Acquisition

Abraham's Land Purchase as Theological Metaphor

Now the Human knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain (kayin), saying, “I have acquired (kaniti) a man with the help of the Lord.” (Genesis 4:1-2)

He blessed him, saying,
“Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth. (Genesis 14:19)

The field that Abraham had bought (asher kanah) from the Hittites; there Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife. (Genesis 25:10)

Acquire for yourself a friend (Pirkei Avot 1:6)

And from where do we derive that betrothal is accomplished by means of giving money? It is derived by means of a verbal analogy between the term expressing taking stated with regard to betrothal and from the term expressing taking with regard to the field of Ephron. How so? It is written here, with regard to marriage: “When a man takes a woman” (Deuteronomy 24:1), and it is written there, concerning Abraham’s purchase of the field of the Cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite: “I will give money for the field; take it from me” (Genesis 23:13). And the taking of Ephron’s field is called an acquisition in the Torah, as it is written with regard to the same issue: “The field which Abraham acquired” (Genesis 25:10). (Talmud Kiddushin 2b)

Eve is the first acquirer in the Torah. She names her son, Cain, from the verb liknot, meaning acquisition. Kayin is a suitable name for the first naturally born child (Adam was formed from earth, and Eve from Adam’s rib); in giving birth to Cain, Eve gains not just a child, but the realization of her own capacity to bring life into the world. She is empowered. And she’s not wrong to name God as her helper, or even counterparty (the Hebrew et maintains an ambiguous tone). But her framing of Kayin as an acquisition is also ominous and strange. What will this acquired being go on to do? And note that Adam is missing from her account. Eve perceives herself as acquiring a child with God, but edits her husband out of the script. Adam does not participate in the acquisition.

The Talmud famously derives the laws of bethrothal (Kiddushin) from Abraham’s acquisition of the cave of Machpela, described in this week’s parasha, Chayei Sarah. Just as Abraham purchased a field with money, so a man betroths his wife with money (the value of the money can be as low as perutah, or penny, making the payment profoundly tangible, yet also merely symbolic). In blessing God, Malchizedek refers to God as koneh shamayim, a purchaser or acquirer of heaven and earth. Clearly, this word liknot means something much broader than mere monetary transaction. Eve, God, and Abraham are all acquirers. In Pirkei Avot, we are enjoined to “acquire” a friend. Through the range of examples, we see that one can acquire a world, a child, a spouse, a friend, heaven and earth. None of these are obvious examples of what one might think of as acquisitions. Yes, acquisition is mundane, but it’s also profound. As always, Judaism, a carnal and tangible religion, brings the transcendent and the trivial together.

Abraham’s acquisition of the land of Israel highlights that it would not be enough for him simply to receive the land as a gift. He must invest himself in it, make it his. Abraham cannot simply “go” to the land that God shows him; he must make it his. But Abraham’s acquisition of the land is also, as the Talmud highlights, an acquisition of the place that represents his partnership with his wife, Sarah.

In a secular context, ownership is seen largely as a right, a right to property, for example. In a religious context, however, ownership is also an obligation. To own is to care for and belong to. When the Torah describes God as an acquirer of heaven and earth, it means not that God holds the deed to Creation, but that God maintains an interest in seeing Creation thrive. As such God will need to invest both in the maintenance of the world and in the growth of the world. In this light, Cain’s name is ironic. Eve acquires Cain, but she does not raise him to be me a mensch. In fact, Cain epitomizes the ethos opposite to ownership when he says “Am I my brother’s keeper?” A guardian is not an owner, but one appointed by the owner to take care. Cain refuses to see himself even as a sub-contractor vis a vis his brother.

The German term for authenticity, Eigentlichkeit, means to own or belong to oneself. Existentialist thinkers like Kierkegaard and Heidegger teach that it is not simply to be a self, one must, as it were, acquire oneself, gain a self. It is in this light that we should appreciate both Abraham’s purchase of Machpela and the Talmud’s discussion of betrothal. It’s not that Abraham purchased the field. The field already belonged to him. The purchasing was simply a way of formalizing his belonging, making it explicit and active. Before betrothal, two soul mates belong to each other. But the exchange of a penny marks the acknowledgment of this belonging, transforming it from an unspoken, received truth to a truth in the world, a forged and fashioned one.

God made the world on day 1, via bria and yetzira, as we discussed. But God is also an ongoing creator, via kinyan. As a koneh shamayim v’aretz, God proves to be more than a clock-maker, just as in a martial relationship the bond is not one of “set it and forget it,” but ongoing co-creation. Abraham’s purchase portends not a transfer of deed, but a concretization of his generational commitment to belong to the land God has given him, his wife, and their progeny. Which is why the chapter immediately following his acquisition describes Abraham’s arrangement to find Isaac a wife, to facilitate a kinyan on behalf of his progeny.

The Torah repeats that Abraham is old, once before the birth of Isaac, and a second time before the marriage of Isaac:

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. (Genesis 18:11) Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years; and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. (Genesis 24:1)

Why the double mention? One possibility is that the first time emphasizes the miracle of Isaac’s birth, but the second points to the miracle of Isaac’s continuity. It’s not enough that Isaac should be born if he, the only son and successor, would himself have no successor. Thus, Isaac’s birth is a necessary but insufficient condition for Abraham’s lineage. The kinyan of Isaac, if you will, only works if Isaac turns out well. That can’t be known simply at birth. Thus, Eve spoke too soon when she named Kain after acquisition. She under-parented. Or perhaps saw her role as mere birth-giver, not as custodian.

Just as we greet a new child with the blessing of “l’chuppah, l’Torah, u’l’ma’asim tovim” (“to the wedding canopy, the Torah, and good deeds”), so too, when God creates the world, we must wish that it should continue flourishing. And so too, when gaining friends and fields, we must wish that these not only maintain their value, but grow over time. In investment terminology, in all of these cases, we are blessing the new “asset” with high ROIC (return on invested capital); or less financially, ROIH (Return on invested Hesed). And even more specifically, with high ROIIC (Return on incremental invested capital / return on incremental invested Hesed), the ability to take the profits and reinvest them. This, indeed, comes to pass with the cave of Machpela, which proves not just a plot of land for Abraham and Sarah, but one for the avot and imahot, for two more generations, as well as a pilgrimage site for generations to come. It is a stand-in for our hope in God’s relationship with the world.

Shabbat Shalom,

Zohar Atkins

Etz Hasadeh