Many people make a point of spending this Shabbos in Chevron in commemoration of the episode of Avraham Avinu buying Me'aras haMachpeila recorded in this week's parsha. I found the following in Koveitz b'Ivkei Siach, a collection of questions posed to R Ch Kanievsky on various topics. The interlocutor prefaced his question to R' Chaim with a story. A bachur told R' Dovid Povarsky that he went on a trip to Chevron on Chol HaMoed to visit the Avos. R' Dovid replied that he shouldn't have bothered, as they are not there. Shocked, the bachur asked R' Dovid what he meant, as he went to Me'aras haMachpeila where they are buried. R' Dovid explained that there is a Zohar (don't ask me where) that says from chatzos on erev Shabbos until motzei Shabbos the neshomos go to the makom Mikdash and are therefore are not in Chevron at that time. (R' Dovid presumably help that this is not a din in Shabbos, but a din in any yom kadosh, including Chol ha'Moed.) The question posed to R' Chaim is whether the same holds true of other kivrei tzadikim, which would mean there is no point to visiting their graves on erev Shabbos. For the record, R' Chaim held that this Zohar only applies to the Avos. Ad kan the story and the question. What I want to focus on is the footnote added by the interlocutor: If this is correct, then what's the point of spending Shabbos Chayei Sarah in Chevron and davening by Me'aras haMachpeila? The Avos are not found there on Shabbos! He ends off, "Yesh l'ayein."
I think perhaps drawing this conclusion misses the point of the parsha and the point of the Shabbos in Chevron, as it assumes the only reason to go to Chevron or Me'aras haMachpeila is because it is a place of kivrei tzadikim. Obviously there is a huge difference between the Avos and other tzadikim, but in this person's mind, conceptually at least, the idea of being in Chevron is akin to visiting R' Nachman's kever in Ukraine. The tzadik lived; the tzadik died; his kever becomes a shrine, if you will, to his spirit.
Our parsha is about much more than that. This is the coda to Sarah's life, and essentially to Avraham's life. We can now look back and see the results of that mission which started with the command to go אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ, with the promise that וְאֶעֶשְׂךָ לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל וַאֲבָרֶכְךָ וַאֲגַדְּלָה שְׁמֶךָ וֶהְיֵה בְּרָכָה. Would Avraham be able to make a home in that land? He faced famine in the land, he faced war, he saw the destruction of whole cities in the land, the land caused a breakup between himself and his closest family member, Lot. Yet, Avraham stuck with it. We see that Hashem's promise was therefore fulfilled, and Avraham was blessed with riches, he became great, and in our parsha is now referred to as נְשִׂיא אֱלֹקים אַתָּה בְּתוֹכֵנוּ. He is now as much a תוֹשָׁב as he is/was a גֵּר, with all the rights that that entails. Avraham's staking a claim in Chevron is not just about making an ohel that will become a place of spiritual pilgrimage, as that could just as well be in the Ukraine or in Cambria Heights, Queens. The point pf Avraham buying land is proving that not only in life, but in death as well, his attachment, our attachment, to Eretz Yisrael never ceases. Ibn Ezra puts it succinctly:
ונזכרה זאת הפרשה: להודיע מעלת ארץ ישראל מכל הארצות לחיים ולמתים.
ועוד: לקיים דבר השם לאברהם להיות לו נחלה.
So even if the Avos are not there at that moment, we still celebrate their title to the land which remains with us to this very day.
Even the shlichut to find a wife for Yitzchak, which immediately follows the story of Avraham buying a burial plot in Chevron, underscores this same theme. Why does Avraham warn Eliezer not to take a wife for Yitzchak from the local Canaani tribes? Chizkuni answers:
מבנות הכנעני – פן יאמרו עלי על ידי ירושה ומתנה נכנס הוא לארץ לפיכך איני רוצה אלא על ידי הקב״ה שיתננה לי בחזקה
Even in marrying off his son, Avraham never lost sight of stiving to fulfill that initial command and promise of Eretz Yisrael which Hashem made to him.
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