What Was the Eshel of Abraham and How Long He Dwelt in Philistia

Rabbi Judah says: the word eshel means "ask" [reading it as a place where a traveler could say], "Ask whatever you wish to ask: grapes, figs, pomegranates." Rabbi Nehemiah says: the eshel was an inn, [where Abraham] would say to them, "Ask whatever you wish to ask: meat, wine, eggs." Rabbi Ze'ira in the name of Rabbi Judah bar Simon said: this eshel is the Sanhedrin, as you say, "And Saul was sitting in Gibeah under the tamarisk tree (eshel) on the height" (1 Samuel 22:6). According to the opinion of Rabbi Nehemiah, who said the eshel was an inn, Abraham, and so forth. "And Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days" (Genesis 21:34): more than those years he spent in Hebron, for in Hebron he spent twenty-five years, and in Gerar he spent twenty-six years.