Preamble:
It was a strange request, yet not completely unfamiliar. Others have been known to make the same request of their fathers in the past…that is why the rabbis refined the law…to help set the necessary limits and boundaries.[i] But it was a request usually made under very different circumstances. I was in no mind to remarry and so the estate was not in danger of being given to anyone save my two sons. And yet he asked for his share…the share to come to him once I was no more. If I have a grievous fault, I confess that it is that I have never denied him anything…unless the denial was intended to prevent harm. My Benjamin – my little Benjamin. On his arrival into this world, my beloved Miriam departed. I poured my grief and despair into that tiny little boy. No, not my grief…not my despair. That is not correct. My love. The love I would have divided between him and his mother, I gave it all to him. No, I do not believe that I neglected Aaron, although he has often indicated that he thought I loved him less. It is possible to love in equal measure, and yet to love in a distinctive manner.
And so I gave him his share…his part of the estate. I inserted the words, “from today and after my death” to make my sons the legal owners of what would have been theirs at my death, but also to guarantee that, according to the law, I am entitled to the proceeds of the land for as long as I live. I cannot sell it, even if I wanted to. Of course, he may sell it, if he so chooses, but the buyer will then be required to wait until my decease before taking ownership. Unless he sells it to a…no, he would never sell the land to a Gentile. Not my Benjamin. That would effectively cut him off from us forever…from us as a family and from his community…his people…Israel. He would be considered dead to us.[ii] The land was given to us by God, and we must not despise His gifts to us as a people. So much of it has already been taken away from us by the Romans and the Herods.
At first Aaron did not wish to so much as speak about the arrangements, but he later agreed to meet with the elders in the gate. We wrote up a contract and exchanged sandals, as is our custom here. Aaron received two thirds of the estate as the elder son, and Benjamin one third. I would have divided the land equally, but that is not how it is done.[iii]
[i] Tractate Baba Bathra, see Everyman’s Talmud: The Major Teachings of the Rabbinic Sages, 343-345. See also: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1753&context=facultypub
[ii] This may be the reason why the father says to the older brother in verse 32, “your brother was dead and is alive again”.
[iii] Deuteronomy 21:17
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