11 Nov HAYEH SARA: THINKING LONG TERM

Parashat Hayeh-Sara tells of
Avraham Avinu’s efforts to
purchase Me’arat
Hamachpelah– the
Machpeila Cave in Hevron,
where he wished to bury his
wife, Sara, who had just passed

away.
The territory of this special cave was owned
by a man named Efron. After Efron first said
that he would give the land to Avraham free of
charge, he then turned to Avraham and said,
“What is a 400-shekel piece of land between
us?” (23:15). Avraham immediately paid
Efron this sum – 400 silver coins, which was
an outrageously exorbitant amount of money
for this property.
Efron’s tactic is one which many a wily
salesman has used since then. Many of us
have probably had the experience of
somebody trying to sell us something, and he
tells us, “Because I like you,” or “Because
you’re a friend,” or “Because you’re a valued
customer” he was offering a “discounted”
price. This price is not necessarily a discount,
and the merchandise or service is not
something we necessarily need or even want,
but framing the deal in this way, making us

believe that he actually likes us, cares about
us, and wants to do something nice to us,
convinces us that this is to our benefit, which
in truth, it isn’t.
Rashi (23:16) notes that in the pasuk that tells
of Avraham paying Efron the 400 coins,
Efron’s name is spelled unusually. Throughout
this section, his name is spelled Efron, but in
this pasuk, it is spelled Efron, without the
letter ‘Vov’. Rashi explains that because
Efron acted dishonestly, pretending to be
Avraham’s friend, to be giving him a great
deal, when in fact he was charging an
outrageous sum, a letter was taken out of
Efron’s name.
People act dishonestly because they see only
the here-and-now. They see an opportunity to
make money or obtain something they want
by being less than truthful, and so they go
ahead and do it. But long-term, this has the
effect of ruining their “name,” their reputation.
Dishonesty might yield short-term benefit,
but it causes long-term harm. A single
dishonest act can ruin a person’s reputation
and standing, forever. If we think long-term,
we realize that dishonesty hurts us infinitely
more than it helps us.

The contrast to Efron’s shortsightedness is
Sara Imenu. The first pasuk of our parashah
tells us that Sara lived for 127 years, and it
then concludes, “these were the years of
Sara.” Rashi explains that this phrase was
added to tell us that Sara’s days were all
equally good. At first glance, this seems very
difficult to understand. Sara went through
many ordeals over the course of her life. She
went with her husband to a new land as
commanded by Hashem, and soon after they
arrived, a famine struck, forcing them to
move again, to Egypt, where she was forcibly
taken by the king. She would be abducted
again later, by a different king (Avimelech).
She was childless for many years, eventually
having Avraham marry her maidservant, who
then immediately conceived, and started
disrespecting Sara. Sara did not have an easy
life. So how could Rashi say that the days of
her life were all equally good?
The answer is that although Sara’s life wasn’t
all easy, all her days – both good and bad – led
her to her share in the world to come. In the
short-term, she had some difficult periods.
But in the long-term, even the hard times were
“good,” because she lived not for the moment,
but for eternity, to live in the service of

Hashem, through thick and thin, and earn her
share in the next world.
Things which seem appealing in the moment,
in the “here-and-now,” can ruin our “name,”
and cause us long-term harm. Whenever we
feel tempted to lie, to gossip, to say something
we shouldn’t, to forego a mitzvah, or to act in
a way we know is wrong, let’s remember the
long-term benefits of doing the right thing –
which always, but always, far exceed the
fleeting, short-term benefits of the wrong
thing which we currently feel like doing.