshvan 5024 (November 1263), 763 years ago this Sunday.
Since Rabbeinu Yonah’s greatest leitmotif was repentance, it is through the prism of repentance that we should try to understand his enumeration of Abraham’s ten tests, and why he, alone among all the commentators, views Abraham’s purchase of the Machpela Cave as his final test.
Rabbeinu Yonah lists Abraham’s ten tests as:
- In Ur of the Chaldees, Nimrod the king had him cast into a fiery furnace for refusing to betray G-d, and he miraculously survived (Bereishit Rabbah 38:13 and Eliyahu Rabbah 6);
- G-d’s command that he leave him homeland and family (Genesis 12:1);
- The famine that struck Canaan as soon as Abraham arrived there (12:10), even though G-d had told him that “all the families of the earth will be blessed through you” (12:3);
- When Abraham and Sarah came to Egypt, Pharaoh abducted his wife (12:15);
- His war against the four kings with only 318 of his students (14:13-16);
- Circumcising himself at ninety-nine years old (17:24);
- Abimelech, king of Gerar, abducted Sarah (20:2);
- Expelling Hagar and Yishmael (21:9-14);
- Binding and being prepared to slaughter his son Yitzchak (22:1-18);
- Having to buy the Machpela Cave to bury his dead wife (23:3-20).
The Rambam, in his enumeration of Abraham’s ten tests, omits the first of these. He includes Abraham’s begetting a son from Hagar after despairing of ever having a son by Sarah (Genesis 16:1-4) as a test, he counts the expulsion of Hagar and the subsequent expulsion of Yishmael as two separate tests, and he omits the tenth. According to the Rambam, “The ten tests with which Abraham our father was tested are all written” – that is to say, all written directly in the Torah.
Now, Rabbeinu Yonah in his commentary writes that although the episode of the fiery furnace in Ur of the Chaldees “is not written explicitly in the Torah and is only known from tradition, the Torah hints at it”.
It is hinted at in the name אוּר כַּשְׂדִּים, Ur Kasdim (usually translated “Ur of the Chaldees”): the Hebrew word אוּר, ur, means “fire” (the same root as אוֹר, “light”), so אוּר כַּשְׂדִּים or “Ur of the Chaldees” denotes “the fire of the Chaldeans”.
To understand why Rabbeinu Yonah includes Abraham’s having to buy the Machpela Cave to bury his dead wife, we have to go back to the Akeidah which, according to him, was Abraham’s ninth test.
The Akeidah narrative begins with the words “and it happened after these things…” (Genesis 22:1). The Rashbam (Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir, France, c. 1085-c. 1158, a Tosafist and grandson of Rashi) picks up on this phrase, and based on the Midrash, he comments:
“Whenever the Tanach says ‘after these things’, there is a direct connexion with what had been previously… Here, it means ‘after these things’ when Abraham forged a covenant with Abimelech, with his son and with his grandson (Genesis 21:22-32), which obligated Abraham’s descendants [to recognise Philistine control over the land where they lived]… This infuriated G-d because after all, the land of the Philistines is included within the borders of Israel, and G-d would command them ‘You shall not leave any of [the hostile inhabitants of the Land] alive’ (Deuteronomy 20:16); and when Joshua divided up the Land [between the Tribes of Israel in Joshua Chapters 14-21], he included the five Philistine cities [in the territory of Judah].
“And therefore ‘G-d tested Abraham’ (Genesis 22:1) – He reprimanded him and distressed him…, as though telling him: You take pride in including your son in the covenant which you forge between yourselves and your children? – So now, go and offer him up as a sacrifice, and see how much good that covenant which you have forged does you!”.
Let us see the original Midrash on which the Rashbam bases his comment:
“A person must constantly be on his guard not to make any partnership with idolaters, and not to forge any covenant with them. Because we find that Abraham our father made a partnership with Abimelech, and ended up by forging a covenant with him…. And when he forged the covenant with him, the ministering angels gathered around G-d saying:
“Why would Abraham forge a covenant with an idolater?! The one person whom You chose from among seventy nations and languages! G-d told them: His only son, whom I gave him at a hundred years old – I will tell him to offer him up as a sacrifice. If he offers him up – well and good; you will thereby know that his intentions were good – for the sake of peace. But if not – then you have spoken well” (Tanna de-Bey Eliyahu, Eliyahu Rabbah 7).
