“A land worth 400 shekel, what is it between me and you… Avraham gave 400 ‘superior’ shekel.”
Bereshis 23:15-16
“Efron’s name is without a ‘vav’ because he said much, but did not even do a little.” – RASHI

Last spring, I took my two oldest children to Walt Disney World for one day. Before our big trip, I asked my children which rides they wanted to go on and what shows they wanted to see. I reviewed their choices by myself and found they wanted 10 attractions at Magic Kingdom, 6 attractions at EPCOT, and 3 attractions at Hollywood Studios. I saw that if everything worked out, we would be able to do most of what they wanted to do. According to my calculations, we would be able to finish everything at Magic Kingdom by 1pm. Then, we could go to EPCOT until about 5:30pm. Finally, we would go to Hollywood Studios, where we could watch the nighttime show, Fantasmic (but we probably would not get any of the rides there). I was nervous to tell this to my children, though, because maybe there would be an extremely long line at one of the attractions at Magic Kingdom and we would not be done there until much later than I expected. Therefore, when I told my children about our schedule, I said we would probably only be going to Magic Kingdom and then the nighttime show, Fantasmic. When the big day finally came, everything worked out even better than I expected. We got on 11 rides at Magic Kingdom by 1pm. We then got on all of the rides we wanted to at EPCOT (even ones we did not expect to get onto). Also, before Fantasmic, we were even able to go on 2 rides at Hollywood Studios. What a day it turned out to be! My children were so happy at the end of the magical day and could not stop speaking about the “miracle” of being able to go on more rides than they expected.

Now, imagine if the opposite had happened. What would have happened if I told my children we would go on twenty rides at the three different Parks, and then, in the end, we only went on ten rides. Or even if we went on nineteen of the twenty rides, my children probably would have been upset. When they came back home, the first thing they would have said would have been, “we didn’t get to go on everything. Tatty promised twenty rides and we only went on nineteen.” When a person promises something and does not fulfill it, it makes people disappointed.

We can see this idea from this week’s parsha. Efron originally tells Avraham that he does not need to worry about the price of the field when Avraham came to buy it; he will give it to Avraham for free. In the end, he behaved differently and charged Avraham 400 shekel. But that was not all! During this time period, many countries used a shekel as their currency, but the shekel was worth different amounts in different areas. Efron not only charged Avraham 400 shekel for the field, but the shekel amount was from the highest shekel currency that existed during that time. This means Avraham paid actually much more than the original price that was quoted to him. Efron is a perfect example of someone who said much, but then when he delivered, he gave very little.

On the other hand, in the beginning of last week’s parsha, Avraham told the three angels who visited him that he would give them some bread and water. When he came with the meal, it was a huge banquet! This is an example of a saying little, but doing much.

Do you want to make other people happy or get them angry at you? If a person makes big promises and does not fulfill them, he is only getting himself into trouble. If a person, though, does not promise much (because we never know what will happen in the future and if circumstances will change), he is much better off. If he happens not to be able to fulfill what he said, there is no major loss, because people did not expect much. If, though, he does do what he said and does even more, people are extremely grateful.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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