Parashat Chayei Sarah

This weeks Torah portion Chayei Sarah which means “Life of Sarah” which talks about the passing of Sarah, Abraham buying the cave of Machpelah and Eliezer in search for a wife for Issac.

In the first part of the parasha Abraham goes to the land of the Hittites and asks for a burial plot. At first Ephron wished to give the plot to Abraham as a gift, but Abraham insisted on paying full price of four hundred shekels of silver in negotiable currency.

From Episode 1002 on This week in Startups at the 47th minute mark Wealthfront CEO Andy Rachleff talks about legendary investor John Doerr.

Jcal: … And you said he was one of the top two or three, who else is up there?

AR: You know the only other person up there I would say would be John Doerr he was amazing

Jcal: What was his skill? what was his superpower?

AR: He was amazing at recognizing things that could be big and didn’t let anything else get in the way.

Jcal: So, Conviction?

AR: Well no he didn’t worry about price, about structure, all those things, for example Netscape. You know the founder of Netscape Jim Clark, had previously founded silicon graphics he is one of the handful of entrepreneurs I know who have created more than one company that have generated a 100 million in revenue, and because he had been so successful at Silicon Graphics, which was the google of its time in the 1980’s he was able to command a really high price. But the going valuation at that time for startups in 1994 was 5 million dollars and we wanted 20 million, and so Jim had gone to his investors at Silicon graphics which had backed him and they had only wanted to pay 5 or 6 million pre and he asked for 20 which at that time was outrageous today it’s not at all. and Doerr doesn’t even blink and said absolutely because he saw how big it could be and didn’t worry about how wacky someone was, about the price, he really focused on the opportunity.

Abraham could have taken the gift, but it is brought down in Proverbs and Kiddushin, that one should not take gifts lightly, if the gift being given is not sincere.

Rav Giddel did not descend to claim this plot of land, as it is written: “But he who hates gifts shall live” (Proverbs 15:27), and therefore he did not wish to accept the land as a gift. Rabbi Abba also did not descend to it, because Rav Giddel was already engaging in the acquisition of it when he acquired the land. In this manner, this Sage did not descend to take the plot of land, and that Sage did not descend to take care of it, and it was called the land of the Sages.

– Kiddushin 59a

By insisting on paying there was no possibility that Ephron would later challenge the purchase at a later date. And give Abrahams descendants proof of their roots in the land of Israel. Which is why Jacob told his children he wanted to be buried there and not in Egypt.

We can learn many things from this week’s real estate purchase. The confirmation of the adage “Location, Location, Location.” and that sometimes we need to what seems like overpay in the present for higher value in the future