A word from the Rebbe on this week's פרשה, פרשת חיי שרה. Beginning of פרשת חיי שרה, we learned that Avraham Avinu wanted to get the Me'arat HaMachpelah in order to bury Sarah there, and then it would be for him and the other avot, etc., etc. And what he said was, he said to the Bnei Chet that גר ותושב אנכי עמכם, I'm a stranger and I'm a set a settler, a citizen so to speak here. And it's a contradiction. Is he a ger, or is he a toshav? Ger means that you're just stranger, you're a ger, you're a guest here. Toshav means you're settled here. So which one is it? So Rashi explains what he meant to say is, אם תרצו הריני גר, if you want and you're going to cooperate with what I want, then I'm like a ger and I'll do everything that I have to, I'll pay for it, I'll buy whatever. ואם לאו, but if you're not going to give me, אהיה תושב, I'm going to consider myself a toshav, somebody who's the belongs here, who lives here, who settled here, and not only that, I'm the boss. אטלנה מן הדין, I will take it by force, because אמר לי הקדוש ברוך הוא, Hashem said to me, לזרעך אתן את הארץ הזאת, I will give this land to your children, so really Hashem gave it to me. So I could really take it. So he's like telling them lechatchilah, I'm telling you give it to me the way I want and then everything is fine. But he's threatening them, but if not, I'll go and take it anyway.

And the Rebbe asks a sheilah: why is it that when Avraham started speaking to the Bnei Chet, right away he started with a threat, in other words saying, you know, really I could take it myself, but, you know, I'm going to be nice, but really it belongs to me. Why did he start like that? Why didn't he try a different way? He should have started telling him, you know, how important it is for me, and it's burying my wife, and all kinds of explanations Avraham could have given without the threat, without saying really it's mine and that's it. He could have been in a nice way, why did he do it this way? And the Rebbe explains that the Torah is trying to teach us how a Yid is supposed to speak to the goyim. When a Yid knows that there is something that is right על פי תורה, something that he really has to do and something that's the right way to do it, and this is what the Aibershter wants, then, in order that the goyim should accept it, if they see that you're speaking firmly and you really want it, you're really doing it because you're really convinced that this is it, be'emet, then they'll listen to you. And that's what he said. Lechatchilah he said lechatchilah, I want you to know that really it's mine, and you know, and there's no no no two ways about it. And then he says, if you know, if you want, I'll I'll cooperate with you, I'll I'll pay for it, etc., etc. So here we see that in order that the goy should accept it, the goy has to see that you're firm in what you believe, and you're asking it, we're asking for it because you believe and you know that the Aibershter said so, and that's why you want it. So he said, the Aibershter really said it's mine. So finished, that's what he started off. But, you know, if you if you don't mind, if you everything will be fine, I'll be like a ger, I'll I'll I'll pay for it, etc., etc. So this is the way, in order to get that the goy should accept what you're saying, he has to see in you that you're firm and you really mean it, and you mean it be'emet because you believe in it, because the Aibershter said so.

On the other hand, the Rebbe says, it doesn't mean you should abuse, chas veshalom, a non-Jew and take things away from him. You should be nice to him, you should give him show him respect, etc., etc. And that we see here, too. We see that after he spoke to them, what does it say? It says that Avraham Avinu bowed down. It says, וישתחו לעם הארץ לבני חת, he bowed down to them. So we see he gave them the proper respect. When they listened, he gave them proper respect, so he didn't like abuse his rights, but he gave them the respect. Not only that, the Rebbe says, in this concept that he bowed down, who did he bow down to? So there's two pshatim. According to the simple pshat, that's the Ibn Ezra, the Ibn Ezra says he bowed down to them, to show them respect, so he bowed down to them. But in Bereishis Rabbah, which is in Midrash, it says that when he bowed down, he really bowed down to the Aibershter. And cuz the Midrash says, mikan, from here that he bowed down, we learn out שמודים על בשורה טובה, that when something good happens, you hear good news, you should thank Hashem for it, and that's exactly what he did. So which one is it? It's both. When he bowed down, he bowed down to them to show them the proper respect and appreciation for what they did, that they cooperated, and at the same time, he bowed down to Hashem, which fits to what we said before: you have to have both sides. You have to be firm, and you have to know Hashem said, and this is what Hashem, if this is what Hashem wants, you have to be firm, and then they'll accept it, they'll see you really mean it. And at the same time, you also have to be, you have to show the appreciation and show the respect even to a non-Jew, not, chas veshalom, abuse it, etc., etc. And this is a lesson for us, and especially nowadays, the way we're supposed to behave in showing בנוגע ארץ ישראל, like Avraham Avinu did בנוגע ארץ ישראל, here also בנוגע ארץ ישראל we have to show the the the velt, to say it very firmly and clearly that ארץ ישראל, the Aibershter That belongs to us, etcetera, etcetera, then it'll be accepted by the goyim.