Cain, Ephron, and the Slide from Selling Land to Bondage

"And when you sell anything to your neighbor" (Leviticus 25:14). This is what Scripture says: "He who hastens after wealth is a man of an evil eye, and he does not know that want will come upon him" (Proverbs 28:22). This verse speaks of human beings. "He who hastens after wealth, an evil eye" — this was Cain, who killed his brother in order to inherit the world for himself; thus, "he who hastens after wealth is a man of an evil eye." The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: You hastened to grow rich and to inherit the world. By your life, there is a loss for you in the matter, "and he does not know that want will come upon him." And what happened to him? To be made to wander about the world, as it is said: "A fugitive and a wanderer shall you be in the earth" (Genesis 4:12). Another interpretation of "He who hastens after wealth," etc.: Who was it? This was Ephron. At the time when Sarah, the wife of Abraham, died, Abraham went to Ephron that he might sell him the cave. Ephron said to him: Give me its price. He said to him: "Four hundred shekels of silver, between me and you, what is that? Bury your dead" (Genesis 23:15). Abraham began to heap up the silver for Ephron, as it is said: "And Abraham weighed," etc. (Genesis 23:16). Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said in the name of Rabbi Hanina: All the shekels mentioned in the Torah are sela'im, except for Ephron's, which are kantarin (talents). And Abraham heaped up for Ephron; when Ephron saw that silver, he was startled and was seduced, as it is said: "in the choicest of our graves," etc. (Genesis 23:6). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: You hastened after much money. By your life, there is a loss for you in the matter, "and he does not know that want will come upon him." And what is his loss? Rav Yehudah the Levite, son of Rabbi Shalom, said: Every "Ephron" written in the Torah, until he took the silver from Abraham, is spelled full; and after he took it, it is written — it is not written full, but defective. Another interpretation of "He who hastens after wealth": This is the one who lends at interest and hastens to grow rich — he lends in order to take interest from the borrower, and to grow rich from the interest — "and he does not know that want will come upon him," for a curse is placed upon his money. Another interpretation of "He who hastens after wealth": These are the merchants of the Sabbatical-year produce, who hasten to grow rich and do not keep the Sabbatical year, and they suppose that they are growing rich. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: You hastened to grow rich from the Sabbatical year, by your lives there is a loss for you in the matter, "and he does not know that want will come upon him." And since he did not keep the Sabbatical year, the curse began to enter his money, and he sells his land. What is written above the matter? "And the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord" (Leviticus 25:2), and afterward, "And when you sell anything to your neighbor." Another interpretation of "And when you sell anything to your neighbor": What is written above the matter? "And the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord" (verse 2), and afterward, "And you shall count for yourself seven sabbaths of years," etc. (verse 8). If you did not keep the Sabbatical years, keep the Jubilees; and if he did not keep one of them, in the end I make him such that he sells his land, to fulfill what is said, "And when you sell anything to your neighbor." If he repents, well; and if not, his end is to sell his house, as it is said, "And if a man sells a dwelling house" (verse 29). If he repents, good; and if he does not repent, his end is to go around begging at the doors, as it is said, "And if your brother becomes poor," etc. (verse 35). If he repents, behold it is good; if he does not repent, his end is to sell himself, as it is said, "If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you," etc. (Deuteronomy 15:12). If he repents, good; and if he does not repent, his end is to be sold to a gentile, as it is said, "and sells himself... or to the offshoot of a stranger's family" (verse 47). And this is the command to all Israel. And so you find with Jeremiah, that because they profaned the Sabbatical year they were sold to the nations, as it is said, "And he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, and slew... and all the vessels of the House of God, and the treasures of the House of the Lord," etc. (II Chronicles 36:17-18). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: See how they are sold to the nations, because they profaned the Sabbatical year. Moses said: Master of the Universe, did You not say in the Torah, "If your brother becomes poor and falls," etc. (verse 35)? Fulfill what You said to Your brother Israel, as it is said, "For the sake of my brothers and my companions" (Psalms 122:8). Another interpretation of "And if your brother becomes poor and falls": When his hand fails before Nebuchadnezzar — as it were, even Your glory is with them, as it is said, "For your sake I was sent to Babylon" (Isaiah 43:14).