Ephron the Hittite and the Missing Vav in His Name

Another interpretation: "One who is hasty after wealth is a man of an evil eye" (Proverbs 28:22), this was Ephron the Hittite. At the time that 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: "Land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and you? So bury your dead" (Genesis 23:15). Abraham began heaping up the silver for Ephron, as it is said: "And Abraham heeded Ephron, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver," and so forth (Genesis 23:16). Ben Mama said: Although Rabbi Hanina said that all the shekels in the Torah are sela'im, these are an exception, for they are kantarin (centenaria). Four hundred kantarin Abraham heaped up before Ephron. When Ephron saw the silver, he became hasty and was enticed, as it is said: "In the choicest of our graves bury your dead" (Genesis 23:6). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: You were hasty for money, "one who is hasty after wealth is a man of an evil eye." By your life, you have a loss in the matter, "and he does not know that want will come upon him" (Proverbs 28:22). And what was his loss? Rabbi Yehudah ha-Levi bar Shalom said: Every "Ephron" that is written here, before he took the silver from Abraham, is full, "Ephron" (with the vav); but this one is deficient: "and Abraham weighed out for Ephron", it is written deficient, missing the vav.