Wonders • Youtube • Telegram • Whatsapp • Facebook • Donate This is the last week that we spend with Abraham, as we read the Torah portion of Chayei Sarah. Abraham bought the Cave of Machpelah for four hundred silver shekels. In Hebrew, the word for silver, kesef, is also the root of the word kisufim, which means ‘longing’. Kabbalistic literature speaks of ‘four hundred worlds of longing’: Four hundred worlds of pleasure that the tzaddikim (righteous individuals) inherit in the World to Come. This is the secret of the four hundred silver (longing) shekels that Abraham paid for the Cave. The Cave of Machpelah represents the lofty pleasure of the World to Come, here, in this world. Actually, the entire Land of Israel is innately connected to the World to Come. Israel is the “Land of Life”. But the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron is the place of the connection to the World to Come. (The Hebrew word for Hebron, חברון, shares a root with חיבור, which means ‘connection’). For