Let’s talk money. When Avraham buys Ma’arat Hamachpelah for 400 silver shekel, it’s the first time a transaction using currency is recorded in the Torah. Which gives us an excellent opportunity to explore the spiritual aspects of currency. As Rav Moshe Shapiro points out, money is something that is given legal status in the Torah. It is therefore an intrinsic part of our world and has spiritual meaning.

What money doesn’t have is intrinsic worth. Currency is not valuable in and of itself. It’s valuable because of what you can buy with it. All its value lies in what it can acquire. Avraham’s coins are kesef, silver, which is also the name for currency as defined in the Gemara (Bava Metzia 44 a-b). As a verb, kesef means to yearn for something, or to aspire for it. Therefore, Rav Shapiro defines money, kesef, as that which seeks what it does not have.

Another way we can look at this is that currency, at its core, is undefined potential. The joy of having money is the joy of having potential. And it is something which our culture loves. Secular culture worships youth, that time in life when everything seems possible. And we admire those who amass great stores of wealth, much more than could ever be spent. We like the feeling of leaving our options open.

However, the first time we see currency in the Torah, Avraham is spending it, not amassing it or saving it. And this is the whole point. Money is meant to be spent. Our avodah, as described in the first pesukim of Bereisheit (and as we discussed in the post on Bereisheit), is to use the unformed potential of the world and to bring it to actuality by giving it definition. Money is like the first material from which Hashem shaped the world. The tohu, the unformed matter of the first day of creation, had the potential for everything, and yet was nothing until it was formed and defined. We can look at our entire world as currency we are meant to use.

After the purchase of Ma’arat Hamachpela we learn that, “Avraham was old (zaken), getting on in days (lit. coming with his days), and Hashem blessed Avraham with totality  (Bereisheit 24:1).” This is a description of what it looks like when a person recognizes the currency of the world, and uses it. Avraham is zaken, from the words “zeh kanah,” he is one who has acquired. And what he acquired is all his days. Instead of disappearing into the abyss of history, Avraham brings his days with him into his future.  

To understand what this means, let’s take a moment to explore the opposite: the person who does not acquire his days. Think of that person you know who refuses to commit, who always has to have all his options open. He can’t bear to close any of them off by choosing just one. And in this way, he loses them all. Because there always comes a time when the options end. A day that isn’t actualized is a day that is lost. The days we used to express and actualize our soul are the only days we take with us. There is great truth behind the idea that time is money. And there is no greater waste of money than not to spend it.

So what did Avraham, the tzaddik who understood everything about spending days and money, purchase? He purchased Ma’arat Hamachpeila, the doubled cave. Avraham and Sara lived a double life, not as spies, but as fully actualized people. They were following the instructions of the first pasuk of the Torah, “In the beginning G-d created Heaven and Earth.” Heaven and Earth were created together, Rav Shapiro teaches, because everything is heaven has a counterpart in earth, and everything in earth has a counterpart in heaven. Our job is to keep heaven and earth aligned, as Hashem created them. We do this through doubling ourselves.

In Hebrew, the concept of doubling can be expressed in two ways: there is the word keifel, and there is the expression pi shenayim.  Both of these expressions are related to our bodies. Keifel is related to the word kaf, which can be either the palm of the hand or the soul of the foot. And the pi in pi shenayim is the word for mouth. Like the world as a whole, we are made partially from earth, and partially from heaven. Our avodah is to actualize ourselves, by expressing our soul. We can do this though our speech (pi) or through our actions (kaf). A person doubles himself when his speech and his actions are an exact reflection of his soul. The avot lived a double existence. They lived in complete harmony between soul and body.

The Midrash (Tanna D’vei Eliyahu 25) teaches that we are all supposed to say, “When will my deeds reach the deeds of my Fathers?” Rav Moshe teaches that this is an instruction, not to try to be the Fathers, but to act in a way that “reaches” what they did. We should try to have actions that are similar enough that they could be compared. It is an instruction to actualize ourselves as the Avot actualized themselves.

Avraham, our Father, left us the means to do this. He instituted the tefillah of Shacharit. In the morning, the whole day stretches out before us with seemingly limitless possibilities. To step into the space of tefillah that Avraham created for us in the morning means to step into the recognition that Hashem created the world as a series of days. Time is not an endless expanse that marches on toward nothing. We live in a world of days, each one its own universe of opportunity. Each one has its own mission and its own character.

Shacharit is the tefillah that reminds us what real opportunity and real potential look like. Avraham was a giant of a man who made himself like a newborn child. He refused to be defined by his geographic location, his culture or his family.  He was not even defined by the laws of nature (see Rashi, Bereisheit 15:5).  Instead, Avraham chose to follow where Hashem would lead him, even though he had no idea where that would be. He stepped off the routine cycle of history and nature. And he took us with him.

Shacharit is the Jewish response to the routine of the world. It is not a prayer of distress; it is a prayer of recognition. When sun rises, and nature seems to be firmly on its preset path, we respond with the declaration that even though everything looks routine, it is really the Hand of Hashem. We pray, each morning, for the same things again and again, because we know that each day, the world is new. Each day, Hashem gives it to us again.

It’s not just the natural world that is hiding the hand of Hashem. As we spoke about in Parshat Lech Lecha, it is the cycle of history as well. As time marches forward, it is pregnant with the inner purpose of the world. Time is marching toward a definite end when it will birth the era of Moshiach. The Avot understood this, and they acted as Hashem’s Merkavah, Hashem’s chariot that carries His Will forward in time. When we pray the prayers they left us with, we join them. They set the chariot on its path, and we continue to push it forward as we walk forward through time, hand-in-hand with Hashem.