That is to say, the Akeidah was more than a test for Abraham – it was also his opportunity for repentance. It was the opportunity that G-d gave Abraham to prove that he had greater faith and trust in Him than he did in the mortal king Abimelech.
The Torah introduces the Akeidah with the words, וְהָאֱלֹקִים נִסָּה אֶת אַבְרָהָם
“G-d tested Abraham” (Genesis 22:1), which the Rashbam explains to meanקִנְתְּרוֹ וְצִעֲרוֹ – He rebuked and distressed Abraham.
The Rashbam understands Abraham to have acted presumptuously by conceding rights to territory that G-d had promised to his descendants. And he links the seven ewe-lambs given to Abimelech with subsequent suffering at the hands of the Philistines.
We return to Abraham buying the Machpela Cave. Let us look at Rabbeinu Yonah’s precise words: “The tenth [test] was the burial of Sarah; He had told him, ‘Rise, walk through the length and breadth of the Land, because I give it to you’ (Genesis 13:17). And when his wife died he could not find any place to bury her until he bought it, yet he did not doubt [G-d’s promise]”.
Though Rabbeinu Yonah does not explicitly connect the purchase of Machpela with Abraham’s earlier covenant with Abimelech, I suggest that he sees it as the direct continuation of the Akeidah. In the covenant which Abraham forged with Abimelech, there were two components: first, that Abraham and his descendants would be protected by Abimelech and his descendants; second, that Abraham and his descendants would recognize Abimelech’s and his descendants’ control over part of the Land.
G-d reprimanded Abraham for both of these. The first measure-for-measure response was the Akeidah: Abraham thought to entrust his son’s security to Abimelech and his son – and as a consequence, G-d showed Abraham how Abimelech’s protection was irrelevant. This was not only a test – it was also Abraham’s opportunity for teshuvah.
The second measure-for-measure response was Abraham’s having to buy the Machpela Cave: Abraham thought to recognize Abimelech’s sovereignty over the Land in return for security and peace for himself and his descendants – and as a consequence he had to barter and haggle for a plot of land at the most harrowing moment of his entire life.
So this, too, was not only a test – it was also Abraham’s opportunity for teshuvah. It brought him to the understanding that recognizing foreign sovereignty over the Land, or any part thereof, could not bring security and peace for himself or his descendants; indeed, all it did was to jeopardise his own ownership of and future in the Land.
Hence, according to Rabbeinu Yonah’s understanding, this tested Abraham’s faith in G-d’s earlier promise to give Abraham and his descendants the entire Land of Israel; and yet, as Rabbeinu Yonah concludes, he did not doubt His promise.
By listing the burial of Sarah as Abraham’s tenth and final test, Rabbeinu Yonah forces us to peer deep into our own souls and ask ourselves some penetrating questions:
Do we genuinely believe in G-d, and in His promise and command to us to possess the entire Land of Israel? And if we do, do we honestly want to take possession of it all? Do we trust G-d and His promise and His protection more than we trust human allies? Are we going to be disheartened by a viciously anti-Israel political swing on our most important human ally? Or do we maintain our faith and trust G-d to continue guiding human history? Do we base our claim to the Land of Israel on G-d’s decrees or on the UN?
Abraham and his experiences showed us what errors to avoid. Relying on Abimelech and the nation of Gerar obviously seemed pragmatic to Abraham…until suddenly it didn’t any more.
Sometimes – just sometimes – it seems that G-d forces us to stand alone, to defend ourselves without any human support. Even our most trusted friend has suddenly turned on us.
Indisputably a test, as difficult as any that our father Abraham faced.
And yet, in Rabbeinu Yonah’s words, וְלֹא הִרהֶר – “He did not question [G-d’s promises]”. This is especially significant because, in his enumeration of the earlier tests, Rabbeinu Yonah repeatedly emphasises Abraham’s refusal to question G-d’s ways despite apparently contradictory circumstances.
The famine, the Akeidah, and Abraham’s being forced to purchase of Machpela all involve a seeming contradiction between G-d’s promises and the reality confronting Abraham.
G-d tested not Abraham’s faith in Him, but also whether he continue to trust His promises even when circumstances appear to contradict them.
Do we, in our generation standing on the brink of redemption, have the courage, the faith, the trust, and the honesty to pass our tests, as Abraham our father passed his?
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